Civil Resistance: Emergence, Dynamics and Impact

Abstract

The main goal of this panel is to introduce a path-breaking scholarship on civil resistance to a larger ECPR community that began being discussed at the US-based conferences organized by the International Studies Association (2012-2013) and the American Sociological Studies (2013). As a relatively new field of academic inquiry civil resistance or nonviolent conflict has been hardly noticed by major political science-related disciplines until the publication of the award winning book "Why Civil Resistance Works. The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict" by Chenoweth and Stephan in 2011. For their study the authors developed the first ever systemic and replicable dataset of more than 100 nonviolent conflicts from 1900 to 2006 (NAVCO 1.0- Nonviolent and Violent Campaigns and Outcomes). Its updated version- NAVCO 2.0- was introduced in the special issue on civil resistance of the renowned Journal of Peace Research in May 2013. This panel and its proposed papers aim to analyze three crucial aspects of civil resistance studies while they consider a wide range of cases from around the world: 1. What accounts for the emergence of civil resistance? 2. What is the role of the strategic and tactical repertoires of civil resistance and how does it shape the trajectory of conflict? 3. What impact civil resistance can have in quelling ongoing violent strife, de-radicalizing violent groups and on longer-term processes of peace building, or gender emancipation? We believe the theme of this panel goes beyond the thematic scope of the existing conference sections. It will provide a unique perspective on conflict by emphasizing the agency of ordinary people and by explaining and problematizing their nonviolent mobilization, organizing, and actions under the conditions where rights are often denied and violence dominates. It will finally introduce to the ECPR community a new methodological tool of the NAVCO dataset: http://www.du.edu/korbel/sie/research/chenow_navco_data.html