The Politics of Nonviolent Action (1973)

The Politics of Nonviolent Action is a three-volume political science book by Gene Sharp, originally published in the United States in 1973. Sharp is one of the most influential theoreticians of nonviolent action, and his publications have been influential in movements around the world. This book contains his foundational analyses of the nature of political power, and of the methods and dynamics of nonviolent action. It represents a "thorough revision and rewriting" of the author's 1968 doctoral thesis at Oxford University. The book has been reviewed in professional journals and newspapers, and is mentioned on many contemporary websites. It has been fully translated into Italian and partially translated into several other languages.

Topics covered

The three volumes or "parts" of The Politics of Nonviolent Action contain a total of 14 chapters, as well as a preface by the author, and an introduction by Thomas C. Schelling. Each part begins with an introduction by the author. The first volume or "part" addresses the theory of power that implicitly or explicitly underlies nonviolent action; Volume 2 offers a detailed analysis of the methods of nonviolent action; and the Volume 3 analyzes the dynamics of nonviolent action.

Part One: Power and Struggle

Chapter 1, The Nature and Control of Political Power, explains that, although rarely articulated, there are "basically... two views of the nature of power." The "monolith theory" views people as dependent upon the good will of their governments, whereas nonviolent action is grounded in the converse "pluralistic-dependency theory" that views government as "dependent on the people's good will, decisions and support," a view that Sharp argues is "sounder and more accurate." Sharp argues that "political power is not intrinsic to the power-holder," but flows from outside sources that include perceptions of authority, available human resources; skills and knowledge; material resources; and intangible psychological and ideological factors. These sources all depend upon obedience, which arises for "various and multiple" reasons that include habit, fear of sanctions, perceived moral obligation, psychological identification with the ruler, zones of indifference, and absence of self-confidence among subjects. Obedience is essentially voluntary, and consent can be withdrawn.

Next, Nonviolent Action: An Active Technique of Struggle (chapter 2) explains that nonviolent action may be used for a diverse mixture of motives that are religious, ethical, moral, or based on expediency. "Passivity, submission, cowardice [have] nothing to do with the nonviolent technique," which is correctly understood as "one type of active response." Nonviolence has suffered scholarly neglect. Nonviolence may involve both acts of omission and acts of commission, does not rely solely on persuading the opponent, and "does not depend on the assumption that man is inherently 'good'." These and other characteristics of nonviolence are explained and illustrates through examples from ancient Rome, colonial United States, Tsarist Russia, Soviet Russia, Nazi Germany, Latin America, India, Czeschoslavakia, and the Southern United States.

Part Two: The Methods of Nonviolent Action

Volume 2 (chapters 3 to 8) contains a detailed listing and description of specific methods of nonviolent action, such as boycotts, strikes, and sit-ins. Such a listing, Sharp says, "may assist actionists in the selection of methods most appropriate for use in a particular situation... [or] give researchers and persons evaluating the political potentialities of the nonviolent technique a greater grasp of its armory of methods of struggle." A total of 198 methods are listed in the table of contents, and Sharp groups them into three broad categories, protest and persuasion (ch. 3), noncooperation (chs. 4-7), and intervention (ch. 8), in terms of how they relate to the dynamics of nonviolent action (Vol. 3). These categories "ought not to be regarded as rigid, but simply as generally valid." The methods are summarized in the adjacent table.

Part Three: The Dynamics of Nonviolent Action

The third volume focuses on the dynamics of nonviolent action, which always "involves continuous change in the various influences and forces which operate in that process and are constantly influencing each other. No discussion in static terms... can be valid." It opens with Chapter 9, Laying the Groundwork for Nonviolent Action, with subsections addressing such issues as casting off fear, the social sources of power changes, leadership needs, openness and secrecy, investigation, negotiations, generating "cause-consciousness." It also describes key elements of nonviolent strategy and tactics, pertaining to issues such as initiative, timing, numbers and strength, psychological elements, application of an Indirect approach, the choice of weapons (as described in Vol. 2), and the issuance of an ultimatum.

Chapter 10 describes how the onset of nonviolent action is likely to bring various types of oppression, and reviews examples and approaches for withstanding increasing repression, which is imperative, because "without willingness to face repression... the nonviolent action movement cannot hope to succeed." Chapter 11 describes methods for maintaining the nonviolent group's solidarity, such as "Maintaining rapport" through regular mass meetings. Chapter 11 also extensively analyzes the threats against and needs for ongoing adherence to nonviolent discipline, "in order to bring into operation the changes that will alter relationships and achieve [the] objectives," even as "the opponent... tries to provoke them to commit violence - with which he could deal more effectively."

Chapter 12 covers "political jiu-jitsu... one of the special processes by which nonviolent action deals with violent repression." More specifically: