From Dictatorship to Democracy Quotes

“Dictators are not in the business of allowing elections that could remove them from their thrones.”
― Gene Sharp, From Dictatorship to Democracy

“The fall of one regime does not bring in a utopia. Rather, it opens the way for hard work and long efforts to build more just social, economic,and political relationships and the eradication of other forms of injustices and oppression.”
― Gene Sharp, From Dictatorship to Democracy

“By placing confidence in violent means, one has chosen the very type of struggle with which the oppressors nearly always have superiority.”
― Gene Sharp, From Dictatorship to Democracy

“The degree of liberty or tyranny in any government is in large degree a reflection of the relative determination of the subjects to be free and their willingness and ability to resist efforts to enslave them.”
― Gene Sharp, From Dictatorship to Democracy

“Some foreign states will act against a dictatorship only to gain their own economic, political, or military control over the country.”
― Gene Sharp, From Dictatorship to Democracy

“Dictatorships usually exist primarily because of the internal power distribution in the home country. The population and society are too weak to cause the dictatorship serious problems, wealth and power are concentrated in too few hands. Although dictatorships may benefit from or be somewhat weakened by international actions, their continuation is dependent primarily on internal factors.”
― Gene Sharp, From Dictatorship to Democracy

“Liberation from dictatorships ultimately depends on the people's ability to liberate themselves.”
― Gene Sharp, From Dictatorship to Democracy

“The foreign states may become actively involved for positive purposes only if and when the internal resistance movement has already begun shaking the dictatorship, having thereby focused international attention on the brutal nature of the regime.”
― Gene Sharp, From Dictatorship to Democracy

“Whatever promises offered by dictators in any negotiated settlement, no one should ever forget that the dictators may promise anything to secure submission from their democratic opponents, and then brazenly violate those same agreements.”
― Gene Sharp, From Dictatorship to Democracy

“Nonviolent struggle both requires and tends to produce a loss (or greater control) of fear of the government and its violent repression. That abandonment or control of fear is a key element in destroying the power of the dictators over the general population.”
― Gene Sharp, From Dictatorship to Democracy

“The maintenance of high standards of behavior in nonviolent action is necessary at all stages of the conflict.”
― Gene Sharp, From Dictatorship to Democracy

“Further, democratic negotiators, or foreign negotiation specialists accepted to assist in the negotiations, may in a single stroke provide the dictators with the domestic and international legitimacy that they had been previously denied because of their seizure of the state, human rights violations, and brutalities. Without that desperately needed legitimacy, the dictators cannot continue to rule indefinitely.”
― Gene Sharp, From Dictatorship to Democracy

“لا يعني إنتهاء نظام ديكتاتوري أن جميع المشكلات التي خلفها ستنتهي، فسقوط نظام معين لا يخلق المدينة الفاضلة، بل يفتح المجال أمام عهود طويلة لبناء علاقات ءإجتماعية وإقتصادية وسياسية عادلة ويهيى للقضاء على أشكال الظلم والإضطهاد الأخرى. لقد استطاع تحدي الشعوب الذي تميز في الغالب باللا عنف منذ عام 1980 إسقاط الأنظمة الديكتاتورية في استونيا ولاتفيا وليتوانيا وبولندا وألمانيا الشرقية وتشيكوسلوفاكيا وسلوفينيا ومدغشقر ومالي وبوليفيا والفلبين، لكن من المؤكد إن إنهيار الأنظمة الديكتاتورية لم يحل جميع المشكلات الأخرى في هذه المجتمعات كالفقر والجريمة وعدم الفعالية البيروقراطية وتخريب البيئة فذلك ما تورثه الأنظمة القمعية. لكن سقوط هذه الأنظمة الديكتاتورية كان له الحد الأدنى من تخفيف معاناة ضحايا القمع وفتح الطريق أمام إعادة بناء هذه المجتمعات بوجود عدالة إجتماعية وحريات سياسية وديمقراطية وشخصية”
― Gene Sharp, From Dictatorship to Democracy

“Resistance, not negotiations, is essential for change in conflicts where fundamental issues are at stake. In nearly all cases, resistance must continue to drive dictators out of power. Success is most often determined not by negotiating a settlement but through the wise use of the most appropriate and powerful means of resistance available. It is our contention, to be explored later in more detail, that political defiance, or nonviolent struggle, is the most powerful means available to those struggling for freedom.”
― Gene Sharp, From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation

“In nearly all cases, resistance must continue to drive dictators out of power. Success is most often determined not by negotiating a settlement but through the wise use of the most appropriate and powerful means of resistance available. It”
― Gene Sharp, From Dictatorship to Democracy

“It is our contention, to be explored later in more detail, that political defiance, or nonviolent struggle, is the most powerful means available to those struggling for freedom.”
― Gene Sharp, From Dictatorship to Democracy

