Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict (Columbia Studies in Terrorism and Irregular Warfare) [Hardcover]

Erica Chenoweth (Author), Maria J. Stephan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 9, 2011 | Series: Columbia Studies in Terrorism and Irregular Warfare

For more than a century, from 1900 to 2006, campaigns of nonviolent resistance were more than twice as effective as their violent counterparts in achieving their stated goals. By attracting impressive support from citizens, whose activism takes the form of protests, boycotts, civil disobedience, and other forms of nonviolent noncooperation, these efforts help separate regimes from their main sources of power and produce remarkable results, even in Iran, Burma, the Philippines, and the Palestinian Territories.

Combining statistical analysis with case studies of specific countries and territories, Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan detail the factors enabling such campaigns to succeed and, sometimes, causing them to fail. They find that nonviolent resistance presents fewer obstacles to moral and physical involvement and commitment, and that higher levels of participation contribute to enhanced resilience, greater opportunities for tactical innovation and civic disruption (and therefore less incentive for a regime to maintain its status quo), and shifts in loyalty among opponents' erstwhile supporters, including members of the military establishment.

Chenoweth and Stephan conclude that successful nonviolent resistance ushers in more durable and internally peaceful democracies, which are less likely to regress into civil war. Presenting a rich, evidentiary argument, they originally and systematically compare violent and nonviolent outcomes in different historical periods and geographical contexts, debunking the myth that violence occurs because of structural and environmental factors and that it is necessary to achieve certain political goals. Instead, the authors discover, violent insurgency is rarely justifiable on strategic grounds.

Editorial Reviews

Review

This is the first major scholarly book to make a well-supported argument that, contrary to what many people believe, nonviolent resistance is more effective than armed resistance in overthrowing regimes, an advantage that is maintained even when the target is not democratic.

(Robert Jervis, Columbia University )

Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan offer a fresh, lively, and penetrating analysis of the conditions under which nonviolent resistance succeeds or fails. Using a wealth of data and in-depth case studies, they show that the scholarly emphasis on forceful approaches is misguided: nonviolent movements are often better able to mobilize supporters, resist regime crackdowns, develop innovative resistant techniques, and otherwise take on and defeat repressive regimes and build durable democracies.

(Daniel Byman, Georgetown University and senior fellow, Saban Center at the Brookings Institution )

After the breathtaking events of 2011, can anyone doubt that nonviolent civil resistance is an effective tool for political change? In this provocative, well-written, and compelling book, Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan demonstrate that nonviolent civil resistance is usually a better way to force political change. They identify the conditions favoring its success and provide a convincing explanation for why nonviolent resistance is so effective. Their analysis is rigorous yet accessible, and their conclusions have profound implications for anyone seeking to understand -- or promote -- far-reaching social and political reform.

(Stephen Walt, Harvard University )

This is social science at its best. Years of critical study culminate in a book on one dominating issue: how does nonviolent opposition compare with violence in removing a regime or achieving secession? The authors study successes and failures and alternative diagnoses of success and failure, reaching a balanced judgment meriting careful study.

(Thomas C. Schelling, Harvard University, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics )

All of us dedicated to peaceful protest as a way to change the world can take heart from this book.

(Amitabh Pal Progressive 10/1/2011)

The work belongs in all academic libraries.... Highly recommended.

(Choice 3/1/12)

Well researched, skillfully written, insightful, and timely.

(Joseph G. Bock Dynamics of Asymmetric Conflict 7/1/12)

About the Author

Erica Chenoweth is an assistant professor at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver and an Associate Senior Researcher at the Peace Research Institute of Oslo. Previously she taught at Wesleyan University and held fellowships at Harvard, Stanford, and the University of California at Berkeley.

Maria J. Stephan is a strategic planner with the U.S. Department of State. Formerly she served as director of policy and research at the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC) and as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and American University. She has also been a fellow at the Kennedy School of Government's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Columbia University Press (August 9, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0231156820
• ISBN-13: 978-0231156820
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #786,094 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A game changer March 4, 2012

By Justin Whelan

Format:Hardcover

This highly detailed book is a potential game changer in scholarly debates about the effectiveness of violent vs. nonviolent methods of struggle. Eschewing any interest in the morality questions about violence, Chenoworth and Stephan set out to demonstrate that the evidence is clear that nonviolent struggle ('civil resistance' as they call it) has the strategic edge. But rather than making arguments, they go back and look at the historical record.

