Unarmed Insurrections: People Power Movements in Nondemocracies (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Unarmed Insurrections: People Power Movements in Non-democracies Jasmin Hristov (bio) Kurt Schock , Unarmed Insurrections: People Power Movements in Non-democracies. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2005, 210 pp. Unarmed Insurrections: People Power Movements in Nondemocracies — a comparative study that examines nonviolent action as a method of struggle — makes a unique and valuable contribution to social movements scholarship. Schock offers a thorough empirically-grounded analysis of four cases where unarmed resistance promoted political change and two instances where such movements were suppressed. The author's rationale for conducting this study stems from his rejection of the prevalent polarized views in academic literature on unarmed uprisings as well as his critique of the disconnect between such scholarship and that on social movements in general. He notes that social scientific analysis of nonviolent action is characterized by numerous misconceptions about its dynamics, structure, and effectiveness. At the same time the Political Process Approach presents political violence as unproblematic natural component of social movement processes. According to Schock, such a treatment of nonviolent movements in relation to armed resistance has resulted in several problems, which he sets to address throughout his work. The central one of these is the dismissal or underestimation of the potential of nonviolent action for promoting social change in undemocratic environments. Due to the lack of explicitly comparative analyses on how peaceable methods of struggle can contribute to political transformation, literature and theories on this subject remain quite underdeveloped and do not offer analytical frameworks that would account for the trajectories of unarmed movements. Schock's study has two main objectives. The first is to highlight the power of nonviolent action as a method for challenging oppression and injustice. The other is to offer a balanced and empirically-grounded understanding of unarmed resistance. To achieve this, the author considers how movement characteristics and the political context interact to shape their outcomes. The focus, however, is on identifying attributes and strategies that enhance the ability of popular movements to remain resilient under repressive conditions. In order to set up analytical framework that explains the dynamics of unarmed insurrections, Schock draws on two approaches that complement each other — the Political Process and the Nonviolent Action Approach. While the former is particularly appropriate for explaining the emergence of resistance forces and identifying the structures and opportunities that constrain or advance them, the Nonviolent Action Approach accounts for how the activities of movements may contribute to the transformation of the political landscape. The author's methodological approach, founded upon a comparison that transcends the divisions constructed by area-studies scholars, allows him to identify similar mechanisms that operate in diverse cases and generate different movement outcomes. [End Page 393] The book closely links the need to understand better the importance of unarmed insurrections to what it argues to be a decline in successful armed insurgencies in the late 20th century. While political opportunities, capitalist exploitation, patriarchy, and inequalities between the North and South remain, over the past few decades the response to these problems in the developing world has shifted towards nonviolent collective mobilizations. This leads to the author's principal argument (in accordance with the Nonviolent Action Approach) that methods of nonviolent action can produce revolutionary political change despite the state's superior coercive capacities. In addition to recognizing the importance and potential of unarmed popular organizing, the other central theme of the book revolves around the factors that shape movements' possibilities for success. Through the six examples Schock works with, he advances the idea that the results of struggles are influenced not only by structural relations outside the control of individuals, but also by human choice and agency. The cases where movements were able to effectively achieve their objectives — South Africa, the Philippines, Thailand, and Nepal — demonstrate that key attributes for success were: network-oriented and decentralized organization; umbrella organizations and federations that provide connections among diverse groups; implementation of a variety of tactics and methods; and ability to shift from methods of concentration to methods of dispersion. In addition, strategies that had proven to be useful, among others, included targeting the state's dependence relationships, activating third parties, and exacerbating elite divisions. Unarmed Insurrections: People Power Movements...