“In some cases, however, limited violence against the dictatorship may be inevitable. Frustration and hatred of the regime may explode into violence. Or, certain groups may be unwilling to abandon violent means even though they recognize the important role of nonviolent struggle. In these cases, political defiance does not need to be abandoned. However, it will be necessary to separate the violent action as far as possible from the nonviolent action. This should be done in terms of geography, population groups, timing, and issues. Otherwise the violence could have a disastrous effect on the potentially much more powerful and successful use of political defiance.”
― Gene Sharp, From Dictatorship to Democracy

“Three of the most important factors in determining to what degree a government’s power will be controlled or uncontrolled therefore are: (1) the relative desire of the populace to impose limits on the government’s power; (2) the relative strength of the subjects’ independent organizations and institutions to withdraw collectively the sources of power; and (3) the population’s relative ability to withhold their consent and assistance.”
― Gene Sharp, From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation

“For example, disciplined courageous nonviolent resistance in face of the dictators’ brutalities may induce unease, disaffection, unreliability, and in extreme situations even mutiny among the dictators’ own soldiers and population.”
― Gene Sharp, From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation

“The old preconception that violent means always work quickly and nonviolent means always require vast time is clearly not valid. Although much time may be required for changes in the underlying situation and society, the actual fight against a dictatorship sometimes occurs relatively quickly by nonviolent struggle.”
― Gene Sharp, From Dictatorship to Democracy

“Dictators require the assistance of the people they rule, without which they cannot secure and maintain the sources of political power. These”
― Gene Sharp, From Dictatorship to Democracy

“A country’s finances, natural resources, and production capacities are often arbitrarily plundered by dictators and used to support the dictators’ will.”
― Gene Sharp, From Dictatorship to Democracy

“The common error of past improvised political defiance campaigns is the reliance on only one or two methods, such as strikes and mass demonstrations. In fact, a multitude of methods exist that allow resistance strategists to concentrate and disperse resistance as required.”
― Gene Sharp, From Dictatorship to Democracy

“The development of a responsible and effective strategic plan for a nonviolent struggle depends upon the careful formulation and selection of the grand strategy, strategies, tactics, and methods.”
― Gene Sharp, From Dictatorship to Democracy

“Some individuals and groups, of course, may not see the need for broad long-term planning of a liberation movement. Instead, they may naïvely think that if they simply espouse their goal strongly, firmly, and long enough, it will somehow come to pass. Others assume that if they simply live and witness according to their principles and ideals in face of difficulties, they are doing all they can to implement them. The espousal of humane goals and loyalty to ideals are admirable, but are grossly inadequate to end a dictatorship and to achieve freedom.”
― Gene Sharp, From Dictatorship to Democracy

“Just as military officers must understand force structures, tactics, logistics, munitions, the effects of geography, and the like in order to plot military strategy, political defiance planners must understand the nature and strategic principles of nonviolent struggle.”
― Gene Sharp, From Dictatorship to Democracy

“If, despite repression, the sources of power can be restricted or severed for enough time, the initial results may be uncertainty and confusion within the dictatorship. That is likely to be followed by a clear weakening of the power of the dictatorship. Over time, the withholding of the sources of power can produce the paralysis and impotence of the regime, and in severe cases, its disintegration. The dictators’ power will die, slowly or rapidly, from political starvation.”
― Gene Sharp, From Dictatorship to Democracy

“It should be remembered that against a dictatorship the objective of the grand strategy is not simply to bring down the dictators but to install a democratic system and make the rise of a new dictatorship impossible. To accomplish these objectives, the chosen means of struggle will need to contribute to a change in the distribution of effective power in the society. Under the dictatorship the population and civil institutions of the society have been too weak, and the government too strong. Without a change in the imbalance, a new set of rulers can, if they wish, be just as dictatorial as the old ones. A 'palace revolution' or a coup d'etat therefore is not welcome.”
― Gene Sharp, From Dictatorship to Democracy

“The conclusion is a hard one. When one wants to bring down a dictatorship most effectively and with the least cost then one has four immediate tasks: • One must strengthen the oppressed population themselves in their determination, self-confidence, and resistance skills; • One must strengthen the independent social groups and institutions of the oppressed people; • One must create a powerful internal resistance force; and • One must develop a wise grand strategic plan for liberation and implement it skillfully.”
― Gene Sharp, From Dictatorship to Democracy

“It must be remembered that some groups will ignore any constitutional provision in their aim to establish themselves as new dictators. Therefore, a permanent role will exist for the population to apply political defiance and noncooperation against would-be dictators and to preserve democratic structures, rights, and procedures.”
― Gene Sharp, From Dictatorship to Democracy