A Force Multiplier Effect in Civil Resistance

This paper seeks to identify and problematize what we call a force multiplier effect in which astute tactical choices by a civil resistance movement enhance popular participation in its activities while an increase in participation promotes further expansion of tactics. We consider three successful nonviolent movements and campaigns to illustrate it: Polish Solidarity, the boycott of the Port Elizabeth businesses by the anti-apartheid resisters in the mid-1980s and the Egyptian nonviolent resistance that forced President Mubarak to resign. The paper does not aim at offering a generalizable finding about the presence or absence of a force multiplier effect in other successful or failed campaigns or movements. Instead, the goal is to offer a unique conceptual perspective on the interactions between nonviolent tactics and participation that we observed in the selected case studies in the hope of stimulating further research on the idea of ‘a force multiplier.’