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Social Movements | ||||
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History of Social Movements | ||||
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Interest Groups | ||||
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NSMs | ||||
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NGOs | ||||
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Types of Social Movements | ||||
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1. Transformative Mvmts | ||||
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2. Counter Mvmts | ||||
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3. Redemptive Mvmts | ||||
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4. Reformative Mvmts | ||||
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5. Revolutionary Mvmts | ||||
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- The Forms of Rev | ||||
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- The Socio Historical Development of Revolution | ||||
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- Revolutions | ||||
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- Euro & Arab Revs Compared | ||||
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6. Alternative Mvmts | ||||
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Explanations of the Development of Social Mvmts & Revolutions | ||||
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1. Personality Theory | ||||
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2. Mass Society Theory | ||||
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3. Marx's Theory of Revolution | ||||
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4. Relative Deprivation Theory | ||||
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5. Resource Mobilization Theory | ||||
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6. Political Process Theory | ||||
Example of Social Movement | |||||
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Kony 2012: Invisible Children Movment | ||||
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Terrorism | ||||
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Govts & Terrorism | ||||
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History of Terrorism | ||||
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Causes of Terrorism, Theories | ||||
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CounteringTerrorism |
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An interest group is organized to pursue specific interests in the political arena, operating primarily by lobbying the members of legislative bodies |
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In the recent past, interest grps were almost exclusively lobbying grps; however, today interest grps engage in an entire range of tasks that support lobbying | |||||
Interest grps often engage in public education in order to raise awareness of their issue, to mobilize their constituency, & to oppose counter interest grps positions | |||||
Public education is often tied to issues around particular candidates & thus interest grps now are, in effect, campaigning for the candidates of their choice | |||||
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Interest grps today often lobby a legislative body, & more recently have also become involved in the public & admin rules making process |
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Interest grps today have also become involved in the implementation of admin rules & serve as watchdogs on govt activities |
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In order to accomplish the tasks of lobbying, public rules making, admin rules making, & rules implementation, interest grps must raise money & thus they have a strong public relations branch to educate their constituency & raise money from that constituency |
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Interest grps may be distinguished from social mvmts in that most social mvmts have or employ an interest grp to impact govts at the admin level, the legislative level, the executive level, the judicial level, & so on |
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Interest grps may be linked to a soc mvmt, but they may also have a much narrower focus on just one issue |
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Political movements would be a subset of a soc mvmt in that soc mvmts define a new way of thinking/world view/ideology while political mvmts generally try to reflect existing world views | |||||
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Soc mvmts do cognitive praxis in that they produce innovative knowledge claims, while interest grps generally only represent existing knowledge claims |
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Soc mvmts often employ, hire, or ally interest groups, lobbying groups & other similar types of orgs |
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TRANSFORMATIVE MVMTS ARE SOC MVMTS WHICH AIM TO PRODUCE MAJOR PROCESSES OF SOCIAL CHANGE THROUGHOUT SOCIETY | |||||
Trans mvmts strive for thorough-going change in the society or societies of which they are a part | |||||
The objective of transformative mvmts is to change or oppose some current social condition or other soc mvmt |
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The trans mvmt is the most common type in most industrialized nations & includes such important mvmts as the civil rights mvmts, the women's mvmts, the gay rights mvmts, the antinuclear mvmts, the env mvmt, & the peace mvmt |
