Institutionalization of Nonviolence

In: Alternatives: global, local, political, Band 3, Heft 1, S. 49-73

Abstract

Nonviolent action is best known as a kind of protest tactic used where neither the vote nor the gun seems to offer effective methods of achieving the desired social change. Those using this tactic may or may not have a general commitment to nonviolence. The author argues that the objectives of nonviolent action must become broader and more ambitious and that through a variety of coordinated efforts we should seek to 'institutionalize nonviolence' and to generalize nonviolent behaviors throughout society. Such an effort involves the transformation of all institutions implicated in the practice of direct or structural violence. The role of the State in the existing global violence system is especially criticized. The author outlines eight important components in the process she has labelled the 'institutionalization of nonviolence'.