Le pouvoir des sans-pouvoir : Bilan et perspectives de recherche sur l'action non-violente comme politique du conflit

What about political science research on nonviolent action and civil resistance nowadays ? Initiated by the American Gene Sharp in 1970, then introduced in France by Jacques Sémelin in the nineties, the study of this phenomenon remains behind its practice and its historical impact. This article does not only aim to draw up an inventory of this field of research. It also aims to define the sociological concept of nonviolent action in restoring the many theoretical debates that it feeds, to identify the major issues raised by unarmed resistance against armed enemies, to propose a series of explanatory hypotheses, to develop a consistent methodology for case studies and to present the interests of this work on nonviolent action for political science as a whole.