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Many transformative mvmts are also reform mvmts in that they seek soc change, but some transformative mvmts only protest, demonstrate, or raise awareness of a current social condition or other soc mvmt, & do not seek or accomplish soc change |
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The social change aimed for by trans mvmts are cataclysmic, all embracing, & often violent |
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Examples of trans mvmts include revolutionary mvmts, some radical religious mvmts, millenarian mvmts |
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Trans mvmts are often called protest mvmts because protest is often their most utilized & effective method of achieving their goal of societal change |
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TRANS MVMTS ARE IMP BECAUSE THEY ADDRESS COLLECTIVE ISSUES, I.E. ISSUES THAT CANNOT BE ADDRESSED BY INDIVIDUAL ACTION | |||||
Trans mvmt are esp important because they often address those social issues that cannot be changed by individual action | |||||
C Wright Mills makes a distinction btwn personal troubles & public issues in his development of the concept of the sociological imagination | |||||
See Also: The Sociological Imagination |
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Personal troubles are those to which we must look the the individual for the solution | |||||
Public issues are those to which we must look to society, in all of its manifestations: govt, the family, the workplace, etc. for the solution | |||||
For Mills, it can be very difficult to tell the difference btwn personal troubles & public issues | |||||
Because of the difficulty of telling the difference btwn personal troubles & public issues we often say that a person needs wisdom, vision, consciousness, a sociological imagination, etc. in order to make this complex judgment | |||||
The difficulty in determining the nature of social problems can be seen in looking at an unemployed person in that we must look at the persons' motivation & personal skills, as well as the level nature of unemployment | |||||
In the social problem of unemployment after we have examined all the factors affecting a person or a given population, we can then make our judgment as to whether the problem is a personal trouble of a public issue, & more importantly, determine the appropriate path to a solution | |||||
Since the US is the most individualistic society in all of history, we tend to view problems as personal troubles | |||||
Reasons for personal troubles are often called excuses, even though some of these, such as a physical disability, are viewed as legitimate by society | |||||
Reasons for public issues are often called explanations | |||||
Individualizing is the tendency to view a problem as a personal trouble regardless of whether it is a personal trouble or a public issue | |||||
Collectivizing is the tendency to view a problem as a public issue regardless of whether it is a personal trouble or a personal trouble | |||||
TRANS MVMTS RAISE PUBLIC AWARENESS, EDUCATE THE PUBLIC, CREATE PUBLIC WILL FOR CHANGE, & THUS OFTEN HOPE TO FOMENT CHANGE THROUGH POLITICAL ACTION, OR OTHER LARGE SCALE ACTION | |||||
An example of social issues as opposed to personal issues would be energy policy (often addressed by the env mvmt) in that while I can individually conserve energy by turning down the thermostat, drive less, buy a more fuel efficient car, etc., these individual changes will only marginally change my energy consumption | |||||
In order to significantly change my individual energy consumption, society wide changes are needed such as an alternative energy infrastructure (wind, solar, etc.) & mass transit is needed | |||||
The purpose of trans mvmts is often to create enough consciousness, i.e. public will, to raise the issue on the political radar | |||||
When trans mvmts have raised the issue on the political radar, because of powerful entrenched interests, it still often takes decades for the govt / political system to change | |||||
The vegetarian mvmt is not a trans mvmt because individuals are quite capable of becoming vegetarian on there own, though undoubted such a mvmt would have society wide impacts of the ag & food production industries |
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Counter mvmts are social mvmts who seek to undo social change or to oppose a transformative or reformative mvmt |
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Counter mvmts are also known as regressive mvmts because they often seek to take society back, or regress, to an earlier type of social system, undoing the social change instituted by a trans mvmt |
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Counter mvmts form directly in response to a trans mvmt |
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Reactionary reformative mvmt are counter movements & they usually form immediately after a progressive mvmt has succeeded in creating changes w/in a society | |||||
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An example of a counter mvmt is the antifeminist mvmt, which opposes recent changes in the role & status of women & urges them to remain at home & take care of their children rather than seek outside employment |
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An example of a counter mvmt is the Ku Klux Klan, various neo nazis, & racist "skinhead" groups which believe in white supremacy & favor return to strict racial segregation |
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The Ku Klux Klan was created in the South after the Civil War to fight the social changes that were taking place | |||||
An example of a counter mvmt is the anti gay rights mvmt which opposes legislation banning discrimination based on sexual orientation |
