Civil Resistance

Abstract

This chapter considers civil resistance as a form of collective action that seeks to affect the political, social, or economic status quo without using violence or the threat of violence against people to do so. It describes civil resistance as organized, public, and explicitly nonviolent in its means and ends. It also outlines some of the main takeaways from history about the ways that civil resistance campaigns have formed, strategized, organized, and mobilized. The chapter introduces the impressive history of civil resistance over the millennia and reveals some of the key controversies that persist regarding how to define civil resistance and how to understand its impact on the world. It defines the term civil resistance that best captures the historical legacy out of which people have developed and refined the technique.