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Civil Resistance and Power Politics: The Experience of Non-violent Action from Gandhi to the Present |
 (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2009) Language: English ISBN-10: 0199552010 ISBN-13: 978-0199552016 DESCRIPTION: Civil resistance--non-violent action against such challenges as dictatorial rule, racial discrimination and foreign military occupation--is a significant but inadequately understood feature of world politics. Especially through the peaceful revolutions of 1989, it has helped to shape the world we live in. Civil Resistance and Power Politics covers most of the leading cases, including the actions master-minded by Gandhi, the US civil rights struggle in the 1960s, the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979, the 'people power' revolt in the Philippines in the 1980s, the campaigns against apartheid in South Africa, the various movements contributing to the collapse of the Soviet Bloc in 1989-91, and, in this century, the 'colour revolutions' in Georgia and Ukraine. The chapters, written by leading experts, are richly descriptive and analytically rigorous. This book addresses the complex interrelationship between civil resistance and other dimensions of power. It explores the question of whether civil resistance should be seen as potentially replacing violence completely, or as a phenomenon that operates in conjunction with, and modification of, power politics. It looks at cases where campaigns were repressed, including China in 1989 and Burma in 2007. It notes that in several instances, including Northern Ireland, Kosovo and Georgia, civil resistance movements were followed by the outbreak of armed conflict. It also includes a chapter with new material from Russian archives showing how the Soviet leadership responded to civil resistance, and a comprehensive bibliographical essay. Illustrated throughout with a remarkable selection of photographs, this uniquely wide-ranging and path-breaking study is written in an accessible style and is intended for the general reader as well as for students of Modern History, Politics, Sociology and International Relations. REVIEWS: Review-article on Civil Resistance and Power Politics: David Wedgwood Benn, "On realpolitik and its limitations" (PDF) International Affairs, London, vol. 86, no. 5, September 2010, pp. 1191-97. TABLE OF CONTENTS: List of Illustrations List of Contributions List of Initial Questions 1. Introduction 2. People Power and Protest: The Literature on Civil Resistance in Historical Context by April Carter 3. Gandhi and Civil Resistance in India, 1917-47: Key Issues by Judith Brown 4. The US Civil Rights Movement: Power from Below and Above, 1945-70 by Doug McAdam 5. The Interplay of Non-violent and Violent Action in Northern Ireland, 1967-72 by Richard English 6. The Dialectics of Empire: Soviet Leaders and the Challenge of Civil Resistance in East-Central Europe, 1968-91 by Mark Kramer 7. Civil Resistance in Czechoslovakia: From Soviet Invasion to ‘Velvet Revolution’, 1968-89 by Kieran Williams 8. Towards ‘Self-limiting Revolution’: Poland, 1970-89 by Aleksander Smolar 9. Portugal: ‘The Revolution of the Carnations’, 1974-75 by Kenneth Maxwell 10. Mass Protests in the Iranian Revolution, 1977-79 by Ervand Abrahamian 11. ‘People Power’ in the Philippines, 1983-86 by Amado Mendoza Jr 12. Political Mass Mobilization against Authoritarian Rule: Pinochet’s Chile, 1983-88 by Carlos Huneeus 13. The Interplay of Non-violent and Violent Action in the Movement against Apartheid in South Africa, 1983-94 by Tom Lodge 14. The Intersection of Ethnic Nationalism and People Power Tactics in the Baltic States, 1987-91 by Mark R. Beissinger 15. The 1989 Demonstrations in Tiananmen Square and Beyond: Echoes of Gandhi by Merle Goldman 16. Civil Resistance and Civil Society: Lessons from the Collapse of the German Democratic Republic in 1989 by Charles S. Maier 17. The Limits of Prudence: Civil Resistance in Kosovo, 1990-98 by Howard Clark 18. Civil Society versus Slobodan Milosevic: Serbia, 1991-2000 by Ivan Vejvoda 19. Georgia’s ‘Rose Revolution’ of 2003: Enforcing Peaceful Change by Stephen Jones 20. Ukraine’s ‘Orange Revolution’ of 2004: The Paradoxes of Negotiation by Andrew Wilson 21. The Moment of the Monks: Burma, 2007 by Christina Fink 22. A Century of Civil Resistance: Some Lessons and Questions by Timothy Garton Ash Index |
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