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The Politics of Nonviolent Action #1
Power and Struggle (Politics of Nonviolent Action, Part 1) by Gene Sharp (1973) Paperback
A rigorous analysis of political power, demonstrating that it derives from sources in the society. Even the power of dictators can be destroyed by withdrawal of necessary sources of cooperation. With an introduction to the technique of nonviolent action, its characteristics, history and achievements.
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First published January 1, 1973
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
November 21, 2015
أقل ما يقال عن التنظير على شعب تحت احتلال وتوجيهه لاختيار طريقة معينة في "الكفاح" بأنها وقاحة!
طورت لجان المقاومة الشعبيه الفلسطينية منهج كفاح لا عنف يفتخر به في السنوات الماضيه ، نتائجه مرحلية . جذب التعاطف وهذه النتائج لن تحرر بلادا وهذا امر واقع!
يسترسل بأنه ليس ذو خلفية معرفية متماسكة عن الوضع في الجانب الفلسطيني لكنه يظن بأن تجارب شعوب أخرى قد تنجح مع شعبنا. ويتوغل في الوقاحة بأن الكفاح الفلسطيني اللاعنيف سيكون مفيدا للشعب "الاسرائيلي" الذي سيحظى اخيرا بمجتمعه المثالي ويتخلص من عبء احتلال شعب اخر.
الشعب الفلسطيني كان رائدا في تجربة العصيان المدني في ثورة 36 لكن تجربة كفاح اللاعنف يجب ان تسير جنبا الى جنب مع الكفاح الثوري العنيف.
طورت لجان المقاومة الشعبيه الفلسطينية منهج كفاح لا عنف يفتخر به في السنوات الماضيه ، نتائجه مرحلية . جذب التعاطف وهذه النتائج لن تحرر بلادا وهذا امر واقع!
يسترسل بأنه ليس ذو خلفية معرفية متماسكة عن الوضع في الجانب الفلسطيني لكنه يظن بأن تجارب شعوب أخرى قد تنجح مع شعبنا. ويتوغل في الوقاحة بأن الكفاح الفلسطيني اللاعنيف سيكون مفيدا للشعب "الاسرائيلي" الذي سيحظى اخيرا بمجتمعه المثالي ويتخلص من عبء احتلال شعب اخر.
الشعب الفلسطيني كان رائدا في تجربة العصيان المدني في ثورة 36 لكن تجربة كفاح اللاعنف يجب ان تسير جنبا الى جنب مع الكفاح الثوري العنيف.
May 25, 2016
This is the first volume of Sharp's classic treatment of nonviolent resistance to power. Perhaps because it is a classic most of this brief volume seems familiar to me. Having read a lot of other work in the nonviolent resistance genre of dissident and radical thought, I am familiar with most of what he says. Sharp was the first to codify the scattered writings into a cohesive whole, which is precisely what makes it valuable. The brevity of the book (barely 100 pages) is to its advantage, as many people in repressed countries around the world have discovered to their delight. Anyway, it is good to have read this, and I will be working through volumes two and three in due course.
March 14, 2008
A foundational text in nonviolent direct action theory and practice, Gene Sharp's first volume develops a theoretical framework for successful nonviolent action, including a history of successful nonviolent tactics through the ages. The three-volume "Politics of Nonviolent Action" has been used as a textbook in countless social change movements, most recently in the successful nonviolent overthrow of the Serbian government and Slobodan Milosevic in 2000 by the student group Otpor.
July 20, 2013
Practical, focused, engagingly written, and refreshingly free from histrionics, this is the best book about how social movements actually happen that I've read. After squinting my way through a lot of obfuscating bullshit on similar subjects it's refreshing to find an emperor who's fully clothed. I definitely plan on reading the other volumes.
April 9, 2016
The topic is important and the bookis dry, but only because there is no attempt and no need to glorify and sensationalize the topic. An exellent history of non-violence in the later portion of this volume. The first volume presents the view that tyrants have as much power as the people give them. interesting.
Want to read
November 3, 2011You might want to read the other volumes too
October 2, 2017
This 1973 publication has been translated into many languages and served as a revolutionary manual for insurgencies around the world. It is very relevant to the current RESISTANCE movement in America. It shows that "peaceful demonstrations" and other acts of citizen resistance to state authority can be A FORM OF WARFARE. Public Resistance, implemented strategically through "Nonviolent Action," can and will undermine the capacity of government to rule. Examples from history are provided to illustrate the power of Resistance from THE BUREAUCRACY as well as from the general population. Reading these histories will alert us to the potential consequences of events we observe in our own day.
