Tuesday 26 January 2016

The Arab spring got civil resistance right

Adam Roberts argues that the Arab spring shows how civil resistance can overthrow dictators but isn’t always enough to bring about people power (The Arab spring: why did things go so badly wrong?, 15 January). Of course, civil resistance isn’t a magic bullet. However, in their analysis of 323 examples of resistance campaigns and rebellion from 1900 to 2006 in Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict, Erica Chenoweth and Maria J Stephan found that not only are non-violent campaigns twice as successful as violent campaigns in achieving their objectives but that non-violent resistance campaigns are more likely to lead to democratic forms of government than violent campaigns.

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