36 THENEWYORKER,NOVEMBER23, 2020
ANNALSOFACTIVISM
THE ANTI-COUP
Strategic nonviolent conflict has led to democratic reforms around the world. Can it work here?BY ANDREW MARANTZ
A
bout a week before Election
Day, Erica Chenoweth, the Bert
hold Beitz Professor in Human
Rights and International Affairs at the
Harvard Kennedy School, hosted an im
promptu Zoom meeting for students,
alumni, and colleagues—a freeform con
versation in which people could ask ques
tions, express anxieties, and try to gauge,
from a comparativepolitics perspective,
whether the United States was totally
screwed or just moderately screwed. As
rectangles on the Zoom grid flickered
to life, Chenoweth played “Freedom,”
by Beyoncé (“I break chains all by my
self/Won’t let my freedom rot in Hell”).
Chenoweth is an expert in civil resis
tance, a term that Chenoweth uses in
terchangeably with “nonviolent mass ac
tion,” or “strategic nonviolent conflict,”
or “unarmed insurrection.” Most politi
cal scientists study how political institu
tions work; Chenoweth and other schol
ars of civil resistance study what happens
when mainstream political institutions
break down and the people rise up.
Eventually, three dozen participants
joined the Zoom, some from the Bos
ton area and others from the pandemic
diaspora—Nashville; Tunis; Kenosha,
Wisconsin. The song ended, and Cheno
weth, who speaks methodically and
calmly about even the least calming sub
jects, walked through a few potential
postelection scenarios. “The ideal, ob
viously, is that there’s a clear result that
is quickly and widely accepted,” Cheno
weth said. But what if President Trump
were to declare victory prematurely?
What if his Administration were to flood
the courts with specious lawsuits, at
tempting to slow or stop the vote count
in various states? What if the results were
undeniable, but Trump loyalists—in the
legislature, in the media, on the streets—
refused to accept them?
In the event of any major violation,
most people would be inclined to keep
refreshing their news feeds, waiting fret
fully for those in charge to decide what
should happen next. Chenoweth argued
that such a situation would require more
than passive vigilance: “Regular people
should know that there are steps they
can take to uphold democracy.” This is
a core tenet of civilresistance theory,
also known as people power—that cit
izens, working in concert, have more
agency than they are led to believe.
In the past fifteen years, there has
been a marked global increase in what
internationalrelations scholars call “dem
ocratic backsliding,” with more author
itarians and authoritarianstyle leaders
consolidating power. “There’s no one
moment when a country crosses from a
democracy into an autocracy,” Cheno
weth told me in October. “The norms
and institutions can grow weaker over
years, or decades, without people notic
ing. But there are sometimes decisive
moments of contestation and confusion,
and wouldbe authoritarians can stoke
and exploit that confusion.” Some land
marks are more obviously fraught than
others. In the runup to the election,
Trump’s opponents constantly said that
democracy was on the ballot—a parti
san cliché that also happened to be true.
Trump spent the past four years foment
ing racism, spewing lies, and praising
dictators around the world; in the weeks
before the Zoom, he announced repeat
edly that he would not accept an unfa
vorable election result, and that he had
no particular allegiance to the American
tradition of a peaceful transfer of power.
On several occasions, he issued veiled
threats of violence; during his first de
bate with Joe Biden, for example, he ap
peared to instruct loyalist street thugs to
“stand back and stand by.” Chenoweth
told me, “There’s never been any real
justification for the American exception
alist myth that it can’t happen here. What
we’ve seen from Trump is straight out of
the authoritarian playbook.” Not only can
it happen here, Chenoweth continued; ifit did, “this is what it would look like.”
Chenoweth is forty, with a spiky
hairdo and a gaptoothed smile. On
Chenoweth’s Web site, along with the
usual links to syllabuses and recent op
eds, are several warmly written form let
ters offering advice on such topics as how
to take care of yourself during your first
year of graduate school—the sign of a
public intellectual who is inclined to give
thoughtful counsel to anyone who asks,
but who long ago lost the battle with
their overflowing inbox. (Another piece
of information on the site: “I am pretty
indifferent to pronouns and don’t strongly
identify with any of them. If pressed, I
prefer being called by my name or they/
them.”) The most poignant form letter
is written in response to almost daily re
quests from activists all over the world.
“It is my current practice not to offer
advice or guidance to people involved
in ongoing conflicts outside of my own
country,” the letter reads. “If you are deal
ing with a seemingly impossible situa
tion...by using peaceful methods to
struggle for rights, security, and access,
know that your bravery and persistence
inspire me and the countless others who
are watching.” In “Civil Resistance: What
Everyone Needs to Know,” which will
be published early next year by Oxford
University Press, Chenoweth writes that
“nonviolent revolutions have indeed cre
ated major societal breakthroughs,” but
that “there are still many people around
the world who have not yet been exposed
to these ideas or who remain more sym
pathetic to violent alternatives—and, as
a result, default to apathy or to violence
as their only options.”
During the previous decade, Cheno
weth has written, they have “evolved from
being a detached skeptic of civil resis
tance to becoming an invested partici
pant in nonviolent movements at home,”
including “antiracism campaigns, the
movement for immigrant rights, the sanc
tuary movement, the climate movement,