Nonviolent Protest Research Articles

The dynamics of protest participation patterns: analysis of the Polish case

ABSTRACT A variety of research techniques, including survey research, are used to estimate the participation turnout in nonviolent protests. The issues with survey data interpretation, as well as any discrepancies and emerging research methodologies, are illustrated using Poland as an example. The problems of comparison and measurement that have been identified include: (1) non-random distribution of activism in the population, (2) variability of the pattern over time (dynamics of contention), and (3) sampling and format of questions in surveys. A comparison with the protest cultures of other European countries highlights that Poland has some of the lowest average values of declared engagement in demonstrations. However, it also points to a significant dynamic increase in 2022 and differences in declaration levels during the studied period (2006–2022). The obtained results based on Polish national survey (CBOS) and European Social Survey indicate a rising trend in recent years in Poland, with a straightforward estimation suggesting an annual average participation of around 1.8 million adult citizens in street demonstrations from 2016 to 2022. Research conducted within the ESS indicates higher values for the same period, at around 2.6 million.

The effect of the Public Order Act of 1994, (Act 491) on Democracy in Ghana

Background: The thirty-year-old Public Order Act of Ghana of 1994 (Act 491), is seen as archaic legislation over the people’s civil libertarian rights to assemble in protest against inimical and corrupt government actions. It has become the bane of democratic development in Ghana, preventing the citizens right to conduct non-violent civil disobedience acts, and seen as anti-establishment act. Methods: This is an exploratory as well as retrospective review of government security apparatchik’s interpersonal relationship with the Ghanaian public who engage(d) in non-violent demonstrations and protests since the promulgation of the act. Results: The assessment revealed that, for the average Ghanaian citizen, his or her only means of getting the attention of government is through public demonstration or protest. The Parliamentarians for their constituencies are disconnected from them giving them no avenue for the redress of grievances. It also found that, the international development partners operating in Ghana are perceived to be siphoning the life-blood out of the people of Ghana, sort of domestic economic hit men, who promote Ghana as a democracy despite the realities on the ground, due to the effect of their role on increasing income inequalities among the populations. Conclusion: Despite the persistent denial of the public’s right to assemble and protest against government conduct: corruption, stealing, extravagant living and spending, denial of meritocratic job placement, and the harm caused to their freedoms, the international development partners and nations continue to issue endorsements to the government as running a democratic system, despite evidence-based corruption, indebtedness to both international and domestic creditors and poor socio-economic outcomes for the people of Ghana due poor leadership and management of the economy.

Divided loyalty: Are broadly recruited militaries less likely to repress nonviolent antigovernment protests?

Divided loyalty: Are broadly recruited militaries less likely to repress nonviolent antigovernment protests?

«Без оружия»: проблема концептуализации насильственного и ненасильственного протеста в современной политической науке

The article is devoted to the analysis of the academic discussion that revolves around the problem of conceptualization of violent and nonviolent protest. After the author briefly documents the main milestones in the study of protest movements, he focuses on the main one — the emergence of the concept of Erica Chenoweth and her database of Nonviolent and Violent Campaign Outcomes (NAVCO). On the basis of this concept and database, as well as their criticism, the author demonstrates the existing conceptual chaos in defining and disentangling violent/nonviolent and armed/unarmed protests. According to his initial hypothesis, such chaos largely stems from the inattention to the extent of violence and disregard for its relativity. However, after the author elaborates an alternative hypothesis taking into account these factors, and it appears incapable of answering several questions that arise when studying protest campaigns, he had to conclude that the origins of this situation are far deeper. Having examined in detail the set of problems faced by protest researchers, the author suggests that at least some of them will be solved by returning to the context, which in turn requires abandoning methodological homogenization and including qualitative methods in the research arsenal, along with quantitative ones. At the same time, according to his conclusion, the general conceptualization of violent/nonviolent, as well as armed/unarmed, protests is impossible and meaningless. It will always encounter limitations that Political Science cannot overcome.

