Committed nonviolent resistance defeated major oppressive regimes in the 20th century
Evidence
But perhaps a better, more pragmatic question is whether social change and political transformation can ever be accomplished without the loss of life. The 20th century, despite its bloody legacy, gave us several examples of revolutionaries whose committed pacifism and methods of civil disobedience ultimately proved successful. Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Vaclav Havel, and Nelson Mandela defeated, respectively, the British Empire in India, racial hegemony in the United States, Communist rule in the Czech Republic, and Apartheid in South Africa. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 153 (
#expands, via linked claim)
In Kosovo, where seeds of the Bosnian genocide were planted, the Albanian-Serb conflict is on the verge of mass violence. After ten years of repression, some Albanians have abandoned the nonviolent resistance and joined an armed rebellion. Special Serbian police have carried out retaliatory atrocities, which have increased support by Albanians for armed resistance. … Father Sava offers a lonely and profound contrast to the Serbian Orthodox hierarchy and to Serbian police who praise Serbia’s crusade to protect Europe from Islam. The international community seems as indecisive over Kosovo in 1998 as it was over Bosnia in 1992? — Michael A. Sells, The Bridge Betrayed, 32 (
#complicates, via linked claim)
- regime narrowing of tolerated nonviolent performances (e.g. peaceful demonstrations), which increases the likelihood both that claimants will turn to violent performances and that governmental agents will use force to break up forbidden nonviolent performances; regime broadening of tolerated nonviolent performances reduces salience 3. — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 744 (
#complicates, via linked claim)
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Nonviolent civil disobedience tactics won concessions from a resistant federal government — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 281; Third World liberation movements were the strongest contemporary force for radical change; Armed resistance, not civil disobedience, defeated the state’s final crackdown on Maidan — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and…, 509 (+8 more)
Broader Connections
- Nonviolent civil disobedience has repeatedly defeated major oppressive regimes.
#expands(0.95) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 153 - Repression drives nonviolent movements to armed rebellion
#complicates(0.85) — Michael A. Sells, The Bridge Betrayed, 32 - Regime narrowing of tolerated nonviolent performances channels claimants toward violence and invites state force
#complicates(0.82) — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 744 - Anti-imperialist peasant wars, not Western proletariats, drove twentieth-century revolutions.
#complicates(0.78) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1130 - Exclusionary and repressive weak states bred revolution while tolerant ones did not.
#complicates(0.74) — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 1086