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Nonviolent Resistance and Democratic Consolidation pp 133–173Cite as

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Inching Towards Theory

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Abstract

This chapter connects and compares our results from previous chapters with recent research in comparative politics and transition research, social movement and contentious politics research, and resistance studies. It also discusses limitations and possible extensions of our research design. We call for further cross-pollination with related fields to advance our understanding of the path dependencies engendered by modes of transition. This entails distinguishing between the driver and the process of transition. To safeguard democratic gains, resistance movements should not content themselves with merely being the cause of transition. Instead, they should try to stay mobilized and exert influence on the transition process so as not to leave the design of democracy to elites.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    We checked several other possible mechanisms drawn from the more theoretical literature against evidence from our case studies and found no or only inconsistent support. However, this should be understood with the important caveat that case selection likely had a strong impact on these results. (Statistical analysis was not possible due to lack of suitable data.) These purported mechanisms include, first, that NVR inculcates a ‘culture of compromise’ among movements having to balance between different interests within the coalition. This culture was then supposed to carry over into democratic politics as former activists enter into politics (Chenoweth and Stephan 2011; Kinsman and Bassuener 2013). We found no evidence that such aspects of ‘political culture’ were in any way shaped by NVR. Second, it is often claimed that ‘veterans’ of the movement that are committed to democratic ideals go into politics and safeguard democracy from inside its institutions (Kadivar 2018). While there are certainly instances of that, they were mostly anecdotal for the cases we analysed. Third, Sharp (1973b) argued that people trained in techniques of NVR are more capable of preventing democratic backlash. It is true that our NVR cases showed instances of remobilization but these were typically not undertaken by former participants of NVR movements themselves but by a new generation of activists, casting doubt on the ‘training’ aspect of this explanation.

  2. 2.

    We used data on the effective number of parties in the first election after transition provided by V-DEM. On average, the effective number of parties is 3.1 with top-down transitions and 3.6 for both violent and nonviolent transitions.

  3. 3.

    Recent work by Thurber (2019) also suggests a possibility of reverse causality. He finds that the choice of strategy by resistance movements is influenced by their social ties to various communities in the state.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany

    Daniel Lambach

  2. Institute of Political Science, University of Duisburg-Essen, Duisburg, Germany

    Markus Bayer

  3. Peace Research Institute Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany

    Felix S. Bethke

  4. Flemish Peace Institute, Brussels, Belgium

    Matteo Dressler

  5. Conflict Transformation Research, Berghof Foundation Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Véronique Dudouet

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Lambach, D., Bayer, M., Bethke, F.S., Dressler, M., Dudouet, V. (2020). Inching Towards Theory. In: Nonviolent Resistance and Democratic Consolidation. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39371-7_5

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