Civil resistance is a method of conflict through which unarmed civilians use a variety of coordinated methods (strikes, protests, demonstrations, boycotts, and many other tactics) to prosecute a conflict without directly harming or threatening to harm an opponent. Sometimes called nonviolent resistance, unarmed struggle, or nonviolent action, this form of political action is now a mainstay across the globe. It was a central form of resistance in the 1989 revolutions and in the Arab Spring, and it is now being practiced widely in Trump's America. If we are going to understand the manifold protest movements emerging around the globe, we need a thorough understanding of civil resistance and its many dynamics and manifestations.
In Civil What Everyone Needs to Know, Erica Chenoweth—one of the world's leading scholars on the topic—explains what civil resistance is, how it works, why it sometimes fails, how violence and repression affect it, and the long-term impacts of such resistance. Featuring both historical cases of civil resistance and more contemporary examples such as the Arab Awakenings and various ongoing movements in the United States, this book provides a comprehensive yet pithy overview of this enormously important subject.
Mooi boek met n mooie conclusie. Het geeft me een hoopvol gevoel, dat je geen wapens nodig hebt om échte verandering teweeg te brengen. Ik zou dat ook nooit kunnen, al zou ik t prima vinden als er voor de klimaattransitie een paar gasleidingen dichtgelast zouden worden (wat technisch ook geweldpleging is🥸).
Ik had wel het idee dat er teveel geredeneerd werd vanuit de conclusie. Logisch zou zijn om te beginnen met de feiten en daar een conclusie aan te verbinden, maar in dit geval had ik het gevoel dat dat vooral andersom ging. Aan de andere kant is er wel echt veel onderzoek naar gedaan en wil ik dat als gewone persoon op het internet niet teveel betwisten😇.
Goeie om te lezen, en je steunt er gelijk de partij voor de dieren mee als je t op de webshop daar koopt hahah
If you don't count Gandhi's biography this is the first theoretical / academic book I have read on civil resistance. It is by the researcher who's work was the basis of extinction Rebellion's strategy. She is the only researcher who has quantified the success rates of non-violent Direct action in comparison to the success rates of violent resistance for actions over the past 100 years. She shows that non-violent resistance is twice as effective even in cases of highly repressive regimes. There is much detail about Tactics and strategy that are more likely to lead to success. As such this book is an important reference book for all those who seek political change. In an era when many people feel politically impotant this book justifies the strategies of resistance movements such as Insulate Britain, Just Stop Oil, and Extinction Rebellion. If you want a taster and summary of her life's work then check out her TED talk on YouTube.
This is an absolute must-read if you have any skepticism of state power and violence, or plan to live in any nation in the 21st century. It has 5 key takeaways, and backs them all up very well: 1. Neither unrealistic or civil/polite 2. Works by creating defections from bases of support 3. More than just protest, other methods of noncooperation. 4. More effective than violence 5. Works to overthrow regimes more often than detractors want you to know
This book could have been summarized into a single chapter: Civil resistance and nonviolence work better than violence and here is why. Instead, I had to read 250 pages of the same examples again and again repeating the same point again and again. I watched the author’s TedTalk and it made the same point, though much more effectively. I hope I never have to lay eyes on this book again.
Excellent overview to nonviolent, civil resistance by one of the most compelling scholars who studies this issue. Superb synthesis of what we know and written in an accessible manner.
CIVIL RESISTANCE by Erica Chenoweth opens with a very thorough definition of civil resistance and its many characteristics but the book quickly morphs into an extended FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS section. And how many times have you read the entire FAQ section of a book or website? Probably never, right? You scan for what you are hoping to find and, once you find it, you don’t keep reading. You shelve that resource until you need it again. To continue reading would be an exercise in futility.
A comprehensive and instructive guide to how to build effective nonviolent social movements.
While I got a lot out of the content, I found the audiobook to be somewhat of a slog due to the structure of the book, which ends up repeating many of the same themes and examples.
Due to the frequent references to revolutions and resistance movements in the last hundred years or so, it also happens to be a great way to get familiar with the broad outlines of many global crises that you may or may not have heard of.
