Gene Sharp

Sharp cites the insight of Étienne de La Boétie (1530–1563) that if the subjects of a particular state recognize that they are the source of the state's power, they can refuse their obedience and their leader(s) will be left without power.

Gene Sharp (January 21, 1928 – January 28, 2018) was an American political scientist.

He was the founder of the Albert Einstein Institution, a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the study of nonviolent action, and professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.

He was known for his extensive writings on nonviolent struggle, which have influenced numerous anti-government resistance movements around the world.

He received a Bachelor of Arts in Social Sciences in 1949 from Ohio State University, where he also received his Master of Arts in Sociology in 1951.

In 1953–54, Sharp was jailed for nine months after protesting the conscription of soldiers for the Korean War.

He discussed his decision to go to prison for his beliefs in letters to Albert Einstein, who wrote a foreword to his first book on Gandhi.

He worked as factory laborer, guide to a blind social worker, and secretary to A. J. Muste, America's leading pacifist.

Between 1955 and 1958, he was Assistant Editor of Peace News (London), the weekly pacifist newspaper from where he helped organize the 1958 Aldermaston March.

The next two years he studied and researched in Oslo with Professor Arne Næss, who together with Johan Galtung drew extensively from Mohandas Gandhi's writings in developing the Satyagraha Norms.

He held research appointments at Harvard University's Center for International Affairs from 1965.

In 1968, he received a Doctor of Philosophy in political theory from Oxford University.

Funding for Sharp's research at this time came from the DARPA project of the US Department of Defense.

Sharp was appointed a professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in 1972.

Gene Sharp described the sources of his ideas as in-depth studies of Mohandas K. Gandhi, A. J. Muste, Henry David Thoreau to a minor degree, and other sources footnoted in his 1973 book The Politics of Nonviolent Action, which was based on his 1968 PhD thesis.

In the book, he provides a pragmatic political analysis of nonviolent action as a method for applying power in a conflict.

Sharp's key theme is that power is not monolithic; that is, it does not derive from some intrinsic quality of those who are in power.

For Sharp, political power, the power of any state – regardless of its particular structural organization – ultimately derives from the subjects of the state.

His fundamental belief is that any power structure relies upon the subjects' obedience to the orders of the ruler(s).

If subjects do not obey, rulers have no power.

In Sharp's view, all effective power structures have systems by which they encourage or extract obedience from their subjects.

States have particularly complex systems for keeping subjects obedient.

These systems include specific institutions (police, courts, regulatory bodies, etc.), but may also involve cultural dimensions that inspire obedience by implying that power is monolithic (the god cult of the Egyptian pharaohs, the dignity of the office of the president, moral or ethical norms and taboos, etc.).

Through these systems, subjects are presented with a system of sanctions (imprisonment, fines, ostracism) and rewards (titles, wealth, fame) which influence the extent of their obedience.

Sharp identifies this hidden structure as providing a window of opportunity for a population to cause significant change in a state.

In 1983 he founded Harvard's Program on Nonviolent Sanctions in Conflict and Defense (PNS), which "continued in the spirit of its founder" and in 1995 was merged with another Harvard organization.

In 1983 Sharp also founded the Albert Einstein Institution, a non-profit organization devoted to studies and promotion of the use of nonviolent action in conflicts worldwide.

In 2004, the Albert Einstein Institution lost much of its funding (with income dropping from more than $1m a year to as little as $160,000), and from then on was run out of Sharp's home in East Boston, near Logan Airport.

Sharp published Waging Nonviolent Struggle: 20th Century Practice and 21st Century Potential in 2005.

It builds on his earlier written works and documents case studies where nonviolent action has been applied, presents the lessons learned from those applications, and contains information on planning nonviolent struggle to make it more effective.

Sharp received the 2008 Int’l Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award for his lifelong commitment to the defense of freedom, democracy, and the reduction of political violence through scholarly analysis of the power of nonviolent action.

In 2011, he was awarded the El-Hibri Peace Education Prize.

"How to Start a Revolution", a feature documentary by the Scottish director Ruaridh Arrow about the global influence of Gene Sharp's work, was released in September 2011.

The film won "Best Documentary" and the "Mass Impact Award" at the Boston Film Festival in September 2011.

Sharp was widely considered the favorite for the 2012 award.

In 2012, he was a recipient of the Right Livelihood Award for "developing and articulating the core principles and strategies of nonviolent resistance and supporting their practical implementation in conflict areas around the world".

Sharp was born in North Baltimore, Ohio, the son of an itinerant Protestant minister.

In 2012, he received the Zambrano Foundation Distinguished Lifetime Democracy Award.

Unofficial sources have claimed that Sharp was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2015, and had previously been nominated three times, in 2009, 2012 and 2013.

Sharp died on January 28, 2018, at home in Boston, having just turned 90.