Political scientist Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan studied 323 resistance campaigns worldwide from 1900 to 2006 — the largest dataset of its kind ever assembled. Their findings fundamentally changed how we understand social change.
Nonviolent movements were twice as likely to succeed as armed conflicts. They attracted four times as many participants. And they uncovered a threshold — a tipping point — that had never failed.
That threshold is 3.5% of the population. Every campaign in the dataset that achieved sustained participation of at least 3.5% succeeded in achieving its goals. No exceptions.
Why does it work? Because 3.5% signals something deeper: broad societal support reaching across demographics. It creates a sense of inevitability — and that inevitability triggers defections from the pillars that hold power in place: security forces, judiciary, business, media, bureaucracy.
In the United States, 3.5% is roughly 11 million people. That sounds like a lot. But it's fewer than the population of Ohio. And it starts much, much smaller than that. It starts with you. And a few.
Chenoweth, E. & Stephan, M. (2011). Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict. Columbia University Press.
The number that changes everything is smaller than you think. Pick your community and see.
In 1968, psychologists Latané and Darley identified the bystander effect: the more people witness a crisis, the less likely any individual is to act. Not because they don't care. Because each person assumes someone else will step in — or worries they'll be the only one who does.
You look around. Everyone has the same poker face. Nobody's moving. So you think: "Maybe it's not as bad as I think. Maybe I'm overreacting." And you do nothing. And so does everyone else — each of you frozen by the same illusion that you're alone in your concern.
"The bystander is not a neutral party. Passivity encourages and empowers the perpetrators of harm and allows the evolution of increasing destructiveness."— Ervin Staub, Holocaust survivor and psychologist
But here's the counter-finding, and it's just as powerful: a single dissenter breaks the spell. In Solomon Asch's famous conformity experiments, when just one other person in the room gave the correct answer, conformity to the wrong answer collapsed. You don't need a majority to break the silence. You need one visible person — and then others follow.
That's what "you and a few" really means. It's not a protest slogan. It's a permission structure. It gives the silent majority proof that they're not alone — and a threshold that makes action feel possible instead of futile.
Counter dehumanizing language with specific human stories. Not statistics — names, faces, families. Research shows you cannot dehumanize someone whose name you know, whose child's drawing you've seen, whose voice you've heard. Flood every conversation with specificity.
Authoritarian power rests on pillars of support: security forces, judiciary, business, media, religious institutions, bureaucracy. Your few don't need to change the leader's mind. They need to make it costlier for these pillars to stay aligned than to defect. Every nurse arrested for treating a patient, every business losing customers, every judge facing accountability creates pressure.
Moral disengagement relies on distorting consequences — making harm feel abstract. Collapse that distance. But focus on costs to bystanders, not just victims: the farmer who lost their workforce, the hospital that lost doctors, the school that lost students, the church that lost its congregation. Self-interest is more durable than empathy alone.
Your goal isn't to convert the committed opposition. It's to activate the larger middle who are uncomfortable but passive. Give people actions that feel achievable: sign, donate, call, show up at a school board meeting, talk to one neighbor, support one local organization. Specific roles break the diffusion of responsibility that keeps people frozen.
Any violence from resistance is a gift to authoritarian power. It triggers threat narratives, justifies crackdowns, and gives passive bystanders permission to look away. Chenoweth's data is clear: nonviolent movements succeed twice as often precisely because they attract broader participation and make defection from power easier. Discipline isn't just moral. It's strategic.
A few that includes veterans, nurses, teachers, small business owners, and retirees is nearly impossible to dismiss. Diversity of participation is what triggers loyalty shifts in the pillars of power. Your few must look like the whole community — because that's what proves the support runs deep.
Research on democratic backsliding shows resistance is most effective before institutional capture is complete. Every delay makes reversal harder — not just politically, but psychologically. The continuum of destruction moves in one direction unless interrupted. The best time to act was yesterday. The second best time is now.
Democracy doesn't defend itself. It needs the people in your workplace, your congregation, your neighborhood, your school who are willing to say: not here, not us, not now. The research says they're there. Go find them.