Some of my major takeaways, in no particular order: - Effective movements mobilize as broad a coalition as possible (i.e., a big tent approach helps) - Effective movements are often built upon networks that exist before moments of crisis (i.e., engage with your community) - Establishing alternative institutions are a powerful way to help communities in need, while showing what a better world can look like - Nonviolent movements are more often successful than violent ones, for a variety of reasons, including: violence deters otherwise sympathetic individuals and networks, whose support can be key (such as women's networks); violence ALWAYS causes violent responses from the current regime; utilizing or condoning violence cedes the moral high ground and turns off supporters or makes them doubt the cause; violence introduces political chaos that increases the risk of the movement being co-opted, especially by armed groups or the military - Resistance movements must be prepared to change their tactics to maintain and increase pressure (i.e., protest marches or social media hashtags as the only tactic will get you nowhere) - There are many, many ways to resist, and create the conditions for change, even in the most dire of circumstances - Restrictive regimes in recent years have learned these tactics and have developed counterstrategies, which must be considered and prepared for. The most pernicious of these are infiltration by agents whose goal is to splinter support, cause controversy, and foment violence; but the spreading of misinformation about the movement, and manipulation of social media (such as with fake movement groups/events designed to entrap movement members) also pose grave dangers - It's more effective to grow a movement's base of support by activating sympathetic individuals, and turning neutral individuals into sympathizers, than by trying to convince those unsympathetic to the movement - An effective tool for resistance groups is a "pillar analysis" that maps the regime's pillars of support, so they can be individually pressured - For better or worse, movements with clear leaders and somewhat centralized structures are more effective than leaderless, decentralized structures, because it's harder for the latter to unify around a message, coordinate on tactics, agree on concessions they're willing to accept, and denounce counterproductive actions allegedly taken in the movement's name
Solid book. As you may already know, this author is associated with "the 3.5% rule" (which I'm putting in scare quotes because it's not a rule, obviously), which says that if a nonviolent civil resistance movement can mobilize 3.5% of the population, it has a good chance of winning. She's got the data to prove it, and you can read about it in this book. The main text is about 250 pages, and then there's a multi-page table of the various Violent and Nonviolent Revolutionary campaigns (1900-2019), so you can see it for yourself.
This is an excellent book, and pretty much required reading for our particular moment. However, I'm giving it 4 stars because it is soooo repetitive. The writing is fine, and if you want a careful explanation of every fact, example, myth, or misconception on these topics, you will find it in these pages. But by the end I was skimming. Helpfully, the author sums it all up at the end of the book (pp.251-2) in a list of five things everyone should know about civil resistance:
"1. Civil resistance is a realistic and more effective alternative to violent resistance in most settings. CR is not about being nice or civil, but refers to resistance grounded in community action. It is about fighting back and building new alternatives using methods that are more inclusive and effective than violence. 2. CR works not by melting the adversary's heart, but by creating defections from his support base. 3. CR involves much more than just protest - it includes methods of noncooperation, like strikes, and the creation of new alternatives, like mutual aid organizations, alternative economic systems, and alternative political groups, where people experience what life under a new system might look like. 4. CR has been far more effective over the past 100 years than armed resistance, both in pushing forward major progressive change and democratization, and doing so without creating long-term humanitarian crises in the meantime. 5. Although nonviolent resistance does not always succeed, it works much more than its detractors want you to know."
'Even people who feel they have no ability to influence the political system have social power.' #DeZinVanHetBoek #TheEssenceOfTheBook
Amidst discussions about the (in)effectiveness of various forms of activism, Erica Chenoweth is known to have built a strong case for civil resistance. In this book, she states that before she started doing research, she was convinced that the most effective form of activism was of the more radical type - which included destroying (company or government) properties, disrupting social order. But, her own research findings brought her to acknowledge that peaceful civil resistance is far more effective. Reasons for this are that it leads to more durable policy changes and it can count on broader support from the public. Makes sense enough.
Unfortunately, this particular book is not very strong in building that case. It is a Frequently Asked Questions compilation, the idea being that you turn toward the page(s) that help you find specific answers, rather than being concerned with how an author lays the groundwork for an argument. Hence, many statements are repeated because the answers apply to several questions. To be fair, the author does state so from the onset, and the book is part of a series which uses this very FAQ format. So as a reader, I was warned. I suppose she provides a more compelling analysis in Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict. I might give that a go another time. But if you want to get an idea of what civil resistance means as opposed to other forms of activism, and why and how it works, this is certainly informative.
Electoral struggle should not be seen as a replacement for civil resistance, but rather as one tactic that can be used within a broader civil resistance campaign. Author Chenoweth suggests a powerful synergy where civil resistance creates the conditions for electoral struggle to be meaningful, and electoral participation can, in turn, sustain and legitimize the movement.
Author Chenoweth's core argument is that civil resistance is the most effective method for achieving fundamental political change, particularly in authoritarian or oppressive systems. It works by generating mass participation and causing defections from the regime, which in turn creates a political crisis that the government cannot easily solve.
Within this framework, elections and negotiations are considered "breakthroughs" that can lead to more democratic outcomes. However, Chenoweth's analysis shows that relying solely on elections, especially in contexts where institutions are fragile or manipulated, is often insufficient for achieving significant change. She notes that electoral authoritarianism, where leaders use the facade of elections to consolidate power and suppress dissent, is the most common form of authoritarianism today.
The power of civil resistance lies in its ability to disrupt a regime's normal functioning through non-cooperation. This includes tactics like strikes, boycotts, and mass protests, which can be more effective than voting alone in creating the pressure needed to force a regime's hand. Electoral struggle, when it's part of a larger civil resistance strategy, can serve to channel and amplify this pressure into institutional change.
I have an academic background in researching social movements or civil resistance, if you will (different terms are used interchangeably in everyday conversations). Chenoweth was one of my main sources on nonviolent resistance when I was doing my PhD - which I never finished, by the way.
