Because freedom is priceless : The effects of indivisibility on civil resistance campaign outcomes

Sammanfattning

Research on nonviolent conflicts is progressively acknowledging the relevance of studying civil resistance as a fluid and mutable phenomenon. In the study at hand, I adopt this approach to analyse civil resistance as a bargaining process. More specifically, I conceptualize campaign outcomes as a function of the degree of compromise each party is willing to engage in. To shed light on the variation in the degree of compromise involved in campaign outcomes, I mobilize the concept of indivisibility. While much research has been done on the causes of indivisibility, a rigorous explanation for how indivisible claims actually function and impact bargaining processes still lack. To fill these critical gaps, I draw from moral psychology and argue that moralized attitudes affect the likelihood of campaigners to reject compromise with and concessions from the incumbent regime. This, in turn, shapes the degree to which the campaign outcomes are undivided. This hypothesis is tested through a structured focused comparison between Tunisia’s and Oman’s Arab Spring campaigns. The findings support the proposition that when campaign goals are associated with moral convictions and sacred values, protesters are more likely to adopt an uncompromising stance towards the regime, suggesting the relevance of introducing indivisibility in the study of civil resistance.