Civil resistance

Civil resistance is a form of political action that relies on the use of nonviolent resistance by ordinary people to challenge a particular power, force, policy or regime.^[1] Civil resistance operates through appeals to the adversary, pressure and coercion: it can involve systematic attempts to undermine or expose the adversary's sources of power (or pillars of support, such as police, military, clergy, business elite, etc.). Forms of action have included demonstrations, vigils and petitions; strikes, go-slows, boycotts and emigration movements; and sit-ins, occupations, constructive program, and the creation of parallel institutions of government.

Some civil resistance movements' motivations for avoiding violence are generally related to context, including a society's values and its experience of war and violence, rather than to any absolute ethical principle. Civil resistance cases can be found throughout history and in many modern struggles, against both tyrannical rulers and democratically elected governments. Mahatma Gandhi led the first documented civil resistance campaign (using three primary tactics: civil disobedience, marches, and creation of parallel institutions) to free India from British imperialism.^[2] The phenomenon of civil resistance is often associated with the advancement of human rights and democracy.^[3]

^ Examples of the use of the term "civil resistance" include Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan, Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict, Columbia University Press, New York, 2011; Howard Clark, Civil Resistance in Kosovo, Pluto Press, London, 2000; Sharon Erickson Nepstad, Nonviolent Revolution: Civil Resistance in the Late 20th Century Archived 20 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine, Oxford University Press, New York, 2011; Michael Randle, Civil Resistance, Fontana, London, 1994; Adam Roberts, Civil Resistance in the East European and Soviet Revolutions Archived 13 December 2012 at the Wayback Machine, Albert Einstein Institution, Massachusetts, 1991.
^ This is abstracted from the longer definition of "civil resistance" in Adam Roberts, Introduction, in Adam Roberts and Timothy Garton Ash (eds.), Civil Resistance and Power Politics: The Experience of Non-violent Action from Gandhi to the Present, Oxford University Press, 2009, pp. 2–3. See also the short definition in Gene Sharp, Sharp's Dictionary of Power and Struggle: Language of Civil Resistance in Conflicts Archived 11 October 2017 at the Wayback Machine, Oxford University Press, New York, 2011, p. 87.
^ See e.g. the report by Peter Ackerman, Adrian Karatnycky and others, How Freedom is Won. From Civil Resistance to Durable Democracy, Freedom House, New York, 2005 [1] Archived 27 May 2006 at the Wayback Machine

[1] Examples of the use of the term "civil resistance" include Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan, Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict, Columbia University Press, New York, 2011; Howard Clark, Civil Resistance in Kosovo, Pluto Press, London, 2000; Sharon Erickson Nepstad, Nonviolent Revolution: Civil Resistance in the Late 20th Century Archived 20 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine, Oxford University Press, New York, 2011; Michael Randle, Civil Resistance, Fontana, London, 1994; Adam Roberts, Civil Resistance in the East European and Soviet Revolutions Archived 13 December 2012 at the Wayback Machine, Albert Einstein Institution, Massachusetts, 1991.

[Roberts-2] This is abstracted from the longer definition of "civil resistance" in Adam Roberts, Introduction, in Adam Roberts and Timothy Garton Ash (eds.), Civil Resistance and Power Politics: The Experience of Non-violent Action from Gandhi to the Present, Oxford University Press, 2009, pp. 2–3. See also the short definition in Gene Sharp, Sharp's Dictionary of Power and Struggle: Language of Civil Resistance in Conflicts Archived 11 October 2017 at the Wayback Machine, Oxford University Press, New York, 2011, p. 87.

[3] See e.g. the report by Peter Ackerman, Adrian Karatnycky and others, How Freedom is Won. From Civil Resistance to Durable Democracy, Freedom House, New York, 2005 [1] Archived 27 May 2006 at the Wayback Machine

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