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  • Essay / A Stronger Force, directed by Steve York - 735

    A key argument expressed in “A Stronger Force” is that nonviolent protest is an effective method for motivating social and political change. The documentary presents three case studies representing historical examples where non-violent protests have met with a high level of success. One of the filmmakers' main goals is to investigate the non-violent aspects of popular uprisings that had until now been underestimated in terms of their contribution to a larger conflict. The examples taken as case studies all concern groups marginalized for racial, colonial and economic reasons. The histories of the conflicts that gave rise to the case studies are presented only briefly, with a focus on the groups that were found to be oppressed by their respective states and governmental institutions. Throughout the film, there is more emphasis on the effects of war. the actions taken by particular individuals and their non-violent groups of dissident citizens as the overall outcome of the struggle. The roles played by violent groups in these same struggles are either completely ignored by “A Mightier Force” or presented in an extremely negative light. For example, the film implies that Nelson Mandela's continued support of violence as a political weapon is stupidly stubborn. The focus is obviously on the parole the president was prepared to grant Mandela if he stopped supporting the violent actions of anti-government groups. This information is accompanied by commentary on spontaneous outbursts of violence that the filmmakers say threaten to jeopardize the movement, although it is unclear to the public whether only the nonviolent method is threatened or the entire anti-violent movement. -apartheid. insta...... middle of paper ......can Civil rights movement and Mkhuseli Jack community boycott implementation of egalitarian policy in South Africa. If we infer that each of these cases serves to prove the hypothesis put forward by the filmmakers, it follows that the comparative model used is that of the most different systems (MDS). MSS is eliminated because this method can be identified by the case studies having opposite results, and in this movie it is shown that all cases have successful and similar y variables. The validity of the comparison made can, however, be called into question. “...in an MDS design, the researcher attempts to show that the relationship between the presumed independent variable(s) and a dependent variable holds in a wide variety of widely divergent contexts”¹. Although the variables researched and studied can be considered congruent.