The Catholic Church and the nonviolent resistance in Chile.

Abstract

When can nonviolent action be effective? That is the question that originally initiated this research project. While studying the different factors scholars believe to be important to a successful nonviolent action, I discovered that hardly any study examined whether religion impacted the success of nonviolent movements. This paper examines the influence of religion on nonviolent resistance by examining the case of Chile under Pinochet. Indeed, the presence of the Catholic Church as an institution independent of Pinochet’s military regime was so pervasive that if any example of a nonviolent action where religion played an important role could be found, it was Chile. The influence of religion is measured by examining the impact of the Chilean Catholic Church on twelve factors shown to greatly influence the outcome of nonviolent action.