Citation

Johnstad PG. Peace Change 2010; 35(3): 464-482.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, Peace History Society; Peace and Justice Studies Association, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1468-0130.2010.00643.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article tests and expands upon the research performed by Adrian Karatnycky and Peter Ackerman in their 2005 Freedom House publication How Freedom Is Won.1 A sensitivity analysis will be given to assess the validity of their finding that nonviolent civic action improves the durability of democracy. The analysis shows that this correlation has statistical significance and remains significant with Polity IV and the Economist Intelligence Unit regime indices replacing the original Freedom House data. It also finds that civic transitions to democracy result in significantly stronger posttransition economic growth than do transitions driven by powerholders. Furthermore, the use of violence by opposition groups during the transition is found to increase dramatically the chances of posttransition violent conflict.