Why Civil Resistance Works Quotes

“nonviolent campaigns facilitate the active participation of many more people than violent campaigns, thereby broadening the base of resistance and raising the costs to opponents of maintaining the status quo.”
― Erica Chenoweth, Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict

“In countries in which violent insurgencies have been victorious, we find, however that the country is much less likely to become a peaceful democracy after the conflict has ended. On the other hand, in analogous countries where mass, nonviolent campaigns have occurred, we see a much higher rate of postconflict democracies and a much lower rate of relapse into civil war. This does not mean that there will not be any sharp political contention or democratic backsliding following a successful nonviolent transition. But it does mean that political contention is more likely to transpire through nonviolent channels.

Some may cite the American Revolution against the British as a counterexample to the above assertion. It should be remembered, however, that the armed insurgency against British forces, notably in the form of guerrilla warfare, was preceded by a decade of parallel institution building, nonviolent boycotts, civil disobedience, noncooperation, and other nation-building methods.”
― Erica Chenoweth;Maria J. Stephan, Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict

“In our data set of 218 violent insurgencies since 1900, democratic governments succeeded only about 5 percent of violent insurgencies.”
― Erica Chenoweth;Maria J. Stephan, Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict

“The most striking finding is that between 1900 and 2006, nonviolent resistance campaigns were nearly twice as likely to achieve full or partial success as their violent counterparts.”
― Erica Chenoweth;Maria J. Stephan, Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict

“Regardless, the notion that nonviolent action can be successful only if the adversary does not use violent repression is neither theoretically nor historically substantiated.”
― Erica Chenoweth, Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict

“Second, security studies scholars seem to have eschewed the study of nonviolent action because nonviolent action is not typically viewed as a form of insurgency or asymmetrical warfare (Schock 2003).”
― Erica Chenoweth, Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict