Gaddafi. However, the extent to which the Libyan Civil War is considered a success is debated — although Gaddafi’s government was replaced, a second civil war was started in Libya after Gaddafi loyalists refused to cooperate with the new government. People power and people's war People power is often associated with People’s War. People’s War is also a social movement, however with the specific purpose of “confrontation until they [protesters] have acquired the military strength to seize control of the state, or it disintegrates from within”. The main difference is that whereas people power seeks to dissolve autocratic and repressive regimes, people’s war refers to guerrilla conflict with ideological motives, such as an insurrection. Below is a list of commonalities between the social movements of people power and people's war: "winning majority support mobilising excluded sections of the population encouraging defection of troops and police building alternative institutions from below and promoting solidarity and fearlessness” Criticism The methodology of people power has been criticised from both academic and non-scholarly fields. Firstly, given the movement’s grassroots origins, people power has been criticised for excluding elite individuals such as academics from engaging in social movements. This consequently alienates individuals who potentially hold expert knowledge and experience from the organisation and execution of social movements. As a result, people power movements can reflect an “arrogance, or sheer inefficiency”. Furthermore, people power methods are controversial in terms of their ability to sustain success. Historically, there is no guarantee that engaging in these movements will secure “permanent radical change”. This was the case of The Maldives which resulted in only a short term change to the political structure. Additionally, people power is controversial for producing unintended, or in some cases counterproductive, consequences in the political situation of a state. Military and autocratic governments “may be able mobilise their full forces of repression to quell for a time even the bravest resistance”, as seen in the example of Burma. See also Solidarity (Polish trade union) Revolutions of 1989 Arab Spring Ohio Organizing Collaborative Passive resistance Civil Resistance Notes and references Civil disobedience Political terminology Protests Sociological theories