The Privatization of Protest: Demobilization and the Emergence of Political Violence in the Aftermath of Local Protest Campaigns

The processual approach to political violence suggests a close link between nonviolent and violent tactical repertoires. Yet in doing so it excludes cases where violence appears to appear in the absence of public protest activity. This article traces how political violence emerges in the aftermath of local protest campaigns against migrant accommodation. Developing the concept of the privatization of protest, the article shows how the demobilization of protest contributes to a process where grievances are reframed into private frustrations rather than objects of political contention. Transformed as such, persistent patterns of intermittent political violence can sometimes grow out of private interactions, even in the absence of any consistent public protest. Applying the conceptual apparatus of frames, emotions, opportunities and to a paired process tracing of episodes of protest against Swedish migrant accommodation in 2007-2008 and 2012-2017, the article maps the causal mechanisms that create facilitative conditions for violence, sometimes long after the decline of nonviolent protest. Extending its discussion beyond the case of Sweden, it links the processual approach to adjacent discussions on the link between micro- and meso-level causes of political violence.

Mass Mobilization, Elite Competition, and Diversionary Use of Sanctions

Abstract How does the domestic environment affect a government's incentives to use coercion against another country? Traditional diversionary literature indicates that governments facing internal pressures will initiate military actions overseas to improve popularity. I argue that struggling governments are more inclined to employ economic sanctions over military force because of lower cost and political risk. I further posit that when governments encounter nonviolent protests and strong competition in the legislature, they have more incentives to initiate sanctions. Foreign sanctions are used to project sanctioning leaders’ competence and increase national cohesion. I test the empirical implication of the argument on a sample of 137 countries from 1975 to 2005. The multinomial logit results show that diversionary use of sanctions is more likely when incumbents face maximalist nonviolent mobilization and higher legislative opposition, but these domestic challenges do not prompt military actions. This study presents a domestic explanation for sanctions initiation; it also casts doubt on the conventional predictions that beleaguered governments will resort to the use of force.

Claiming Agency in the Disappearing Body: Performing Hunger as Necroresistance and the Decolonial Self

In my performances, installations, and writing at the nexus of social justice and stories of marginalized and minoritized identities, I contemplate the psychophysical implications of lack of fundamental necessities caused by withholding of company, sleep, letting go, food, water, movement, and agency. Whether such lack is imposed on bodyminds by torture, protest due to oppression, or experimentation, it creates deprivation and hunger for breath, rest, nutrition, contact—nourishment and healing not just for the physical body but for the entire self. The effects of such physiological lack is always social, emotional, and mental. The mark of such hunger remains on the mind even when the body heals. Like air, shelter, and water, food is a fundamental human right—and it has been widely evidenced that the planet has enough resources for all. However, states and institutions use slow violence of hunger to perform power and practice control over others, often minoritized, impoverished communities of color or disadvantaged countries. In this paper, I discuss how educator activists in hunger strike, fighting for their right to make a living, subvert the dynamics of control hunger provides by claiming agency of their own bodies, in Turkey. I trace hunger as a performative in the silent and still protest of these university and college teachers whose careers were ended due to political retaliation by the state and discuss how performing hunger serves as a disidentification strategy for the already starved minoritized groups. I also engage with the connection between corporeal and metaphorical agency of the body/self as I also claim that these protests of what I call necroresistance do not belong within traditions of nonviolent protest.

Period neizvjesnosti i nesigurnosti: Pravni i politički status Kosova u periodu od 1989. do 1991. godine

This research holds great significance not only for the Albanians of Kosovo in the former Yugoslavia but also for the entire Balkan region during a highly important historical period between 1989 and 1991. It gives a succinct history of Kosovo, detailing Serbia's legal persecution and the nonviolent protests of the Albanians. This research combines a variety of official documents, local and worldwide literature, as well as international actions and judgments, using an analytical approach to the sources to create a thorough comprehension of the events and their causes. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Serbian state undertook a series of constitutional and legal changes that resulted in the limitation of Kosovo's autonomy. These restrictive changes caused a series of peaceful civil and political reactions from the Albanian population in Kosovo. Conscious of their position, the Albanians of Kosovo strive to assert their rights and preserve their cultural identity. This research aims to describe the constitutional and legal acts of the Serbian state as well as the political and civic responses of the Albanians in Kosovo. The study examines the cause-and-effect link between the oppressive acts of the Serbian government (cause) and the responses of the Albanian community (effect), illuminating the intricate dynamics that molded the course of the area. The research attempts to provide a nuanced and comprehensive view of the period of political and legal uncertainty by evaluating these changes within the specified timeframe. The methodology used in this research is based on material analysis, employing descriptive, historical, and analytical methods. The expected results of this research emphasize the challenges that Kosovo faces in the context of political and legal insecurity. The research highlights human rights violations, socio-political struggles, and efforts to preserve the identity of the Albanian community. The study also shows the reactions of the international community to these events and the impact of external actors on the situation in Kosovo. In conclusion, this research presents the answers to the research questions or hypotheses. It also explains why the years between 1989-1991 were a period that led to the beginning of an end for the system of the former Yugoslavia. It is evident that these years marked a critical and significant turning point in the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia. The legal repressions and political turmoil experienced by Kosovo during this period were decisive in the dissolution of the so-called Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY). Understanding the events between the years 1989 and 1991 is crucial from a future analytical standpoint to comprehend the larger historical framework of Kosovo and the Balkans since these events had an impact on the neighboring nations as well. By concentrating on this significant time period, which had a significant influence on Kosovo's history and its road to liberation and independence, this research seeks to add to scholarly discourse. Recognizing the struggles and resiliency of the Albanian community over these years might provide important lessons for tackling problems and boosting stability in the area as Kosovo develops and moves forward.

