Nonviolence in Political Theory

Nonviolent action has played an important role in achieving social and political change in the last century, and continues to do so. This book identifies the contributions of nonviolence to political theory through connecting central characteristics of nonviolent action to fundamental debates about the role of power and violence in politics. This in turn provides a platform for going beyond historical and strategic accounts of nonviolence to a deeper understanding of its transformative potential.

Central themes of this book are:

• An exploration of the philosophical presuppositions behind nonviolent action;
• Tensions between nonviolence and pacifism in international politics;
• A critical analysis of the consent theory of power using Gramsci and Foucault;
• A distinction between civil resistance and transformative nonviolence.