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From dictatorship to democracy: A conceptual framework for liberation

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This book is a great work in its own right. In terms of real-world impact, it measures above Thomas Paine's writings, having been used by non-violent movements in dictatorships around the world.

It is also a good introduction to study of nonviolent movements, before diving into all 902 pages of "Politics of Nonviolent Action"

Excerpts below are from an excellent article in the Wall Street Journal, 9/13/2008:

Mr. Sharp's writings on nonviolent resistance have been studied by opposition activists in Zimbabwe, Burma, Russia, Venezuela and Iran, among others. His 1993 guide to unseating despots, "From Dictatorship to Democracy," has been translated into at least 28 languages and was used by movements that toppled governments in Serbia, Ukraine, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan.

Although nonviolent struggle has played a major role throughout history, Mr. Sharp was among the first modern scholars to take a comprehensive look at all the various movements, from the civil-rights struggle in the U.S. to uprisings in Eastern Europe.

In his writings, Mr. Sharp teased out common principles that make nonviolent resistance successful, creating a broad road map for activists looking to destabilize authoritarian regimes. Mr. Sharp's magnum opus, the 902-page "Politics of Nonviolent Action," was published in 1973. But the main source of his success is his 90-page "From Dictatorship to Democracy."

This slim volume offers concise advice on how to plan a successful opposition campaign, along with a list of historically tested tactics for rattling a dictatorial regime. Aimed at no particular country, and easily downloadable from the Internet, the booklet has found universal appeal among opposition activists around the globe.

Though he warns readers that resistance may provoke violent crackdowns and will take careful planning to succeed, Mr. Sharp writes that any dictatorship will eventually collapse if its subjects refuse to obey.

Gene Sharp is mostly successful in his essay of how to bring down a dictatorship and how to prevent the emergence of a new one. Readers should note that Mr. Sharp does not aim to tailor his analysis to a specific country living under dictatorship. To his credit, the author does not downplay the costs associated with defying a dictatorship. Freedom is not free as he reminds his audience repeatedly.

After weighing the pros and cons of options such as violence, guerrilla warfare, military coups, foreign intervention, elections, negotiations, legal/judicial challenges, and public opinion, Mr. Sharp comes to the conclusion that political defiance is the best option for those who want peace and freedom. As the descendant of political prisoners of Nazi Germany, I cannot subscribe blindly to this recommendation. It depends on how ruthlessly the target dictatorship deals with its opponents. To his credit, Mr. Sharp acknowledges that a high priority for democratic strategists is to subvert the loyalty and obedience of military forces and police to their dictators.

To weaken and then destroy dictatorships, democratic resisters have to be cognizant of the dictators' constantly replenished sources of power. Contrary to popular wisdom, even totalitarian dictatorships rely on the population and the societies they rule. Mr. Sharp explores the important sources of power such as moral and political authority, human and material resources, access to specialized skills and knowledge, psychological and ideological influences, and last but not least, punishment. The author observes on this subject that abandonment or control of fear is critical to ending the power of the dictators over their subjects.

This understanding of the sources of power is important in the formulation of what Mr. Sharp calls the grand strategy, strategies, tactics, and methods. The author rightly deplores that most people in democratic opposition groups do not grasp the importance of careful strategic planning before they act. Being always on the defensive is the price to be paid for ignoring this advice. Mr. Sharp invites these opposition groups to ask some fundamental questions about themselves, their non-democratic opponents, and the environment around them for this purpose. To help facilitate this process, the author could have mentioned the use of the SWOT analysis that is widely used in the corporate world. SWOT stands for one's inner strengths and weaknesses and the threats and opportunities existing in the surrounding environment. This planned non-violent struggle is fought by psychological, social, economic, and political weapons applied by the population and the institutions of the repressed society. In the appendix to the essay, Mr. Sharp enumerates about 200 methods of non-violent action.

Political defiance can result into four possible changes: Conversion, accommodation, non-violent coercion, and disintegration. Emotional or rational conversion of the opponents to the democratic cause is the least likely scenario based on Mr. Sharp's extensive research. The author dismisses accommodation as inappropriate because only a shift in power relations in favor of democrats has the potential to bring about peace and freedom down the road. Both non-violent coercion and disintegration have a better chance than the other two possible changes to result into the end of dictatorship.

However, non-violent struggle is not enough on its own to successfully make the transition from dictatorship to democracy. Mr. Sharp also emphasizes the importance for the strategists of democratic forces to facilitate the growth of autonomous social, economic, cultural, and political institutions to expand the "democratic space," resulting in the reduced control of the dictatorship. The author invites democratic strategists to plan for a long-term struggle while being prepared to exploit any opportunity to shorten it. Usually, dictatorships do not collapse extremely quickly. The fall of former East Germany in 1989 is clearly an exception to this rule. Mr. Sharp also recommends that democratic resisters celebrate victories and recognize the accomplishments of the victors; doing this without losing sight of their end goal, i.e., peace and freedom.