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Other examples of a counter mvmts are the anti feminist mvmt, militant right wing mvmts, Drunks Against Mad Mothers (DAMM), smoker's rights groups, etc. | |||||
Counter mvmts form to fight social change to return society to the way it was before those changes took place | |||||
DAMM seeks to relax some of the recent drunk driving laws & penalties & to return people's attitudes to be more accepting of drivers who have a few drinks | |||||
Some counter mvmts form in opposition to the general culture & structure of society such as the Rainbow Family, or a group is even more loosely organized, hippies | |||||
A typical counter mvmt are reformative or transformative because they seek to reverse some specific social change that they oppose | |||||
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Almost any transformative mvmt that becomes large & influential generates a counter mvmt (McAdam, McCarthy, & Zald, 1988) |
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Counter mvmts develop among groups whose interests, values, or ways of life are challenged by the original transformation |
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Counter mvmts & trans mvmts often engage in efforts to capture the support of public opinion (McAdam, 1983) |
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Opposing interactions btwn opposing mvmts often become a long term, sustained process in which each mvmt reacts & responds to the actions of the other (Meyer & Staggenborg, 1996) |
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The action - reaction interaction of trans & counter mvmts can be seen in the struggle btwn the pro choice & the pro life mvmts in the abortion debate |
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Redemptive mvmts are social mvmts which seek to rescue individuals from ways of life seen as corrupting |
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Religious mvmts are redemptive mvmts in so far as they concentrate upon personal salvation |
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Religious mvmts are soc mvmts which relate to spiritual or supernatural issues, which oppose or propose alternatives to some aspect of the dominant religious or cultural order |
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Redemptive mvmts want to create a dramatic change, but only in some individuals' lives | |||||
The goal of redemptive mvmts is the complete transformation of certain people | |||||
The target audience of redemptive mvmts is narrow & specific | |||||
Redemptive mvmts want to totally change the lives of their followers | |||||
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The line btwn a redemptive religious mvmt & a mainstream religion is usually one of institutionalization & general acceptance by society |
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The line btwn a redemptive religious mvmt & a mainstream religion can be seen in any of the mainstream religions today, including Christianity, which were originally opposed by general society, but then became accepted & institutionalized |
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Many redemptive religious mvmts never become accepted by society & either fade away or remain marginal sects or cults |
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Examples of redemptive social mvmts include any religious mvmts that actively seek converts, such as the Jehovah's Witnesses & certain Christian fundamentalist & Baptist congregations | |||||
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An example of a redemptive mvmt is the Pentecostal sects which propose that individuals' spiritual capacities & development are the true test of their worth (Schwartz, 1970) |
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Redemptive mvmts include many religious sects, & even some relatively institutionalized churches, that nonetheless oppose some element of the dominant religion or culture |
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Jehovah's Witnesses, Christian Scientists, & Mormons are relatively institutionalized but are not part of mainstream religious mvmts |
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Some redemptive mvmts combine a religious message w/ political protest, such as the Nation of Islam, aka the Black Muslims, the Catholic liberation mvmt in So Am, et al |
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Liberation theology is a redemptive religious mvmt concentrated in Latin Am Catholics |
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Other redemptive mvmts include the Unification Church, aka the Moonies so named after Rev Sung Yun Moon, the Hare Krishnas, & the Scientologists, as well as mvmts w/in major religious orgs such as the Pentecostal mvmt w/in several Protestant denominations & the Catholic Church |
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These groups want to totally transform the lives of the individuals they "save," but the only way to be saved is to join the mvmt |
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Those who join are transformed, but the rest of the population of the world remains unchanged |
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Redemptive mvmts don't want people to change just one set of attitudes or beliefs, they want them to become a part of the group in every way & to take on evangelizing as a way of life |
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Members of redemptive soc mvmts believe they are changing the world one person at a time |
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The Promise Keepers, a religious based, men only mvmt, swept the US in the 90s |
