Endorsing Repression: Nonviolent Movements and Regime Violence in Autocracies

This paper examines how autocracies legitimize the use of violent repression against nonviolent civil resistance movements. Literature on nonviolent resistance suggests that if movements are able to remain nonviolent then they are less likely to be repressed, and if repression does occur it is likely to backfire by outraging citizens and draining the regime of authority. Understanding the methods that autocracies use to endorse and justify the use of violence helps to clarify regime strategies to mitigate backfire, maintain a cohesive repressive apparatus, and ultimately insulate their rule from challenges. The paper finds that autocracies draw on regime ideologies while highlighting xenophobic tropes and a responsibility to protect public order. The paper situates three nonviolent movements in the cross-national literature on civil resistance before process tracing each in more detail: the 2007 Iranian ‘Green Movement’, the 2007 Burmese ‘Saffron Movement’, and the 1989 Tiananmen Square movement in China.