From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for LiberationA serious introduction to the use of nonviolent action to topple dictatorships. Based on the author's study, over a period of forty years, on non-violent methods of demonstration, it was originally published in 1993 in Thailand for distribution among Burmese dissidents. |
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achieving freedom Albert Einstein Institution applied assess assistance basic boycott brutalities campaign strategies casualties chosen grand strategy collapse contribute cooperation coup d'état course cratic defiance strategists demo democracy democratic forces democratic resistance democratic system democratizing effect determine developed dictators economic establish Freedom House Gene Sharp goal guerrilla warfare hunger strike implement important initial issues leaders liberation struggle limited Liu Ji long-term struggle Manerplaw means of struggle mechanisms of change methods of nonviolent military forces mobilize monkey movement negotiations nomic noncooperation and defiance nonviolent action nonviolent discipline nonviolent resisters obedience one's operate opponents oppressed participate particular persons and groups planners will need police popular population possible power relationships powerful internal Refusal regime regime's relative repression resis Robert Helvey selective resistance social society sources of power strategic objectives strategic planning strategists will need strike success symbolic tance tion tive torship translator violent weakened weaknesses
Popular passages
Page 8 - If you refuse to pay unjust rents, if you refuse to take farms from which others have been evicted, the land question must be settled, and settled in a way that will be satisfying to you.
Page 69 - Records, radio, and television 12. Skywriting and earthwriting Group Representations 13. Deputations 14. Mock awards 15. Group lobbying 16. Picketing 17. Mock elections Symbolic Public Acts 18. Displays of flags and symbolic colors 19. Wearing of symbols 20. Prayer and worship 21. Delivering symbolic objects 22.
Page 18 - Such a tactic leaves the burden on the authorities to try to return the situation to the previous condition; if they fail, a piece of the new society has been planted. Machiavelli long ago noted the impossible position of a government which sees the people's compliance dissolve; he said that the prince "who has the public as a whole for his enemy can never make himself secure; and the greater his cruelty, the weaker does his regime become.
Page 18 - These considerations apply to totalitarianism as they apply to all types of government, but in their application to totalitarianism they again suggest a paradox. Totalitarian power is strong only if it does not have to be used too often. If totalitarian power must be used at all times against the entire population, it is unlikely to remain powerful for long. Since totalitarian regimes require more power for dealing with their subjects than do other types of government, such regimes stand in greater...
Page 74 - Boycott of government-supported organizations. (129) Refusal of assistance to enforcement agents. (130) Removal of own signs and placemarks. (131) Refusal to accept appointed officials. (132) Refusal to dissolve existing institutions. Citizens' alternatives to obedience: (133) Reluctant and slow compliance. (134) Nonobedience in absence of direct supervision. (135) Popular nonobedience. (136) Disguised disobedience. (137) Refusal of an assemblage or meeting to disperse. (138) Sitdown. (139) Noncooperation...
Page 26 - As noted earlier, all governments can rule only as long as they receive replenishment of the needed sources of their power from the cooperation, submission, and obedience of the population and the institutions of the society.
Page 30 - Far more often, nonviolent struggle operates by changing the conflict situation and the society so that the opponents simply cannot do as they like. It is this change that produces the other three mechanisms: accommodation, nonviolent coercion, and disintegration.
Page 64 - If both legitimacy and cooperation are denied, the coup may die of political starvation and the chance to build a democratic society restored.
Page 45 - Gene Sharp, The Politics of Nonviolent Action (Boston, MA: Porter Sargent, 1973) and Peter Ackerman and Christopher Kruegler, Strategic Nonviolent Conflict (Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 1994).