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The Promise Keepers are the most recent redemptive mvmt in the US |
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The Promise Keepers transform the lives of those men who paid a fee to learn how to be better Christian husbands |
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Reformative mvmts are soc mvmts whose objective is to achieve some limited reform, change an entire community, & sometimes, but not often, remake the entire society |
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Reformative mvmts are probably the most common category of social mvmts in American society | |||||
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Reformative mvmts are a type of transformative mvmt |
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Reformative mvmts often concern themselves w/ specific kinds of inequality or injustice |
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A reformative mvmt strives to establish new policy in, for example, the env, foreign affairs, or for a particular racial or ethnic grp |
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A reformative mvmt does not strive to eliminate or remake social institutions |
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The goal of a reformative mvmt is to change society's attitude about a particular topic or issue | |||||
Reformative mvmts do not want to destroy or replace the existing order | |||||
Reformative mvmts want the existing govt, or society in general, to change in some specific way | |||||
Examples of reformative mvmts include mvmts against racism or anti-abortion groups | |||||
Reformative mvmts can be progressive, meaning that they seek to make a change, or reactionary, meaning that they seek to resist or reverse a change | |||||
Reactionary reformative mvmts are counter movements & they usually form immediately after a progressive mvmt has succeeded in creating changes w/in a society | |||||
An example of a reformative mvmt is Mothers Against Drunk Driving ( MADD ) which began its push against drunk driving in the 1980s & 1990s | |||||
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As a reformative mvmt, MADD sought to change laws & attitudes of law enforcement officials, politicians, & citizens toward drinking & driving |
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MADD succeeded as seen in the increased likelihood of authorities & people in general seeing drunk driving as a major crime rather than a minor infraction |
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The suffrage mvmt, the civil rights mvmt, & the feminist mvmt are progressive reformative mvmts |
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The suffrage mvmt, the civil rights mvmt, & the feminist mvmt all sought the change of society in one relatively specific area such as women's right to vote, racial discrimination & segregation, or gender discrimination | |||||
The white supremacy / white separatist movement, the antifeminist movement, & militant right wing mvmts are examples of reactionary reformative or counter mvmts | |||||
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See Also: Counter Mvmts | ||||
Whether reformative mvmts are reactionary or progressive, they want to create what they call a better society | |||||
Reformative mvmts believe that one specific change is the key to improving every other aspect of society |
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- Project: The Most Important Rev |
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Revolutionary mvmts are soc mvmts whose objective is to achieve some radical change, & remake the entire, or most of society | ||||
Revolution is a term that generally refers to a fundamental change in the character of a nation's govt, & possibly in the society, that may or may not be achieved through violent means | |||||
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Revolutionary mvmts are a type of transformative mvmt |
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A revolutionary mvmt hopes to achieve radical change through the elimination of old social institutions & the establishment of new social institutions |
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Rev soc mvmts want to completely destroy the old social order & replace it w/ a new one | |||||
The goal of a rev is the total transformation of society by destroying the old govt & replacing all current leaders | |||||
Revolutions may also occur in other areas than govt, including cultural, economic, and social activities | |||||
Rev are the most threatening to existing social order, authority, & power | |||||
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Sometimes revs have specific goals, sometimes only vague utopian dreams | ||||
For Marx, there is a clear distinction between political changes in governments and radical changes in the economic organization of society even when the former occurs violently | |||||
For Marx, most revs are simply the replacement of one political regime w/ another, while the fundamental structures of soc stay intact | |||||
The type of rev which Marx advocated was the replacement of one mode of production with another | |||||
For Marx, the history of societies is the history of class conflict or the contradiction within the mode of production between the forces and the relations of production, & thus rev must come about through class conflict, which need not be violent, but unfortunately often is | |||||
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See Also: Marx's Theory of Rev | ||||
