Peaceful Resistance: Advancing Human Rights and Democratic Freedoms (review)

Most studies on democratization in Africa tend to credit civil society organizations (CSOs) for the gains made in advancing democratic reforms, but they hardly explain how these organizations mobilize force to compel authoritarian states to give concessions. In the circumstances, it has been assumed that the existence of CSOs is a prerequisite for democratic transition in these countries. The book under review departs from this trend not only to explain how elements of civil society initiate the struggle for political reforms, but also to highlight the role of individuals, rather than organizations, in this struggle. Press uses a Kenyan case study to argue that it is individual activists who initiate a culture of resistance on their own, with partial organizational and external support, to pressure an authoritarian state to make concessions on human rights and democratic governance.

Organized into seven chapters, the book employs the agency-based version of social movement theory to explain the three phases that characterize the establishment of a culture of resistance. The first phase is initiated by individual activists, motivated by democratic principles. In the second phase organizational activists build on this groundwork to advance the culture of resistance. The third phase entails mass participation in demonstrations that compel the state to make concessions on human rights and democracy. Thus the culture of resistance responsible for political reforms revolves around "individual activism, organizational activism, and mass participation" (182), not just CSOs and the donor community, as most studies have argued.

Whereas this well-argued study should be commended for such a refreshing perspective in explaining democratic reforms in Africa, the claim that "most social movement literature does not address... how a movement actually starts" (185), but tends to focus on organizations that are assumed to exist at the beginning of the movement (xvii), cannot go unchallenged. For instance, in The True Believer (Mentor Books, 1958), Eric Hoffer explained that social movements are always started not by organizations but by individual activists, whom he calls the "men and women of words." These are usually intellectuals who—like Press's individual activists in Kenya—initially undermine the status quo by identifying social dysfunctions and hypothesizing remedial measures; these are then framed into a doctrine, which, in turn, inspires all those affected, including organizations, to join the movement. Thus Press is making the very point that was made by Hoffer long ago.

It is apparent in Press's study that the resistance movement in Kenya has faltered at Hoffer's "action" stage in which "fanatics" arouse the masses by translating the movement's doctrine into comprehensible terms that drive them to open resistance. In the wake of this reality, Press is at pains to explain what became of some of the activists when they assumed state power: most abandoned the democratization bandwagon in favor of authoritarianism. One explanation for this turn of events, which Press fails to bring out strongly, is that the motivation of such activists was from the very beginning not "the [democratic] principles [that] they believe in" (xvi), but self-interest. Once they realized their goal of capturing power in 2002, they proceeded, through self-interest, to reap the benefits bequethed by authoritarianism to power holders. What is disappointing is that Press avoids pinpointing the actual motivation of individual activists in Kenya even after encountering the evidence as late as January 2006 (177–78). The evidence that self-interested activists could hijack a social movement to defeat the course of democracy easily renders social movement theory impotent in explaining the democratic transition in Africa.

Retailing at $99.95, this book is too expensive. Yet one still encounters factual and typographical errors; more should have been done at the proofreading stage. Nevertheless, I commend Press for his bold move to apply social movement theory in the study of democratization in Africa for the first time. It is essential reading for all those interested in social movements, human rights, and the politics of democratization...