Archiving Human Rights for Advocacy, Justice and Memory
Civil Resistance
Syndicate content

Blog: Civil Resistance, how does it work?

Philippe Duhamel's picture

Legitimacy tankPower flows from a transaction between the ruler and the ruled. If power were a liquid, it would find its source in the consent of the governed. Civil resistance is consent removed, striking at the core dynamics of power. Is this how civil resisters channel power for change?

Blog: Invest in Strategy

Philippe Duhamel's picture

strategy graphJust like riots, spontaneous acts of defiance and improvised strings of actions are mere brush fires: quickly ignited, quickly extinguished. When you’re always reacting, you end up disempowered.

Civil resistance is not magic. It may succeed, or it may fail. But don't leave it to chance.

Blog: So what exactly is civil resistance?

Philippe Duhamel's picture

graphWe offered a practical definition of nonviolent struggle earlier in this series. We now turn to "civil resistance", a term often used as a synonym of nonviolent action. Is there a difference between the two? Why use one over the other? Drawing from a new release on the subject, find out what the rationale is for using "civil resistance" as a term that covers most of the ground associated with nonviolent action, without some of its unwanted aura of ascetic faith or doctrine.