"Changes in the attitudes of ... citizens ... which result in withdrawal of obedience and cooperation can create extreme difficulties for the system (government). It can be disrupted or paralyzed. ...The sheer difficulties of maintaining the normal working of any political unit when its subjects are bent upon an attitude of defiance and acts of obstruction are sufficient to give any ruler cause for thought. Without the obedience, cooperation, assistance and submission of the subjects and agents, ... men claiming to be rulers would be 'rulers' without subjects, and therefore only 'objects of derision.'" (p.32)
"Changes in the attitudes of ... citizens ... which result in withdrawal of obedience and cooperation can create extreme difficulties for the system (government). It can be disrupted or paralyzed. ...The sheer difficulties of maintaining the normal working of any political unit when its subjects are bent upon an attitude of defiance and acts of obstruction are sufficient to give any ruler cause for thought. Without the obedience, cooperation, assistance and submission of the subjects and agents, ... men claiming to be rulers would be 'rulers' without subjects, and therefore only 'objects of derision.'" (p.32)
August 9, 2025
Have had this for decades & finally got around to reading it: impressively well-argued, articulated, & organized.
Features the key insight that most of political power requires obedience from others, people obey for many reasons (like lack of confidence), & to withdraw consent in an organized & large-scale way can be powerful. Gives specifics examples from history of this being done (like when provinces broke away from tsarist control & set up independent governments during the 1905 Russian Revolution). Also stresses that this is not a “nice” way to get things done, it is an “effective” way.
I look forward to reading more in the series, the topic is especially relevant today, & the documentary about the author is great too!
Features the key insight that most of political power requires obedience from others, people obey for many reasons (like lack of confidence), & to withdraw consent in an organized & large-scale way can be powerful. Gives specifics examples from history of this being done (like when provinces broke away from tsarist control & set up independent governments during the 1905 Russian Revolution). Also stresses that this is not a “nice” way to get things done, it is an “effective” way.
I look forward to reading more in the series, the topic is especially relevant today, & the documentary about the author is great too!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 6, 2019
Brilliant, methodical, and has an excellent bibliography.
I remember Eugene Genovese's description of nonviolent slave resistance in the Old South in his Roll, Jordan, Roll The World the Slaves Made. Sharp's work on nonviolent political action led me to a greater understand of this and other parts of history.
I remember Eugene Genovese's description of nonviolent slave resistance in the Old South in his Roll, Jordan, Roll The World the Slaves Made. Sharp's work on nonviolent political action led me to a greater understand of this and other parts of history.
April 16, 2021
It’s a shame that this book is not more widespread and sharpe’s analysis and work synthesizing the struggles together are really great for thinking through issues that we are facing right now in the United States. Highly recommend
September 29, 2023
Very interesting insight into the nature and planning of non-violent protests and the first part of the "handbook" for nonviolent action. Sometimes a bit repetitive.
Read
May 1, 2021Years ago, when I was in college in the 1980s, I got into a discussion with a friend about nonviolence. I said that war is sometimes necessary, for example to stop a great thundering juggernaut of evil, such as Hitler’s war machine. My friend said, oh no, nonviolence could always work, and I just needed to study more about the times nonviolence had worked in history. She gave me two books, this one and another one. As both were dry and textbooky-looking, I never read either one, but I never returned them, either, a source of lingering guilt. For years I was not sure where the books were, and now I have no idea where my college friend might be.
This past summer I have found myself thinking about nonviolence again, as Black Lives Matter protests ended with broken shop windows and fires. I understand the depth of people’s anger, but nonviolence seemed necessary, if only for the reason that even a single rock thrown gave the opposition cause to discredit the entire movement. But if there is no Dr King there to speak words of inspiration, and if the other side is sending saboteurs to incite violence on purpose, with the intention of discrediting the movement (a documented fact), then… how?
Then I was dusting a shelf, and there were the books. And now, 40 years later, we shall see what Mr. Gene Sharp has to say. First of all, this book, although short, looks intimidating, with its pages of notes, and references to Hume and Hobbes. But I found it surprisingly easy reading. There is one central point, which he makes over and over: power comes from the consent of the governed. Even if the leader is a dictator. The power of even a harsh and cruel ruler will crumble away if no one will do what he says.
You may say, yes, but that leader has guns. And prisons, and police. And Mr Sharp may say, but the leader is still dependent on workers to build and ship the guns, and dependent on a bureaucracy to carry out his orders, and if they do not, then the leader’s power is gone. In a discussion of a 1944 resistance against Jorge Ubico in Guatemala, the book says, in effect, what’s the dictator to do? Kill everyone in the country? He can kill a few here and a few there, but if he has to kill everyone who disagrees with him, then he has to leave.
Leaders know this, that they depend on the cooperation of the people, but they don’t think the people know that they have this power, and they are determined that the people not discover that they have this power, which is why leaders often crack down hard on any resistance, even if it is over a minor point, and if leaders do grant concessions, will often say they are doing it for some other reason, not because of the protest. (At this point I thought of the movie A Bug’s Life, where Flik tells the ants, in effect, “Why do you let the grasshoppers boss you around and take all our food? There’s more of us than there are of them.” In that movie, he leads the ants in a violent, not a non-violent rebellion, but the principle of the people holding a power they don’t recognize is the same.)
Other points: Nonviolent action has been used throughout history, many times successfully, but it has not been studied in the way war has. That is true. There are whole schools of military strategy, and have been for centuries, while many examples of nonviolent struggle go unremembered. Even when some people have led successful nonviolent campaigns, they have done so by making it up as they go along. While there have been successes in nonviolent action, imagine how much more successful it might be if people studied the techniques that had worked in the past.
