How Nonviolent Action Works: Evidence from Field Experiments in LATAM and Africa (Pre-Recorded)

• In Event: Advances in Conflict Processes

Abstract

What explains that some mass nonviolent movements are organizationally successful while others are disorganized, fragmented and violent when met with repression? Organizationally successful movements 1) engage in conflict analysis and strategic planning that informs their actions, 2) maintain nonviolent discipline, 3) exhibit tactical diversity, 4) build and strengthen crosscutting alliances, and 5) remain resilient to repression. In collaboration with the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), we conducted the first field experiments designed to causally identify the effects of capacity-building trainings on the organizational success of movements. In particular, we involved activists and peacebuilders from the pro-democracy movement in Nicaragua and Venezuela, and from various civic actors from Tunisia and Sudan seeking justice, peace and democracy in their communities, to receive a five-day training and subsequent mentorship in order to improve their capacity on the ground. We find that learning and being mentored in strategic nonviolent action and peacebuilding increased the capacity of the movements. The SNAP training increased activists and peacebuilders’ confidence in their ability to conduct strategic planning and made organizations more likely to do strategic planning and conflict analysis. The training also reduced the use, support, and promotion of violence during protests in Nicaragua, Venezuela and Sudan. It made cross-cutting alliances more likely to emerge in all research sites, but it did not increase the self- and group-efficacy of participants in general terms. We measure these outcomes through survey instruments, by tracking the online presence of organizations on Facebook and Twitter, as well as by analyzing daily media coverage of public actions.

Authors

• Consuelo Amat, Johns Hopkins University

• Jonathan Pinckney, United States Institute of Peace

• Sergio Miguel Cabrales Domínguez