Updating nonviolent campaigns: Introducing NAVCO 2.1
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/00223433221092938 |
| Published date | 01 November 2022 |
| Date | 01 November 2022 |
| Subject Matter | Special Data Features |
Special Data Features
Updating nonviolent campaigns:
Introducing NAVCO 2.1
Erica Chenoweth
Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University
Christopher Wiley Shay
University of Connecticut & Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University
Abstract
In this article, we introduce an updated version of the Nonviolent and Violent Campaigns and Outcomes dataset
(NAVCO 2.1), which compiles annual data on 389 nonviolent and violent mass movements for regime change, anti-
occupation, and secession from 1945 to 2013. This version of the dataset corrects known coding errors in NAVCO
2.0, adds news cases (including the Arab uprisings), and codes attributes for each campaign year (such as participation
size and diversity, the behavior of regime elites, repression and its effects, support from external actors, and campaign
outcomes). In addition, NAVCO 2.1 adds several new attributes to each campaign-year, including more precise
participation figures, more nuanced data about the scope, intensity, and degree of violent flank behavior and state
repression, and further information about the parallel or alternative institutions developed by the campaign. The data
reveal four key findings: (1) that the success rate of nonviolent resistance campaigns has declined since 2001; (2) that
far more people have participated in nonviolent than violent campaigns in the postwar period; (3) that nonviolent
campaigns suffer far fewer per-capita fatalities than armed campaigns; and (4) that incidental violence by dissidents
has become a more common feature of contemporary nonviolent campaigns compared with earlier cases. The article
concludes with suggestions for further research.
Keywords
armed conflict, civil conflict, civil resistance, insurgency, nonviolent resistance, nonviolent struggle, repression,
protest
Introduction to NAVCO 2.1
The Nonviolent and Violent Campaigns and Out-
comes (NAVCO) data project tracks the onset
and outcomes of maximalist political campaigns.
Version 1.0 of the NAVCO dataset catalogued 323
campaigns of resistance from 1900 to 2006 (Cheno-
weth & Stephan, 2011). Version 2.0 changed the unit
of analysis to the campaign-year, adding a number of
new variables and observations to the 250 campaigns
from 1946 to 2006 (Chenoweth & Lewis, 2013). Ver-
sion 3.0 of the NAVCO data identified nonviolent and
violent events in 26 countries between 1990 and 2011
(Chenoweth, Pinckney & Lewis, 2018).
The fact that previous versions of NAVCO end their
coverage in 2006 is significant for a number of reasons.
First,occurrencesofmassprotestsappeartohave
increased significantly since the mid-2000s (Cheno-
weth, 2021). Second, some have suggested that
nonviolent campaigns – particularly since the Arab
uprisings of 2010–11 – have become less successful
than they have been in previous eras (Chenoweth,
2021). And third, increased scholarly attention to the
topic of nonviolent resistance has generated renewed
Corresponding author:
erica_chenoweth@hks.harvard.edu
Journal of Peace Research
2022, Vol. 59(6) 876–889
ªThe Author(s) 2022
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DOI: 10.1177/00223433221092938
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