Rev is an important example of mass protest operating outside orthodox political channels, but there are other, limited situations in which uprising or outbreaks of social violence occur in the actions of street crowds or mass demonstrations | |||||
Social mvmts, i.e. loose associations of people working collectively to achieve shared ends, play key roles in revolutions | |||||
The existence of soc mvmts which receive mass support is a defining characteristic of revolution | |||||
As w/ any mass action, soc mvmts come into being in many other situations besides those of a rev mvmt | |||||
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See Also: The Forms of Revolution | ||||
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Revolutionary mvmts are rare compared to transformative or reformative mvmts |
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Revolutionary mvmts usually occur when a series of reform mvmts have failed to achieve the objectives they seek |
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There are "militia groups" in the US who believe the fed govt is evil & want to overthrow it |
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The Montana Freemen could be considered rev soc mvmts |
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Many soc mvmts have actually led to real social & political revs in their society | |||||
Most revs intend to create a better society by replacing the power structure w/ one based on different principles | |||||
The nature of revs have changed over time being extremely rare throughout most of history, then occurring sporadically in the early industrial era, & these becoming plentiful in the industrial age | |||||
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See Also: The History of Rev | ||||
Many countries have also experienced unsuccessful revolutions, including Chile, Argentina, Hungary, etc. | |||||
While rare, revolutions do occur & are usually historic in nature as seen in countries as diverse as the US, Russia, France, Cuba, China, Iran, Mexico, Zimbabwe, & the Philippines | |||||
The English Parliamentary Rev in the 1500 & 1600s, the French anti monarchist mvmt beginning in the 1700s & continuing through the 1800s, the Russian Rev, the Communist Rev in China, & Fidel Castro's socialist mvmt in Cuba all succeeded in completely destroying the existing power structure & replacing it w/ a new idealized social order | |||||
Almost all 20th C revs occurred in developing societies such as Mexico, Turkey, Egypt, Vietnam, Cuba, & Nicaragua, not in industrial nations (Moore, 1965) | |||||
The Revolutions that have had the biggest impact for the world in this century were the Russian Rev of 1917, Chinese Rev of 1949, & while the Cuban Rev was less important, it has had a greater impact because of the Cold War & geo-politics |
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- Project: Examples of the Forms of Rev |
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THE FORMS OF REV INCLUDE: REVOLUTION, REVOLT, INSURRECTION, REBELLION, COUP, MUTINY, & VELVET REVOLUTION | |||||
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1. A revolution is the seizure of state power through violent means by the leaders of a mass movement, where that power is subsequently used to initiate major processes of social reform |
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2. A revolt is a initial process of taking power, which if it then fails to govern becomes an insurrection, but if it succeeds in governing, then it becomes a rebellion or revolution | ||||
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3. An insurrection is a revolution that succeeds in taking power, but soon fails at governing | ||||
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4. A rebellion is a form of revolution under the threat or use of violence which lead to some, but not substantial change in the society | ||||
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A rebellion is a form of rev where one group of leaders replaces another w/o any changes in the existing political structure through a process outside of the society's political system, often through military force or mass demonstrations, riots, etc. | ||||
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The objectives of rebellions usually are to secure more favorable treatment, or to replace a particularly tyrannical individual by someone less harsh |
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Until 300 yrs ago, the majority of uprisings were rebellions rather than revolutions |
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The idea of action taken to radically alter the existing political structure of society, that is, revolution, was virtually unthought of throughout most of history |
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While "revolutions" have occurred throughout most of history, these were coup d' etats or politically based rebellions instigated by political elites against elites | |||||
Historically, these coups or rebellions were by & among elites & did not change things for the masses, thus technically speaking, they were not revolutions | |||||
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See Also: The Socio Historical Development of Revolution | ||||
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5. A coup d'etat is a rebellion by a military leader or leaders |
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Some political movements that appear to be revolutions only change a country's rulers | |||||
Many Latin American political uprisings have replaced dictators without making fundamental changes in governmental systems | |||||
Political scientists call such movements rebellions rather than revolutions but a rebellion sometimes leads to a political or social revolution & is therefore a coup d' etat | |||||
