Protests and persuasion: Partisanships effect on evaluating nonviolent tactics in the United States
| Author | Sarah E Croco,Kathleen Gallagher Cunningham,Taylor Vincent |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/00223433221146577 |
| Published date | 01 January 2023 |
| Date | 01 January 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Regular Articles |
Protests and persuasion: Partisanships
effect on evaluating nonviolent tactics
in the United States
Sarah E Croco
Department of Government and Politics, University of Maryland
Kathleen Gallagher Cunningham
Department of Government and Politics, University of Maryland & Peace Research Institute Oslo
Taylor Vincent
Department of Government and Politics, University of Maryland
Abstract
How does the public respond to nonviolent resistance tactics? This survey experiment examines both approval and
perceptions of legitimacy for five nonviolent tactics using a sample of American adults. We include two variations in
our treatment – first examining responses to different protest tactics, then adding in the factor of co-partisanship,
which we argue is a relevant identity in the US political context. In the non-partisan treatments, we find a stark
dichotomy between our measures of approval and legitimacy. All nonviolent treatment tactics decrease approval for
the neutral activist group using them, but three of four tactic treatments increase the probability that respondents will
support our legitimacy indicators (congressional hearing invitation and media attention). We find that partisanship
conditions how respondents evaluate nonviolent tactics of resistance, but not in ways we would expect based on the
conventional wisdom that liberals favor ‘nonviolent resistance’ while conservatives do not. Partisan alignment has a
consistent effect on respondent approval of tactics in that the partisan treatment leads to disapproval of out-partisan
groups across the nonviolent tactics (compared to no mention of tactic or partisanship). Surprisingly, however, this
finding on co-partisanship does not extend to our measures of legitimacy. Partisanship clearly conditions the way that
respondents evaluate nonviolent tactics of resistance, but not necessarily in predictable ways.
Keywords
nonviolence, partisanship, public opinion
The United States is facing unprecedented levels of
activist mobilization, from Black Lives Matter supporters
and student-led gun control marches on the left to anti-
mask/anti-quarantine protests on the right. While scho-
lars of contentious politics have examined the use and
efficacy of opposition tactics (cf. Chenoweth & Stephan,
2011; Abrams, 2006; Thomas, 2014), relatively little
work has focused on how Americans view different types
of nonviolent tactics (Branton et al., 2015; Flynn &
Stewart, 2018; Arves et al., 2019; Gutting, 2020). What
tactics of contention do US citizens support? This
question is especially relevant today when 90% of voters
in the 2020 election say recent protests against police
violence played a role in their electoral choices.
1
Corresponding author:
kgcunnin@umd.edu
1
Voters say Black Lives Matter protests were important. They
disagree on why. Sabrina Tavernise & John Eligon. 7 Nov 2020.
Accessed 8 November 2020.
Journal of Peace Research
2023, Vol. 60(1) 26–41
ªThe Author(s) 2023
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/00223433221146577
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It is essential to understand which tactics citizens see
as valid and which they view as illegitimate. Citizen
mobilization typically has the goal of persuading others,
in addition to activating a base of supporters (Gamson,
1992; Klandermans, 1997; Benford & Snow, 2000;
Wasow, 2020; Feinberg, Willer & Kovacheff, 2020),
and social movements employing nonviolence play
a critical role in instigating social change (Lee, 2002;
Mazumder, 2018). We examine public opinion about
nonviolent tactics in America and emphasize how tactics,
moderated by their associated political ideology, drive
public opinion.
Moving beyond a general focus on ‘protest’ behavior,
which typically has meant many people in the street
demonstrating (Beissinger, 2002), we center on several
forms of nonviolent direct action. The tactics we exam-
ine here are informed by the literature on nonviolent
tactics (Sharp, 1973) and current events in the United
States including occupations, hunger strikes, strategic
arrests, and blockades. The Occupy Wall Street move-
ment is well known in recent US politics; however, this
tactic was also employed in the events of 6 January 2021,
as pro-Trump activists occupied Congress.
