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What Makes Protest Effective?

By Kevin Zeese - Posted on 21 August 2012

The New York Times had a series of writers describe what makes protest effective. The article below is the one that made the most sense. The others did not real 'get it' at least as protest applies to Occupy.

Creative Nonviolence Can Defeat Repression

Erica Chenoweth is an assistant professor at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver and a researcher at the Peace Research Institute of Oslo. She is the co-author of "Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict."

NY Times

August 20, 2012

Every repressive regime depends on various pillars of support — business elites, security forces, state media, educational elites and bureaucrats. When resistance campaigns impose significant costs on these groups, people begin to question their long-term interests.

But how can a regime’s opponents pull these pillars away from the central source of power?

Campaigns with substantial, diverse participation and shifting, resilient tactics can keep a regime off balance and, ultimately, topple it.

Mass participation is the first ingredient. The political scientist Mark Lichbach has suggested that when more than 5 percent of the population engages in sustained, coordinated civil disobedience, few governments — dictatorships or democracies — remain in power. Successful campaigns tend to have diverse participants, too. Campaigns composed solely of youth, urban intellectuals or a particular minority ethnic group, have little chance of making a difference. When large and diverse segments of society actively withdraw their support from the status quo, change appears inevitable — and forward-thinking elites come down with the flu and stay home from work.

Successful campaigns are also resilient. They alternate between higher-risk methods of concentration (protests, flash mobs, sit-ins, etc.) and lower-risk methods of dispersion (boycotts, stay-at-home demonstrations, go-slow demonstrations, etc.).

Finally, successful campaigns avoid using violence. Numerous historical cases reveal that vandalism, assassination or armed insurrection generally diminish participation. Moreover, violence tends to push regime functionaries closer together rather than pulling them apart. Elites who feel personally threatened by violent acts generally resolve to defeat the campaign.

Still, even when campaigns have wide participation, skillfully sequence their tactics and maintain nonviolent discipline, regimes can sow disunity.

In the end, whichever side divides and rules more effectively wins.

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What Makes Protest Effective?

Creative Nonviolence Can Defeat Repression

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