6. A mutiny is a revolt or rebellion against an authority in power especially by soldiers, seamen, airmen, or other military personnel | |||||
A mutiny usually does not lead to a revolution, but rather removes a tyrannical leader from power | |||||
THE CHARACTERISTICS OF A REV INCLUDE A MASS MVMT, MAJOR REFORM, USE OF VIOLENCE OR THREAT OF VIOLENCE, & OFTEN INCLUDE THE USE OF POLITICAL METHODS & POLITICAL CHANGE | |||||
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For a set of events to be a rev, they have to have several characteristics, including being a mass movement, a major process of reform or change, using the threat or use of violence, using political methods, & fomenting political changes |
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a. A rev is a mass social mvmt which means that instances in which either party comes to power through electoral processes, or a small group, such a army leaders seizing power in a coup, is not a rev |
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b. A rev leads to major processes of reform or change (Skocpol, 1979) & thus those who seize state power must be capable of governing, more capable that those they overthrew (Dunn, 1972) |
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For a rev to succeed beyond the initial takeover, the leadership must be able to achieve at least some of its targets |
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A rev which succeeds in gaining power, but then is unable to rule, cannot said to be a rev because it is likely that the society will disintegrate into chaos |
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c. A rev usually includes the threat or use of violence by those participating in the mass mvmt |
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d. Revs are political changes brought about in the face of opposition by existing authorities, who cannot be persuaded to relinquish their power w/o the threatened or actual use of violence |
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In some rare cases, there have been peaceful revs, such as "the velvet revolution" in Czechoslovakia |
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Revs may vary in type by the types of goals they hope to achieve or achieve in practice | |||||
A political rev may change various ways of life in a country, or it may have no effect outside the govt | |||||
An example of a pol rev creating significant changes in society can be seen in the Russian Rev of 1917 where not only was the czar deposed, but there was also the beginning of major social changes, such as the elimination of private property | |||||
On the other hand, the Rev War in America (1775-1783) changed a political system without causing basic social changes | |||||
Many revolutions involve illegal uprisings, but some occur after a legal transfer of power within the existing system | |||||
An example of a legal transfer of power occurred when Hitler took power as dictator of Germany soon after the country's president had appointed him chancellor | |||||
7. A velvet revolution is a rev that occurs w/o much violence, & is usually the result of mass soc mvmts | |||||
The term velvet rev was coined as a result of the peaceful rev in the Czech Republic as it broke from the Soviet Block in 1992 |
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- Project: Revolution in the Core Nations |
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The nature of revs have changed over time being extremely rare throughout most of history, then occurring sporadically in the early industrial era, & these becoming plentiful in the industrial age |
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Until 300 yrs ago, the majority of uprisings were rebellions rather than revolutions | |||||
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See Also: The Forms of Rev | ||||
In medieval Europe, for example, serfs or peasants sometimes rose up in protest, demanding freedom, against the policies of aristocracy (Scott, 1986; Zaparin, 1982) | |||||
The objectives the rebellions in medieval Europe were usually to secure more favorable treatment, or to replace a particularly tyrannical individual by someone less harsh, & not to achieve what we would today call a rev | |||||
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Revs brought about historic & far reaching social change over the past 2 centuries |
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The Am & French Revs of 1776 & 1789 were the most important revs of the 18th C & possibly of all time |
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The ideals of those revs, liberty, universal citizenship & equality are fundamental socio political values upon which modern society is now based |
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To assume rev, & to proclaim liberty, universal citizenship & equality as the basis of modern society only 200 yrs ago, & to assume that they could be realized through mass action represent a profound historical innovation |
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Prior to the 18th C, only idealistic dreamers suggested that human being could or should establish a social order in which socio econ pol participation was open to everyone & that rev was the path to this goal |
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The term revolution came to be employed in its modern sense at the same time as the term democracy |
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The term revolution was not widely used until the success of the Am & Fr struggles made clear that a new system existed in the world |
