What Works? Evidence from Research on Nonviolent Social Movements

While much as been written on the philosophy and practice of nonviolence, there has been little systematic analysis of the effectiveness of different types of nonviolent action for social movements. This hinders nonviolent activists from learning from their collective experiences. For example, case studies of nonviolent action exist, but we have no way of knowing how representative a particular case is. These cases, therefore, are of limited use in guiding activists. Other writers on nonviolence generalize about the dynamics of nonviolence, but typically their conclusions have not been tested empirically against the evidence from real-world nonviolent campaigns. The work of Gene Sharp offers a preliminary empirical investigation of the types of nonviolent actions that are used, and how they operate to bring about social change. Sharp’s analysis, however, is limited to nonviolent actions from a few campaigns such as resistance to Nazi occupation in European countries, and Gandhi’s campaign against British rule. More recently, some activists have published “how to” works which, while valuable, could be made more so were their tips based on systematic research into a range of nonviolent social movements