2
Hunger
strikes have also been used recently to protest treatment
of asylum-seekers by ICE.
3
Strategic arrest, where acti-
vists plan to be arrested, was used in 2019 by actress Jane
Fonda to protest climate change.
4
Additionally, an anon-
ymous group employed a blockade in 2021 protesting
environmental degradation caused by the oil industry.
5
Nonviolent resistance tactics have historically been
seen as aligned with left-wing causes around the globe
(Kostelka & Rovny, 2019). The past few decades,
however, have also seen an increasing use of nonviolent
tactics across the US political spectrum and by organiza-
tions and people on the right worldwide (Torcal, Rodon
& Hierro, 2016). In the United States, a number of
groups on the political right convened for the ‘Unite the
Right’ rally in 2016, and there were several land occu-
pations in Nevada and Oregon by self-identified right-
wing activists. Similarly, the far-right Pegida movement
in Germany began with nonviolent protests as a key
strategy, and the British Union of Fascists engaged in
anti-lockdown protests (CARR, 2020).
6
Building on existing insights on tactical choice and
public opinion, our survey examines a set of nonviolent
tactics. We employ novel metrics that move beyond
approval for assessing the degree to which citizens sup-
port them, assessing both outright approval and indica-
tors of the legitimacy of activist groups and the tactics
they use. In addition, we argue that US partisanship is
now a core identity for many people, and that it is likely
to affect views about nonviolent resistance.
We present several key findings. First, employing a
five-point Likert scale measure of approval, our examina-
tion of US public opinion shows that Americans gener-
ally do not approve of the nonviolent tactics we explore,
but they approve of some mo re than others. Second,
when we introduce partisanship of respondents and acti-
vists, approval of tactics falls sharply along partisan lines.
These findings challenge the idea that specific tactics are
the purview of one political ideology (i.e. of the ‘left’).
7
We uncover trends in support of tactical choice that run
counter to conventional wisdom about partisanship and
contention, instead identifying a central role of political
polarization among Americans. Third, using new mea-
sures of legitimacy related to public Congressional hear-
ings and media attention, we find a disconnect between
approval of a tactic and positive response on the legiti-
macy indicators.
Existing studies of tactics
Existing studies of violent and nonviolent tactics focus
on a number of dynamics. An expansive literature on
violence has focused on social revolutions (cf. Goldstone,
1991; Skocpol, 1994), civil wars (cf. Gleditsch, 2007;
Walter, 2009), and terrorism (cf. Young & Findley,
2011). A large body of work on nonviolent resistance
addresses when a variety of protests are likely to occur
2
Mob attack, incited by Trump, delays election certification. New
York Times 6 January 2021. Accessed 25 October 2021.
3
Longview woman begins h unger strike to protest c ounty’s ICE
contract. Alex Bruell. 16 September 2020. Accessed 27 October
2021.
4
Jane Fonda plans climate change civil disobedience on the Capitol
steps. Steven Mufson. 10 October 2019. Accessed 2 August 2021.
5
Beaver, PA: Autonomous blockade against petrochemical industry.
Anonymous contributor. Accessed 27 October 2021.
6
These nonviolent tactics are not limited to small groups on the
fringe of an issue. The Occupy Wall Street movement, for
instance, may have started small, but eventually, ‘hundreds of
thousan ds of people joined Occupy Wall Street and its part ner
occupations in more than 600 US towns and cities’ (Levitin, 2021: 1).
Likewise, the Black Lives Matter movement became what some
estimate to be the largest protest in the country’s history with half
a million people taking to the streets on just a single day (6 June
2020) (Buchanan et al., 2020). That day, of course, was just one day
of what became a multiweek protest, with millions participating
around the globe.
7
McVeigh & Sikkink (2011: 1429) suggest religion ‘legitimizes the
use of contentious tactics’.
Croco et al. 27
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