Beyond the protest paradigm: Four types of news coverage and America's most prominent social movement organizations

AbstractWhat determines the quality of coverage received by social movement organizations when they appear extensively in the news? Research on the news coverage of social movement organizations is dominated by case studies supporting the “protest paradigm,” which argues that journalists portray movement activists trivially and negatively when covering protest. However, movement organizations often make long‐running news for many different reasons, mainly not protest. We argue that some of this extensive news will lead to worse coverage—in terms of substance and sentiment—notably when the main action covered involves violence. Extensive coverage centered on other actions, however, notably politically assertive action, will tend to produce “good news” in these dimensions. We analyze the news of the twentieth century's 100 most‐covered U.S. movement organizations in their biggest news year in four national newspapers. Topic models indicate that these organizations were mainly covered for actions other than nonviolent protest, including politically assertive action, strikes, civic action, investigations, trials, and violence. Natural language processing analyses and hand‐coding show that their news also varied widely in sentiment and substance. Employing qualitative comparative analyses, we find that the main action behind news strongly influences its quality, and there may be several news paradigms for movement organizations.

The Racial Limits of Disruption: How Race and Tactics Influence Social Movement Organization Testimony before Congress, 1960–1995

Abstract Social movement theory holds that disrupting social and political processes is among the most effective tools social movement organizations (SMOs) use to motivate recognition for themselves and their constituents. Yet, recent research suggests that the political reception of disruption is not racially neutral. Black SMOs face a dilemma in that, although disruption is a powerful tool for change, the public often perceives nonviolent Black disruptive protest as violent. We investigate this bind by analyzing how nondisruptive protest, nonviolent disruption, or violence helps or hinders both Black and non-Black SMOs to gain state “acceptance” as legitimate spokes-organizations for their issues. We combine data on newspaper-reported protest events with data covering 41,545 SMO Congressional testimonies from 1462 SMOs from 35 movement families. In panel regressions, we find that Congress is generally more accepting of nondisruptive protest but that nondisruptive protest is only roughly one-tenth as effective for Black SMOs compared with non-Black SMOs. Furthermore, whereas non-Black SMOs are significantly more likely to testify after using nonviolent disruption, Black SMOs using nonviolent disruption are significantly less likely to testify before Congress. Regardless of race, violence was associated with fewer congressional testimonies. Collectively, these findings suggest that Black SMOs face a tactical bind: Black SMOs can use nondisruptive tactics that are resource-intensive and slow, or they can use nonviolent disruption that gets media attention but hinders congressional acceptance. These findings contribute to a growing literature on how racial inequality and prejudice impact the outcomes of social movements.

Unmasking Consumer Behavior: A Deep Dive into Brand Boycotts in the Social Media Age – Exploring Filipino Demographic Variances, Perceptual Constructs, and Activist Actions

The effectiveness of boycotting brands and companies as a means of nonviolent protest has come under increasing examination due to various factors affecting the lives of individuals and organizations involved in such movements. This study aims to learn the various elements of a boycott and assess its effectiveness. The study utilizes descriptive-correlational quantitative research methods to measure consumer’s perceptions of boycotted brands. A random sample of 18–45-year-olds, including both working professionals and students, can capture a wide range of opinions, providing a measurable view of public sentiment and its correlation with boycott practices. The results of this study show that boycotts are an effective way to raise awareness. Although its focus is on social media platforms, which can fundamentally limit the reach and impact of boycott campaigns, research shows that boycott campaigns can still bring forth a call for action to create change. In our society, where social media has a significant influence, especially in the marketing environment, using these platforms for activism can have tangible results. The study acknowledges the limitations of the boycott, particularly its reliance on social media, but emphasizes its potential as a means for dialogue and social change.

