Every civil resistance movement can be understood as engaging in a contest with an adversary, whether that is a government or other institutional source of injustice or oppression. Movements may use tactics that deny their adversaries legitimacy and material resources, as well as reduce the loyalty of the adversary’s supporters. Conversely, a movement’s adversary may take actions to deny a movement legitimacy, material resources, or the loyalty of the movement’s supporters. Furthermore, like in any contest, there are certain risks inherent in one’s choice of strategy. In attempting to impose costs on the other, movements and their adversaries incur risks associated with their actions. In this webinar, Hardy Merriman frames civil resistance from the perspective of two kinds of costs–material/economic costs and political/legitimacy costs–that movements and their adversaries can impose on each other. It will also survey the risks associated with movements’ attempts to impose these costs on their adversaries.

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Hardy Merriman