Accounting for Numbers: Group Characteristics and the Choice of Violent and Nonviolent Tactics

Movement attributes shape the relative effectiveness of violent and nonviolent tactics. We show how nonviolent tactics can be relatively more effective when a movement can mobilize more active participants than with violence. A nonviolent mobilization advantage requires a large potential audience; movements with limited mobilization potential can have feasible prospects for violent dissent and a nonviolent mobilization disadvantage. We examine the implications of the model against empirical data for different types of dissident tactics and on resort to nonviolent and nonviolent dissent. We demonstrate very different actor profiles in nonviolent dissent and violent conflict, and the two types of dissent are more likely under distinct settings. Although tactics reflect choices, movement attributes and constraints will tend to give a comparative advantage to one over the other. Movement characteristics thus fundamentally guide choices in dissent, and this has important implications for assessing the impact of different types of dissent and likely outcomes.