1 - Pathways to Revolution

Summary

From Eastern Europe to South Africa to the Arab Spring, campaigns of civil resistance have proven capable of overthrowing regimes and bringing about revolutionary political change using primarily nonviolent tactics. Recent research has suggested that nonviolent campaigns are more likely to achieve their self-stated goals, to produce democratic outcomes, and to yield an enduring peace. But if nonviolent strategies are so effective, why do so many groups still choose to take up arms? This book aims to explain the crucial early-stage strategic choices made by challengers to state power seeking the political goal of regime-change. Drawing on multiple cases each from Nepal and Syria, as well as global cross-national data, it details the processes through which revolutionary organizations come to attempt or reject civil resistance as a means of capturing state power.The book illustrates how the social ties that link a challenger organization with broader society inform the challenger’s expectations about the viability of nonviolent tactics and consequently its strategic behavior.