The record of civil movements in the last one hundred years

A civil movement is a form of resistance in which unarmed citizens use methods such as strikes, protests, demonstrations, civil disobedience, or sanctions to achieve their goals. Unlike violent or armed movements, civil movements do not inflict physical harm on their opponents. In his recent book, Civic Movements, Dr. Erica Chenowat, a professor of political science at Harvard University, assesses the record of civic movements over the past hundred years. His research, summarized in this book, shows that the most effective method for political and social change is the movement or civil resistance. In particular, he has compared the impact of civil movements with violent movements in the last hundred years. His research shows that in 627 movements from 1900 to 2016, the success rate of the civil movement was twice as high as that of the violent movements. Especially in the last 50 years, the rate of civil movements and their success has increased compared to violent movements. The important question he is looking for is the cause of this phenomenon. The main cause of this phenomenon is the power of the people. His studies show that no civic movement in which at least 3.5% of the population has participated has failed. The level of popular participation in civil movements has been four times that of violent or armed movements. Interestingly, popular participation in civic movements has been accompanied by the cooperation of a wider range of people in society in terms of gender, age, gender, race, and differences in political and social perspectives. Another interesting point of this book is that civil movements have been far more successful in establishing peace and democracy than violent movements. Civil movements have greatly reduced the likelihood of civil war compared to violent movements. This book shows that the success of civic movements depends on four main factors. The first is the number of people participating in the movement. Civic movements have been associated with the cooperation of a wide range of people in terms of age, gender, ethnicity and social and political differences. These differences have led to the social power of the movement, which has led to a decline in members of the opposition and the ruling class, especially the security forces. For example, in the Iranian revolution or the civil movement in Serbia, many security forces refused to carry out superior orders to shoot at people, because they saw their families and children among the people, and this is the second factor in the success of civil movements. Opposition group members. The third factor is initiative in methods of struggle. Due to differences in individuals in the civic movement, these movements need initiative to succeed. For example, daily demonstrations alone are not effective. Initiatives such as civil disobedience or economic boycotts have contributed to the success of civil movements. The fourth factor is order and schedule. Civic movements that have been loyal to their cause despite numerous challenges and have persevered and focused on new solutions over the course of their resistance have been more successful. But any movement, despite having all four factors, also needs to be organized and led to success.

Dr. Reza Saidi Firoozabadi – Transplant Surgeon