Name: From Dictatorship to Democracy
ISBN: 9781595588500

From Dictatorship to Democracy

From Dictatorship to Democracy, A Conceptual Framework for Liberation is a book-length essay on the generic problem of how to destroy a dictatorship and to prevent the rise of a new one, using a nonviolent strategy. Now in its fourth edition, it was originally handed out by the Albert Einstein Institution, and although never actively promoted, to date it has been translated into over thirty languages. This book traveled as a photocopied pamphlet from Burma to Indonesia, Serbia and most recently Egypt, Tunisia and Syria, with dissent in China also reported. This how-to guide has inspired social uprisings the world over and includes 198 nonviolent "weapons" to shift the balance of power to the people, and topple repressive regimes.

What Hacker News says

cmurfMar 2025

It's short.

From dictatorship to democracy : a conceptual framework for liberation

by Gene Sharp is the "tell me more" version, 138 pages. Includes non-violent ways to gum up the progress of tyranny.

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covercashFeb 2019

From Dictatorship to Democracy by Gene Sharp is one I haven’t seen posted yet.

https://www.aeinstein.org/from-dictatorship-to-democracy/

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swombatMar 2016

Just a worthwhile note: guerilla warfare is not, by far, the only option. There are all sorts of techniques available to overthrow dictators and other occupiers.

A good example of this in real life is what Denmark ended up doing when occupied by the Nazis - non-compliance, plain refusal to cooperate with the Final Solution, and eventually even convincing the Nazis who were based in Denmark to sabotage their own country's plans.

And I also recommend the book "From Dictatorship to Democracy" by Gene Sharp which outlines many principles and techniques for non-violent resistance.

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tokenadultNov 2015

The book From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation by Gene Sharp (a free download from the Albert Einstein Institution)[1] explains many of the hard-learned lessons of democracy movements around the world. Dictatorships fight dirty, so they are not easy to undo. But it does happen. I watched the successful and largely peaceful transition of Taiwan (my wife's birthplace) from a dictatorship to a democracy during the 1990s. People power inside the country helps most, and outside pressure of the right kind can help too.

[1] http://www.aeinstein.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/FDTD.pdf

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tokenadultJul 2014

I think we (everyone who participants here on Hacker News) have to learn how to be smart freedom fighters who can use nonviolent methods to overthrow dictatorships if we are to have any hope of reversing these trends, whether the snooping comes from governments directly or indirectly through poorly guided business corporations. We can't win this fight by imagining violent revolutions. Dictators become dictators by being practiced in using violence to gain power. We probably can't learn enough about violent means soon enough to overcome a slide to dictatorship in any country.

I advocate nonviolent means to fight dictators for two reasons: I don't like seeing my innocent neighbors get killed, and I have seen nonviolent means work to overthrow dictators. The largely peaceful transition from martial law and one-party dictatorship to pluralistic rule by law with free press and free elections that I saw in Taiwan[1] is just one example of a people power revolution where the dictator was baffled because there were few violent incidents on the part of the opposition to stir up a violent response from the regime. There are other examples from around the world.

An organization that collects real-world advice on how to win freedom even under dictatorship nonviolently, and how to keep the revolutionary movement from turning into another dictatorship, is the Albert Einstein Institution founded by Gene Sharp, an occasional nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize. I have recommended before here on Hacker News that readers who are really, truly interested in winning freedom for themselves and guaranteeing freedom for people around the world ought to read the free, downloadable materials on the Einstein Institution website.[2] If you are not willing to learn the art and craft of forging a cohesive, effective resistance movement based on real-world examples, this is all just talk. Talk is cheap. I know actual freedom fighters who succeeded against dictators whose techniques included total control of all mass media with "prior restraint" of publication and complete domination of the country's education system and targeted assassinations of opponents. The dictators still lost. You (we) can win, but only if you (all of us) learn to fight effectively. That doesn't take violence. Winning in a people power democracy movement does take mental toughness, because the dictator's side could use violence, but always the people outnumber the rulers. The people just have to learn how to stand together, overcoming their own fear.

Start your reading with From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation if you are wondering where to start among the several handbooks on the Einstein Institution website.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5985720

[2] http://www.aeinstein.org/downloads/

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dredmorbiusJan 2014

There are five courses of action:

⚫ Be ownership. Start your own company. You'll rapidly find that the same numerical collusion advantages which apply to large employers are even more applicable to VC and funders, and that the game they play is for control. Even Jobs got screwed out of his own company.

⚫ Opt out of the game. Welcome to the world of post-growth economics and the impact that has for wages everywhere.

⚫ Move to where hiring is growing. I've quoted Smith above on collusion. He also has advice for where to find rising wages: "It is not the actual greatness of national wealth, but its continual increase, which occasions a rise in the wages of labour. It is not, accordingly, in the richest countries, but in the most thriving, or in those which are growing rich the fastest, that the wages of labour are highest." (Wealth of Nations, Book I, Chapter VII, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3300/3300-h/3300-h.htm#link2H...) So, if you can emigrate somewhere with rising employment, you'll do better. The problem of course is the same as for the 3rd option: growth is flattening everywhere.

⚫ Unionize. Good luck with that, as Silicon Valley has been hugely resistant to union organization, in no small part due to the contrary-to-their-own interests brainwashing of Libertarian indoctrination. Even if you don't believe it, I can all but guarantee that the suggestion of forming a union will bring the denouncers out of the woodwork. If you do want to proceed, find ways of removing them from the conversation. There are publications from civil rights, unionization, and nonviolent revolutionary movements detailing derailing tactics and how to respond to them. The Albert Einstein Institution's book list is a good start: http://www.aeinstein.org/english/ . In particular, From Dictatorship to Democracy. Studying how opposition movements are disrupted is also helpful. For these, go to the source. FBI's COINTELPRO and HOODWINK documents (the YELLCASING is their thing), the Lewis Powell memo: http://reclaimdemocracy.org/powell_memo_lewis/ http://billmoyers.com/content/the-powell-memo-a-call-to-arms...

⚫ Suck it up and accept it. You'll be making better bank than most salaried workers, at least while you're working. The rare superstar may do significantly better. Odds are good you'll work in startup serfdom for 10-20 years, then find yourself on the aged side of hip, or whatever the cool kids are calling it then. Assuming there is a Silicon Valley in another 10-20 years. There are a few bigger epochal changes on the horizon. At least having read this you'll begin to understand where you stand and how the game works.

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