Mr. Sharp learns from his experience that strong political resistance and the growth of independent institutions have a good chance to generate in time widespread international "sympathy" with the aims of the democratic resisters. However, Mr. Sharp bluntly warns democratic strategists that their work is not done with the fall of dictators. The importance of strategic planning comes once more to the forefront in deftly handling the transition from a dictatorship to a sustainable democracy. A total governmental void could bring about either chaos or the emergence of a new dictatorship. The Iranian Revolution of 1979 is one of the examples that Mr. Sharp uses to draw the attention to the fact that the new dictatorship may even be more cruel and total in its control than the old one. Mr. Sharp recommends that democratic forces immediately deny legitimacy to the putschists and resist them with both non-cooperation and defiance before these new tyrants get access to the important sources of power mentioned above.

In summary, Mr. Sharp usually clearly articulates what needs to be done to maximize the chance to bring about peace and freedom through non-violent defiance. However, readers should keep in mind that the ruthlessness of the target dictatorship should never be lost from sight to best prioritize the methods that Mr. Sharp enumerates in the appendix to his essay.

I would like to buy this book. I know it is in the public domain but I rather buy and support the Einstein Institute and not print 90 pages.

Originally written with Burma in mind, this work explores the non-violent means by which any dictatorship can be disintegrated. It may well have been a guiding star for what is happening today in several of the Arab states.

It comes as a free download from [...] but is currently still unavailable in print. Yet many would prefer the option, surely, of a bound volume rather than 88 loose sheets.

Its own author calls it "a heavy analysis and not easy reading". Too self-deprecating: his analysis is searching and comprehensive, certainly, but his language is direct, matter-of-fact and unambiguous. He addresses every issue head-on. Nothing is glossed over. Every sentence matters.

His ten chapter titles reveal the ground he covers: Facing dictatorships realistically; The dangers of negotiation; Whence comes the power?; Dictatorships have weaknesses; Exercising power; The need for strategic planning; Planning strategy; Applying political defiance; Disintegrating the dictatorship; Groundwork for a durable democracy.

Above all, his approach is pragmatic: "Military resistance against dictatorships does not strike them where they are weakest, but rather where they are strongest", so the more effective way is through non-violence. The attitude of the state's armed forces towards the protesters is often crucial and non-violence is likely to win more hearts and save more lives.

He quotes an ancient Chinese parable - the "Monkey Master" fable - in which a group of monkeys gather fruits every day for their cruel and tyrannical master, without ever daring to question or complain. One day, a young monkey asks why they should all depend upon and serve the old man. The others are suddenly enlightened and all withdraw their co-operation, leaving the old man to starve. When people are no longer afraid, then the dictatorship is in trouble.

He cautions against understandable euphoria: "The fall of one regime does not bring in a utopia." Democracy doesn't just happen. There must be detailed advance planning, to ensure that one tyrant is not simply replaced by another and that long-term objectives are not diluted or deflected. He doesn't pretend it will be easy or that there will not be casualties. There is no one universal blueprint: every situation, every country is different.

An Appendix lists 198 specific methods of non-violent protest and persuasion, of social, economic and political non-cooperation, and of non-violent intervention.

For any disaffected, oppressed, frightened individual who feels powerless to change his life, his society, his country for the benefit of the majority, this book is golden. It shows him - without any romantic or heroic flourishes, but clearly, methodically, comprehensively, plausibly, constructively - that there is a way as long as he and others can find the self-confidence to make it happen, and keep it happening. Mr Sharp does not actively promote insurrection; he just tells us what we should give hard thought to if we ever find ourselves in that kind of situation. It is a potential world-changer.

Political scientist Gene Sharp wrote this powerful essay in 1993 to support the resistance movement in Burma, where the government sentenced people who owned this booklet to seven years in jail. Since then, opponents of oppression - most notably in the Arab uprisings of 2011 - have distributed this text widely to political and social activists who want to apply Sharp's 40 years of research, experience and writing about nonviolent struggles, dictatorships and resistance movements. Sharp distills his work on political theory and sociology into a readable, tight, practical volume. Its appendix lists dozens of specific tactics for organizers who want to mount peaceful campaigns against established oppressive forces. getAbstract recommends this influential pamphlet to everybody interested in understanding how peaceful revolutions work.

Gene Sharp's extensive research and experience with what it takes to topple a repressive regime is clearly evidenced in "From Dictatorship to Democracy." This book also offers a wonderful tutorial on the mechanics of repressive politics. However, the application of this work is not limited to the removal of brutal despots. Anyone attempting to implement a strategy of change in the face of overwhelmingly entrenched forces can benefit from the thought process Gene outlines in this book. While the entrenched forces in a business setting may simply be the status quo, I would recommend "From Dictator to Democracy" as a guide for an out-of-the-box planning exercise. Such an exercise could be applicable to almost any change management effort where personal risk may be limited to the demise of your career, not loss of life as is the case in many nations where Gene's work is employed in a life-and-death struggle by people seeking to institutionalize self-determination and other democratic processes.

I would also like to buy Sharp's pamphlet, From Dictatorship To Democracy and support the work of the Einstein Institute.

Gene Sharp's nonviolent approach to intervention is an inspiration to those of us who believe in a better way. Delivered on time, at a great price.

Great; experience was good; received item on time and well packaged. Service was very good. Great. I will buy from this vendor again.

I just watched the documentary about the Albert Einstein Institution, How to Start a Revolution, and on the website noticed the author Dr. Gene Sharp has his book From Dictatorship to Democracy and other publications available for free download! Save $70 and read or print it from his website. I saved a copy.

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If you really like the book version Dr. Gene Sharp's website listed above has copies available for sale for only $10.

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