Markus Bayer

This article examines the important question of how far nonviolent resistance promotes peaceful and democratic political outcomes after the overthrow of  a dictatorial or authoritarian regime, as claimed in the nonviolence literature. The authors develop hypotheses about the likelihood of more egalitarian and peaceful relations at a governmental and party political level, and a greater political role for civil society, as a result of use of nonviolent resistance. These hypotheses are examined by comparing post-transition politics in Benin (an impressive example of successful nonviolent resistance) and Namibia (where in 1966 the South West African People's Organization began an armed struggle for independence from apartheid South Africa).

Nonviolent resistance is a mass phenomenon that can challenge corrupt and autocratic regimes.  This form of resistance and  its symbiotic relationship to cities is not at all new: the plebeians in the Roman Republic used this kind of struggle when they abandoned the city until their demands were met.  But how do modern cities as conflict spaces favour  nonviolent resistance?  The authors systematically analyse the relationship between the urban sphere and nonviolent resistance.