Just like riots, spontaneous acts of defiance and improvised strings of actions are mere brush fires: quickly ignited, quickly extinguished. When you’re always reacting, you end up disempowered.

Civil resistance is not magic. It may succeed, or it may fail. But don't leave it to chance.

I am conducting an in-depth research project to document and study cases of citizen participation and nonviolent civic action to fight corruption, in order to distill general lessons learned and best practices. The focus is on what people--organized together, exerting their collective power--are doing to fight corruption as they themselves have discerned it. The project will examine the skills, strategies, objectives, and demands of nonviolent civic campaigns and movements, rather than the phenomenon of corruption itself, or the conditions under which it occurs.