It depends on whether the people can shoot back. On one hand you have a brave but tragic resistance like Iran right now where dozens of young people have prote

It depends on whether the people can shoot back. On one hand you have a brave but tragic resistance like Iran right now where dozens of young people have protested and been brutally cut down or publically executed. On the other hand you have numerous times in history where a government has learned the phrase "Governments are supposed to fear their people". Usually fire is involved. Both will eventually achieve their aims, but the first example is usually slower and more costly to do so. Many conflicts start as the first type and become the second.