Resisting Authoritarianism

History and Practice of Nonviolent Resistance

Erica Chenoweth

Political scientist Erica Chenoweth unpacks what makes a successful movement against authoritarianism, and how nonviolent resistance can be used to uphold democracy.

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Civil Resistance: What Everyone Needs to Know

Erica Chenoweth, a political scientist at Harvard University, explains that civil resistance is a nonviolent strategy where ordinary people coordinate to demand and protect democracy.

Successful movements typically rely on four key factors:

Mass Participation & Momentum: Broad-based, active involvement (often referred to with the "3.5% rule") helps build pressure and legitimacy.
Loyalty Shifts: Civil resistance works when it causes key supporters of a regime (e.g., military, business elites) to defect or withdraw support.
Resilience Under Repression: Movements must stay organized and peaceful, even when facing crackdowns, using tactics like the "backfire effect" to turn repression against the regime.
Innovation in Tactics: Successful campaigns go beyond protests, using strikes, boycotts, and other forms of noncooperation to sustain pressure.

Chenoweth emphasizes that nonviolence is inclusive and more likely to succeed because it allows widespread participation.

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AI & Democratic Freedoms

Knight First Amendment Institute Conference

This conference addressed "Generative AI, Free Speech, & Public Discourse." Recorded presentations are available online.

Chenoweth keynote

GOP Budget Bill Will Make ICE "Largest Federal Law Enforcement Agency in the History of the Nation"

Democracy Now

This bill provides a whopping $170 billion to transform immigration enforcement and detention. This includes $45 billion for new detention jails. That's 265% more than the current ICE detention budget and more than the budget of the federal prison system. ICE's enforcement budget would increase by $30 billion, a threefold increase, and there's some $46 billion for border walls and more.

American Immigration Council calls the bill, quote, "the largest investment in detention and deportation in US history; a policy choice that does nothing to address the systemic failures of our immigration system while inflicting harm, sowing chaos, and tearing families apart"...

The administration is targeting immigrants as a "gateway,"opening the door into violating the rights of anyone they choose to. They're banking on citizens not paying attention if "only" immigrants are affected.

But this $170 billion is to fund a private army that answers only to Trump, and it would be the third largest military force on Earth, after the U.S. and Russia. For perspective, the FBI has a budget of $10 billion

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Nonviolent Action Lab

Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation

"Nonviolent resistance movements defended democratic values and institutions throughout the 20th century and into the 21st. However, the trend seems to have shifted. Over the past decade, authoritarian backsliding has occurred across the globe, and mass movements demanding democracy have been defeated in about 90% of cases since 2010.

"The Nonviolent Action Lab is an innovation hub for research on advancing democracy worldwide through civil resistance. The Lab produces and disseminates up-to-date knowledge on nonviolent action, how it works, global trends in success and failure, trends in political violence and state repression, and analysis of these trends."

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American Spring? How nonviolent protest in the US is accelerating

an article from their research

"Contrary to conventional wisdom, the size and scale of anti-Trump protests this year have dwarfed those in 2017, and they have been extraordinarily peaceful."

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Organizations & Resources

Know Your Rights, Rapid Response, Resist

We are learning together how to protect our neighbors. We welcome your thoughts.