The Trump Resistance's Repertoire of Contention and its Conception and Practice of Civil Disobedience and Nonviolent Direct Action (2016-2018): An Institutionalization of Protest?

Résumé En

The Resistance, formed in opposition to Donald Trump, has seen progressive forces galvanize since November 2016. Groups have allied in marches and rallies all over the country (The Women's March, #MarchForOurLives), and thrown themselves into electoral politics (Indivisible). Yet one of the most striking features of the Trump Resistance is that there have been few acts of civil disobedience since the last Presidential election. Using the tools of social movement studies and political sociology as well as ethnographic data, this paper investigates why breaking the law is not currently a more popular form of nonviolent direct action, and why activists seem to favor coordinated, permitted marches at a time when civil disobedience seems to have become if not legitimate, at least increasingly accepted as a democratic practice.