Nonviolent action is not passively doing nothing. It is pointed action, just nonviolent. Its practitioners need to be organized, unified, strong, smart, and brave. They have to be willing to stand firm in the face of a backlash. (At this point I thought that in a nonviolent protest, some people are likely to die, but if you are having a violent rebellion, people are almost certain to die. People always die in a war. This insight is my own, not the author's. Sharp does say that there will be consequences, but stops short of saying that participating in nonviolent protest might get you killed.)
Most of this book is theory. At the end there are some examples of nonviolent action in history: The American colonies’ resistance to unpopular British laws and taxes, before the shooting of the American revolution started, Gandhi’s Salt March, the Norway teachers’ strike in WWII, the Montgomery bus boycott, and others.
But I am still left with questions. Most of my questions still boil down to the one question I began with: How? So, I have ordered Books Two and Three (which, if their titles are to be believed, address the question of how): The Methods of Nonviolent Struggle, and The Dynamics of Nonviolent Struggle. And we shall see.
This past summer I have found myself thinking about nonviolence again, as Black Lives Matter protests ended with broken shop windows and fires. I understand the depth of people’s anger, but nonviolence seemed necessary, if only for the reason that even a single rock thrown gave the opposition cause to discredit the entire movement. But if there is no Dr King there to speak words of inspiration, and if the other side is sending saboteurs to incite violence on purpose, with the intention of discrediting the movement (a documented fact), then… how?
Then I was dusting a shelf, and there were the books. And now, 40 years later, we shall see what Mr. Gene Sharp has to say. First of all, this book, although short, looks intimidating, with its pages of notes, and references to Hume and Hobbes. But I found it surprisingly easy reading. There is one central point, which he makes over and over: power comes from the consent of the governed. Even if the leader is a dictator. The power of even a harsh and cruel ruler will crumble away if no one will do what he says.
You may say, yes, but that leader has guns. And prisons, and police. And Mr Sharp may say, but the leader is still dependent on workers to build and ship the guns, and dependent on a bureaucracy to carry out his orders, and if they do not, then the leader’s power is gone. In a discussion of a 1944 resistance against Jorge Ubico in Guatemala, the book says, in effect, what’s the dictator to do? Kill everyone in the country? He can kill a few here and a few there, but if he has to kill everyone who disagrees with him, then he has to leave.
Leaders know this, that they depend on the cooperation of the people, but they don’t think the people know that they have this power, and they are determined that the people not discover that they have this power, which is why leaders often crack down hard on any resistance, even if it is over a minor point, and if leaders do grant concessions, will often say they are doing it for some other reason, not because of the protest. (At this point I thought of the movie A Bug’s Life, where Flik tells the ants, in effect, “Why do you let the grasshoppers boss you around and take all our food? There’s more of us than there are of them.” In that movie, he leads the ants in a violent, not a non-violent rebellion, but the principle of the people holding a power they don’t recognize is the same.)
Other points: Nonviolent action has been used throughout history, many times successfully, but it has not been studied in the way war has. That is true. There are whole schools of military strategy, and have been for centuries, while many examples of nonviolent struggle go unremembered. Even when some people have led successful nonviolent campaigns, they have done so by making it up as they go along. While there have been successes in nonviolent action, imagine how much more successful it might be if people studied the techniques that had worked in the past.
Nonviolent action is not passively doing nothing. It is pointed action, just nonviolent. Its practitioners need to be organized, unified, strong, smart, and brave. They have to be willing to stand firm in the face of a backlash. (At this point I thought that in a nonviolent protest, some people are likely to die, but if you are having a violent rebellion, people are almost certain to die. People always die in a war. This insight is my own, not the author's. Sharp does say that there will be consequences, but stops short of saying that participating in nonviolent protest might get you killed.)
Most of this book is theory. At the end there are some examples of nonviolent action in history: The American colonies’ resistance to unpopular British laws and taxes, before the shooting of the American revolution started, Gandhi’s Salt March, the Norway teachers’ strike in WWII, the Montgomery bus boycott, and others.
But I am still left with questions. Most of my questions still boil down to the one question I began with: How? So, I have ordered Books Two and Three (which, if their titles are to be believed, address the question of how): The Methods of Nonviolent Struggle, and The Dynamics of Nonviolent Struggle. And we shall see.
Read
June 12, 2008This series takes the "idealism" of using nonviolent action for social change and resolution of conflicts and lays out how to do it. It gives strategy. It give analysis. It gives examples the world over.
May 13, 2008
Sharp gives an interesting view and understanding on Non-violent action and behavior. It is helpful in understanding Gandhi and other non-voilent movements.
April 16, 2009
Obvious yet eye-opening. I'll probably read the other parts (Methods, Dynamics) soon.
May 22, 2016
insightful, wide-ranging -- and readable -- 3 volume exploration of nonviolent action, by one of the great thinkers on the subject
November 13, 2024
Did not finish. Clearing my plate for 2018.
April 19, 2017
Everyone should probably read this 3 part series once in their lifetime.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews