Between Mao and Gandhi
The Social Roots of Civil Resistance

Asks why some dissident movements adopt nonviolent strategies of resistance, while others choose to take up arms.

Ches Thurber (Author)

9781108844062, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 30 September 2021

260 pages, 15 b/w illus. 10 tables
23.5 x 15.8 x 2 cm, 0.56 kg

'In Between Gandhi and Mao, Thurber takes on a critical question: if nonviolent resistance is more effective, why do many groups still choose armed warfare? Through careful analysis of revolutionary struggles in Nepal and Syria he reveals that movements can only successfully implement nonviolent strategies when there are sufficient social ties among various sectors of the population and the regime. Thurber's book is theoretically sophisticated, empirically rich, beautifully written, and sheds important light on revolutionaries' strategic decision-making processes. It marks an important advance by bridging the study of civil war and civil resistance.' Sharon Erickson Nepstad, Chair and Distinguished Professor of Sociology, University of New Mexico, and author of Nonviolent Struggle: Theories, Strategies, and Dynamics

From Eastern Europe to South Africa to the Arab Spring, nonviolent action has proven capable of overthrowing autocratic regimes and bringing about revolutionary political change. How do dissidents come to embrace a nonviolent strategy in the first place? Why do others rule it out in favor of taking up arms? Despite a new wave of attention to the effectiveness and global impact of nonviolent movements, our understanding of their origins and trajectories remains limited. Drawing on cases from Nepal, Syria, India and South Africa, as well as global cross-national data, this book details the processes through which challenger organizations come to embrace or reject civil resistance as a means of capturing state power. It develops a relational theory, showing how the social ties that underpin challenger organizations shape their ability and willingness to attempt regime change using nonviolent means alone.

1. Pathways to revolution
2. Social ties and civil resistance
3. Nepal's Gandhians take arms
4. Nepal's Maoists take to the streets
5. Syria in the Arab spring
6. Resisting colonial rule in the Syrian mandate
7. Barriers to civil resistance: a global analysis
8. Gandhi revisited: overcoming barriers to civil resistance in South Africa and India
9. Conclusion
Appendix: notes on field research in Nepal
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Political activism [JPW], Comparative politics [JPB], Sociology [JHB]