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Alexis de Tocqueville is credited w/ recognizing the important of the revolutionary, democratic mvmt |
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Tocqueville wrote, "What, to start with, had seemed to European monarchs and statesmen a mere passing phase, not unusual symptom of a nation's growing pains, was now discovered to be something absolutely new, quite unlike any previous movement, and so widespread, extraordinary, and incalculable as to baffle human understanding." (1955; orig 1856) |
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In the 18th C the term revolution still meant "to move in a circle" and the Am & Fr revolutionaries believed they were "turning back" to a natural order of things |
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Am & Fr revolutionaries believed people were born free & equal & had been oppressed by the rule of kings & authoritarian rulers, & rev was the means of restoring that happy, natural condition |
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The innovative nature of the Am & Fr revs was not apparent even to those who played the major roles in bringing them about |
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As the Am & Fr revs & their ideals became permanent, the term revolution came to mean mass action for bring about fundamental social reconstruction (Abrams, 1982) |
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While some revs since then attempt to restore a preexisting form of society, such as the Islamic rev in contemporary Iran in the late 1970s, the idea of rev is usually associated w/ progress, representing a break w/ the past to establish a new order for the future (Arendt, 1977) |
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The US Rev, 1776 | |||||
The French Rev, 1789 | |||||
The Russian Rev, 1917 | |||||
The Indian Rev, 1947 | |||||
The Chinese Rev, 1949 | |||||
The Cuban Rev, 1959 |
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- Project: The US's Role in Revolutionary & Social Change |
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Alternative mvmts are soc mvmts whose objective is to bring about change by securing partial change individuals |
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Alt mvmts do not aim to achieve complete alteration in people's habits or lifestyles, but are concerned w/ changing certain specific traits |
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Alt mvmts want to create change in some peoples thoughts or behavior in specific areas | |||||
The goal of alt mvmts is to change the way specific groups think about a particular behavior or category of behaviors | |||||
Alt mvmts are not concerned w/ topics outside of their stated focus | |||||
Generally alt mvmts are not threatening to the established social order because they only want certain people to change & only in one particular way | |||||
Just because alt mvmts are not threatening to the established social order does not mean that they cannot be extreme | |||||
Some alt mvmts are considered mainstream because they are not extreme, while others are considered radical because they advocate extreme change even though that change is limited & applies to only a small group of people | |||||
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Examples of an alt mvmts include Alcoholics Anonymous, the health mvmt, abstinence groups, or any group that is concerned w/ changing one characteristic of people |
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Alt mvmts such as Drug Abuse Resistance Education ( DARE ) Program & Students Against Drugs & Alcohol ( SADA ) exist to keep the young from getting involved w/ drugs & alcohol | |||||
DARE & SADA are alt in that they aim at one specific segment of the population ( children, teens, & young adults ) & only seek change in one aspect of their behavior & attitudes, those related to drugs & alcohol | |||||
While DARE is widely accepted in society, groups such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA ) is not as widely accepted since its agenda is considered to be more radical, & thus some alt grps are accepted & some are not | |||||
A typical alt mvmt is not concerned w/ issues outside of their specific focus | |||||
Neither DARE nor PETA tries to change people's religious beliefs, exercise habits, or dental care practices because they have a specific area of interest & that is where their focus stays & thus most alt grps have a narrow focus |
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- Project: Explanations of Revs |
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- Project: Explanations of Soc Mvmts & Your Term Paper Topic |
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Some of the explanations of social mvmts attempt to articulate the interests of the developing historical actor |
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Giddens notes that articulating interests may seem simple in retrospect, but it is very difficult to read the present & the future |
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A common post modernist critique is that social theorists rationality "draws straight lines of historical action" in the past & then projects that into the future when in fact there are no straight lines in the past, present or future |
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For Farley the necessary conditions for the formation of a soc mvmt include... |
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1. Dissatisfaction: - that people must be dissatisfied |
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2. Communication: - that people who are dissatisfied must be able to communicate w/ each other |