Their evidence is overwhelming. By cataloging 323 campaigns from 1900-2006, the authors are able to demonstrate that civil resistance has been trice as likely to succeed as armed struggle in overthrowing regimes and resisting foreign occupations. Importantly, they find that the strategic advantage of civil resistance holds across all continents, across time (increasing each decade), across regime capacity and regardless of the level of repression used against the insurgency. In other words, even in the most difficult circumstances, civil resistance is a smarter option than violence. They also cover a range of potential explanations and caveats to their argument, systematically answering each in turn with yet more data. The authors certainly cannot be faulted for effort - they seem to have covered every possible angle....

Other key findings include: civil resistance is ten times as likely to lead to democratic outcomes as violence; pre-existing structural conditions have little impact on success (sorry, social movement theorists); international support has no significant impact on success for civil resistance campaigns but does for violent campaigns; and civil resistance campaigns are much less likely to be followed by ongoing violent conflict (something we are already beginning to see in Libya, the so-called 'success story' for violent intervention in recent times).

The book is densely populated with statistical tables, and there is an online appendix with even more data for scholars to dissect for themselves.

The case studies in the middle of the book help illuminate their statistical arguments, showing for example how unsuccessful violent campaigns failed but civil resistance worked in Iran and the Philippines, how civil resistance has achieved more than violence in Palestine, and examining the failure of both violence and civil resistance to date in Burma. Other brief examples are spread throughout each chapter as a helpful way of making sense of their findings.

This book is not for casual readers, but it is highly recommended for social movement scholars (for whom it will challenge many assumptions), foreign policy circles, and most importantly, movements around the world seeking to overthrow authoritarian regimes. Read more ›

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars most important book on nonviolence November 28, 2011

By Marc Simon

Format:Hardcover

This is the most important book on nonviolence since Gene Sharp's Politics of Nonviolent Action (1973). Stephan and Chenoweth have given academic credibility to arguments that activists have been making for years. Nonviolent strategies are indeed more likely to succeed than violent ones; also, nonviolent revolutions are more likely to produce democratic outcomes; and nonviolent revolutions are less likely to see a recurrence of civil war. Their dataset of violent and nonviolent campaigns will lead others to build on these findings. Additional analysis and case studies show that nonviolence is more effective than violence because it is better able to mobilize more people. Though this seems rather simple, it turns out that people are the source of people power.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant and inspiring! October 30, 2011

By Ohmygoodness

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is an excellent read for individuals aspiring to learn more about nonviolent conflict. It would be a great addition to any classroom discussion on the issue. The authors of this book are brilliant offering inspiring evidence about civil resistance with every turn of a page.

1.0 out of 5 stars "Civil Resistance" brought to you be the U.S. State Department June 13, 2013

By shampoodle

Format:Paperback

Maria J. Stephan works for the U.S. State Department in occupied Afghanistan. As a current employee of the world's most violent, aggressive military superpower it is hard to take any of her writings on the power of nonviolence seriously. This book sings the praises of nonviolent movements as long as they pose no threat to imperialism. People like Gandhi (who was not committed to pacifism) are put on a pedestal because they serve the interests of the ruling elite. The fact that he "liberated" India by allowing the British to write a new constitution, set their own schedule for withdrawal, and hand over power to a hand-picked Indian elite is seen as a success.

With all of the current administration's crackdowns on whistleblowers, it's silly to believe that a current State Department employee would be allowed to write a book that really attacked the roots of power. Stephan dishes up a watered-down version of "resistance," much like Gene Sharp, that never strays far from the definitions handed down from her government minders. From her armed fortress in Kabul she declares nonviolence to be the only solution as NATO troops rain bombs down on civilians on her doorstep.

5.0 out of 5 stars Simple premise, excellent methodology March 3, 2013

By NextDoorGirl

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

The point of this book is simple: Civil resistance (nonviolence) works and it often works better than violence. The authors go on to explain why this happens using sound quantitative methods and examples from all over the world. A must read.