The grammar of a hunger strike: nonviolence and biopolitics in Manipur, India

AbstractWhat are the potentialities and limits of nonviolence as a method of resistance against modern biopolitics? This article offers an ethnographic account of Irom Sharmila's sixteen‐year‐long hunger strike against the continued state of emergency in the Indian state of Manipur. It interrogates how she envisioned the protest, the objectives that she set, and how her protest came to an end. This article demonstrates that her protest was not about a will to death, as it has often been described, but instead was based on a radical distribution of responsibility among the people suffering under the regime of violence. Her nonviolent protest as a Gandhian practice was directed particularly at the entailments of violence. In challenging the state but refusing to emulate it, she became an exemplar. She became the one who could not be killed even by the state with exceptional powers. Finally, by contrasting her protest with Manipuri nationalism, this article shows how the ethics of nonviolence offers a unique vision for peace and liberation.

Predicting radicalism after perceived injustice: The role of separatist identity, sacred values, and police violence

Perceptions of injustice are central to fueling violent political action, though not everyone within a social movement will support violence in response to collective grievances. So who supports violence and who doesn’t after perceived injustice? To address this question, we followed up on the same individuals (N = 805) before and after a court decision in Catalonia (Spain) sentencing nine separatist leaders to prison, an event that led to mass violent and nonviolent protests. We tested three hypotheses by combining classical theories of collective action and more recent extremism models and found support for all three hypotheses. Namely, individuals who exhibited steeper increases in radicalism (controlling for activism) after the court ruling were those who had previously experienced police violence (social dynamics hypothesis), those who identified as separatists (separatist identity hypothesis), and those who held Catalan independence as a sacred value (sacred value hypothesis). Our findings offer a complex picture of real-world conflict settings, where the three evaluated factors seem to be intertwined. We discuss potential venues to restore inter-group relations after perceived injustice, with an assessment of how likely these strategies are to succeed based on the three adopted perspectives.

Bread, freedom or social justice? An empirical investigation into the determinants of the Arab Spring

ABSTRACT Is it a yearning for more political freedom, or a demand for the more mundane economic necessities of life which drives large waves of potentially destabilizing mass protests against authoritarian regimes? We examine this question in the context of the Arab Spring, which originated from Tunisia and Egypt in 2011 and soon spread through the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. We use a static fixed effects model and a dynamic GMM model on a panel of 14 MENA countries for the period 2006–2017 to identify the major socio-economic and political determinants of both non-violent and violent Arab Spring protests. One of the main findings of our article is that, in contrast with the “intermediate regimes hypothesis”, the intermediate regimes tend to be more stable compared to both strictly authoritarian and relatively democratic regimes. Further, more nuanced dimensions of democracy, in terms of institutional checks on the authoritarian regime, have a positive impact on stability and reducing protests. With regard to socio-economic factors, our results show that factors leading to better living standards, such as higher economic growth and higher levels of GDP per capita, and transfers in the form of public expenditure (“authoritarian bargain”) partly mitigate the grievances and the resulting protests.

Global Forces, Rural Radicalism, and the Dual Transformation of Urban and Rural Protest in Africa

AbstractStudies of protest in contemporary Africa often fail to address three related dynamics. First, rural radicalism has long been more central to African political struggles, even urban ones, than is commonly recognized. Second, the ongoing transformation of rural political economies links them to those of urban areas and has changed struggles over land and resources. Finally, these changes have reduced the power of traditional authorities and increased the appeal of nonviolent protest, as well as shifting protest toward a more national mode in which rural populations are increasingly central. Mampilly elaborates on these propositions, which are derived from brief examinations of both historical and contemporary examples of rural protest across Africa, before applying them to a deep analysis of LUCHA, a social movement in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Peaceful or Disciplined?

Abstract Differential participation in violent protests has been explained in terms of protesters’ personal values, biographical availability, and network embeddedness. However, the form of mass protest may be influenced less by the microstructure of protesters and more by their collective past experiences of resistance. Through the South Korean candlelight protests of 2008 and 2016–2017, this article examines novices’ and repeaters’ perceptions of nonviolent protest. Onsite survey and interview data show that previous frustrating protest experiences in 2008 made repeater protesters more perseverant, even when violence was expected. Repeaters had little faith in “disciplined” protests, whereas novices hoped for change through “peaceful” protests. I argue that previous experiences of resistance and their outcomes influenced protesters’ perceptions on the efficiency and legitimacy of violent protest. By examining protesters’ varying perseverance, which mediates the condition of violence, this article advances the relationship between violence and civic participation.