In my opinion, this is a great introduction to civil resistance or nonviolent resistance, whichever. It's accessible, approachable, and practical instead of theoretically focused. Due to the question and answer format of this series, the content is sometimes repetitive, but the point of the format is that you can read only bits and pieces, so it makes sense.
The main point of this book is that nonviolent movements are more successful than violent ones, and very much so. The book contains a lot of examples from different countries and different movements.
I disagreed slightly when it came to a couple points, but that's an academic debate.
My main criticism is that this book focused too much on the US. Stories from other countries are featured, yes, but the US gets a disproportionate amount of attention.
I listened to the audiobook narrated by Chenoweth and I do think you should make an attempt to pronounce, for example, the names of the people whose stories you're using to make a living. Just a thought.
Must-read book for these times. Chenoweth distills how nonviolent resistance is way more effective at overthrowing authoritarian regimes than violent resistance and she backs it up with data. I learned a lot while reading her book, but it's also a guide to how to be creative in your forms of nonviolent resistance. Civil resistance, as she writes in the last chapter, is not about being nice or civil--but it refers to resistance grounded in community action. It is about fighting back and building new alternatives using methods that are more inclusive and effective than violence. And we know it works because it scares authoritarian leaders. THey don't know how to respond to civil disobedience--but they do know how to fight violent resistance--with more violence. Nonviolent resistance is more perplexing (witness the Trump admin's reaction to the people dressed as chickens and frogs at the Portland ICE facility) --and you look foolish and out-of-control fighting it with violence. (Also, more importantly, members of the police and military start to defect because they see that fighting nonviolent protestors with violence is wrong--and it makes it all too clear that the regime is authoritarian and has no morals.)
Read this book as part of my research on politics/america/whatever the frick is going on. Listened to the audiobook on Libby.
This book argues for peaceful, nonviolent resistance as a tool for revolutions and shares the math and examples to support said argument. It also references quite a few other books/essays/resources about the process.
Pros: The author presents a lot of historical events that I didn't know about and provides context for them. Crunches the numbers and presents them in support of her arguments.
Cons: The author repeats herself and presents the exact same evidence for various arguments. Good if you need to be reminded of things, annoying if you have a functional memory.
All in all, a good book to read as a primer on civil resistance and on the various happenings and revolts in more recent history. Not so great as a instructional text on how to pursue organizing a body of people. I do recommend it, may read it again.
Chenoweth's Civil Resistance starts with a definition of the term. Then replies to many common questions about it.
Chenoweth first approached civil resistance as a skeptic. However, she changed her opinion about its efficacy after studying the phenomenon objectively.
Not only does civil resistance work, but it is more than twice as effective as violent resistance!
As a non-academic, I find Chenoweth's Civil Resistance highly accessible. Not only that, it is inspiring.
Earlier this year, I got tear-gassed at a largely peaceful protest. And last month, France erupted into riots because police killed an unarmed 17 boy of North African extraction.
Chenoweth might be an academic, but what she studies is not restricted to the Ivory Tower.
I will use her book to reflect upon other civil resistance movements I see in the years to come.
Civil Resistance gets my recommendation, and I will speak about it to my socially engaged friends.
The truth is that the author is very much biased against violent resistance. Author images Trump as Hitler, which is also not true. The shah of Iran is wrongly called Shah Reza, which is actually the former and the father of MohammadReza shah! This might be a small mistake, but one who doesn't know even the exact names can not judge them. The Shah was a patriot, and Iranians love him even now after 45 years of revolution. The author mentions that the Iranian revolution was a non-violent resistance, but we all know that the leftists, together with Islamists, did so many armed attacks against the regime. The author easily tagged people as good or bad persons. Also, I was wondering how all the models may work in North Korea, which the author didn't mention it at all.
I read this as part of a course I am taking on social movements, global development, and democracy. The question-answer structure makes it easy to navigate, delineate topics, and contribute to course discussions with specific examples. I learned a great deal about the long history of civil resistance around the globe and will be adding this to my "everyone should read this" list. I recommend it to everyone from high school to 100 years old.
Civil Resistance is a solid book, well-written and clear. It avoids any kind of pure western chauvinism, drawing on stories from East Timor and Egypt as happily as from Poland and Chile. Chenoweth is dogmatically confident in civil resistance, but takes care to address the various arguments of its opponents in good faith and avoid making civil resistance mandatory for moral (as opposed to strategic) reasons.
Author Erica Chenoweth lays out the case for non-violent action in the face of authoritarian regimes with clear, easy to understand, and extremely well researched writing.
I consider this book essential for anyone interested in how movements have successfully pushed back against fascism all over the world.
Verhelderend boek met een duidelijke uiteenzetting over de verschillende vormen en voorbeelden van burgerlijk verzet. Op een gegeven moment (ongeveer 2/3 van het boek) werd het wat repetitief en had ik niet het idee dat ik nog iets nieuws leerde.
We are living in chaotic times. Even if you wouldn’t become involved in civil resistance, it’s important to know about it. The author debunks myths and presents a broad range of examples clearly.
It seems to be promoting biased point of view . It also has wrong information about Kashmir . Because of that, some time I think is this part of a propaganda ?