Civil Resistance

Civil resistance (also referred to as “nonviolent action,” “nonviolent struggle,” “nonviolent conflict,” and “people power,” among other terms) is a technique for waging conflict for political, economic, and/or social objectives without threats or use of physical violence. The most enduring definition for this phenomenon comes from the work of Gene Sharp (see Sharp 1973, cited under General Overview: Origins of Inquiry). Sharp states that nonviolent action involves the following: acts of commission, whereby people do what they are not supposed to do, not expected to do, or forbidden by law from doing; acts of omission, whereby people do not do what they are supposed to do, are expected to do, or are required by law to do; or a combination of acts of commission and omission. By this definition, civil resistance is a technique of struggle employing methods outside traditional institutional channels for making change in a society. Many civil resisters, however, engage in both institutional processes for making change while also waging civil resistance to bring exogenous pressure on a political, economic, or social system. Civil resisters use a wide range of tactics, some of which may be visible or invisible, high risk or low risk, and economic, political, or social in nature. These tactics often include marches, demonstrations, strikes, various forms of noncooperation, boycotts, civil disobedience, and constructive actions, such as building parallel social, economic, cultural, or political institutions as an alternative to the existing repressive structures. In the digital age, civil resistance has increasingly incorporated online tools and platforms, fundamentally transforming mobilization dynamics and creating new opportunities and vulnerabilities for movements. As of the mid-2010s, over two hundred methods of civil resistance have been identified and documented. Civil resistance is most effective when practiced collectively, systematically, and strategically. Therefore, many scholars focus primarily on the use of civil resistance by popular campaigns and movements of people in a society. Contemporary civil resistance scholarship recognizes the significant roles played by diverse actors, including religious institutions and organizations, women- and gender-conscious movements, and communities adapting to global crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Civil resistance scholarship recognizes that in some cases of oppression, conflicts must be waged in order ultimately to be resolved and that the impact of such conflict can, in fact, be positive. This sharp differentiation between nonviolent and violent means of contention distinguishes this field from other studies of social movements and contentious politics that do not always draw such firm distinctions. This, in turn, enables civil resistance scholars to study the dynamics unique to this form of highly asymmetric conflict, in which an unarmed and nonviolent mass confronts an opponent that nearly always has greater capacity for violent repression. Furthermore, civil resistance scholarship has often placed greater emphasis on understanding the role of agency, skills, and strategic choice in shaping movement emergence, trajectories, and outcomes, as opposed to the role of structural conditions. Research increasingly examines how different social identities, technological capabilities, and contextual factors—from gender dynamics to digital repression to pandemic restrictions—shape the effectiveness and character of nonviolent resistance. Civil resistance is an applied discipline that takes stock of the lessons from both successful and failed nonviolent movements and campaigns in order to understand better how people, often those with no special status or privilege, are able to unify, self-organize, mobilize, and overcome oppression.