Protest Dynamics in the Global Context.

At a time of growing socio-political instability, the analysis of the numerous protests taking place around the world is becoming of the utmost interest. This article focuses on the dynamics of non-violent destabilization processes, which are becoming increasingly dominant even in developing countries and less developed regions with many socio-economic and political problems. The authors provide empirical data on non-violent protest activity based on the Global Protest Database, which consists of a huge number of media in nine languages and is presented in the Google News aggregator. With a list of more than 520,000 articles in nine languages from January 2005 to December 2021, the authors standardized all the data on the number of news sources per month, and then used the principal component method to aggregate the information into a variable that can be considered as an index of protest activity. The observed value of the index for each month and trends are presented in the article. This study was supported by strategic project ‘National Centre for Sci-ence, Technology and Socio-Economic Foresight’ of Higher School of Eco-nomics integrated development programme.

Sanctions and Nonviolent Protest Mobilization

This paper addresses the puzzle of why people join nonviolent anti-regime protests despite facing severe repressions from their governments. It inspects the role of international sanctions in the mobilization of nonviolent protests. Following previous research on sanctions, it theorizes that the imposition of sanctions can have an important signalling function and lend psychological support to protestors thereby positively impacting protest mobilization. The hypothesis that protest mobilization increases after the imposition of sanctions and the expectation that local media can help transmit this international moral boost by reporting about sanctions will be tested in a single case study format investigating one of the most prominent sanctioning regimes in UN history - South Africa.

Futuristic Vigilance: Empowering Chipko Movement with Cyber-Savvy IoT to Safeguard Forests

The Chipko Movement, a poignant symbol of nonviolent protest and ecological awakening in 1970s India, ignited a worldwide consciousness for forest conservation. Orchestrated primarily by rural villagers, particularly women, the movement valiantly shielded trees and woodlands from government-sanctioned logging. Despite its historic significance, the specter of unlawful deforestation still casts a shaengadow, masterminded by an alleged land mafia that devastates biodiversity and forest-dependent communities. This research embarks on a transformative mission to combat deforestation by introducing an innovative auto-survival model, ingeniously constructed upon the foundation of the Internet of Things (IoT). Embracing an interdisciplinary approach, the study delves into the seamless fusion of IoT technologies for real-time monitoring and analysis, empowering forest authorities to thwart illegal logging with unparalleled precision. At the heart of the study lies the meticulous architecture of the IoT system, meticulously crafted through an engineering prism and fortified with formidable security measures. Guided by the Secure by Design principle, the research astutely tackles potential vulnerabilities, erecting an impregnable fortress to safeguard forest resources. Illuminating a novel trajectory for forest preservation, this research envisions a future where technology and environmental stewardship harmonize, nurturing a sustainable and flourishing ecosystem. The proposed IoT-driven solution stands as a testament to unwavering pursuit of knowledge and innovation, issuing a resounding call for collaboration and further inquiry. By doing so, it empowers global conservation endeavors to treasure and uphold our verdant heritage for generations to come.

The military before the march: Civil-military grand bargains and the emergence of nonviolent resistance in autocracies

This article contributes to growing efforts to explain when nonviolent resistance campaigns emerge in autocratic regimes. Building from a novel framework for distinguishing civil-military relations in autocracies, it contends that regimes in which military and political leaders engage in a ‘grand bargain’ generate opportunity structures that are especially amenable to nonviolent resistance. Militaries in these regimes exhibit distinctive characteristics – they are corporate, cohesive institutions as opposed to fragmented in structure and also wield political influence in regime institutions. Consequently, these militaries are especially inclined to care about their societal reputations and to retain their institutional independence from the regime’s political leaders. These factors together can lessen expectations among activists that the military will repress protests and increase the odds of elite splits in the face of mass movements. They also render the military more receptive to nonviolent protest tactics. We operationalize the concept of grand bargains with indicators from three datasets on civil-military relations and autocratic regimes. We then test the argument quantitatively using data on the onset of nonviolent resistance campaigns, as well as events-level data on nonviolent resistance campaigns. The findings support claims that civil-military grand bargains make nonviolent resistance in autocracies more likely, contributing to scholarship on this vital topic.