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3. Survival of repression: - that people must be able to survive attempts at repression |
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4. Perception of chance for success: - that the mvmt must seen by participants & potential participants as having a reasonable chance for success |
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5. Adequate resources: - that people must have adequate resources including leadership, money, supporters, etc. |
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Any one of the necessary conditions, or several of them, are not by themselves adequate for the formation of a soc mvmt; a soc mvmt requires all of the necessary conditions to form; however, the necessary conditions do not guarantee success |
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Most revolutions occur because of widespread dissatisfaction w/ an existing system | |||||
Social conditions such as poverty & injustice under cruel, corrupt, or incapable rulers may contribute to revolution, but in most cases, social problems alone do not cause revolutions | |||||
Poor social conditions lead to despair rather than a will to fight for something better | |||||
Revolutions need strong leaders who can use unsatisfactory conditions to unite people under a program that promises improvements | |||||
Many revolutions occur after rulers begin to lose confidence in themselves & yield to various demands from their rivals | |||||
Compromises by rulers, or rapidly improving social conditions, create a revolution of rising expectations as people begin to see hope for a better life | |||||
If changes do not keep pace w/ people's expectations, the people lose faith in their rulers & start listening to revolutionary leaders | |||||
The French Rev of 1789 & the Russian Rev both began after the rulers agreed to the people's demands for representative assemblies | |||||
The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 occurred after the govt released some of its strongest opponents from prison | |||||
Not all revolutions have led to improved conditions because some revolutionaries have worked for change only to gain political power for themselves or because the goals were unattainable under the circumstances | |||||
A number of conservative rulers have called themselves revolutionaries simply to convince the public that they support social & economic changes | |||||
THERE ARE MANY EXPLANATIONS OF THE FORMATION OF SOC MVMTS INCLUDING:
1. PERSONALITY THEORY 2. MASS SOCIETY THEORY (MST) 3. MARX'S THEORY OF REVOLUTION 4. JOHNSON'S DISEQUILIBRIUM THEORY (DET) 5. RELATIVE DEPRIVATION THEORY (RDT) 6. TILLY'S REV THROUGH COLLECTIVE ACTION 7. RESOURCE MOBILIZATION THEORY (RMT) 8. POLITICAL PROCESS THEORY (PPT) |
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The various explanations of the formation of soc mvmts each consider one or more of the necessary conditions for soc mvmts: |
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1. Personality Theory holds that soc mvmts were the outgrowth of the personality characteristics of their participants, or of their psychological response to social conditions | ||||
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2. In Mass Society Theory (MST), Kornhauser holds that the organization of a society may create alienated citizens & collective behavior by members & leaders who have direct influence over society's elites & who are unduly influences by those leaders, leading to the formation of a mass mvmt | ||||
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3. In Marx's Theory of Revolution, Marx holds that the development of societies is marked by periodic class conflicts which may terminate in a process of revolutionary change | ||||
4. Johnson's Disequilibrium Theory holds that the disequilibrium of a society is a necessary condition for the occurrence or revolution. The main source of disequilibrium, according to Johnson, is the dislocation btwn the major cultural values of the society & the system of economic production | |||||
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5. Relative Deprivation Theory (RDT) holds that soc mvmts emerge when people feel deprived or mistreated relative to either how others are treated or how people feel they should be treated | ||||
6. Charles Tilly, in Revolution through Collective Action, holds that effective col action that culminates in rev usually moves through FOUR main phases to overthrow an existing social order, including organization, mobilization, common interests, & opportunity | |||||
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7. For Resource Mobilization Theory (RMT), it is not the level of alienation in a society that leads to a soc mvmt, rather it is the org & leadership, or lack thereof, that make or break a soc mvmt. RMT's central assertion is that no matter how alienated, exploited, angry, etc. people feel, w/o org & leadership they cannot produce soc change. | ||||
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8. Political Process Theory (PPT) posits that opportunities for soc mvmts are created by the larger social & political processes. Important factors for PPT include org strength, cognitive liberation, ideology, beliefs, political connections, social structure, & political opportunities |
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- Project: The Personality of an Organizer |
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Early theories of soc mvmts held that: | |||||
- soc mvmts were the outgrowth of the personality characteristics of their participants, or of their psychological response to social conditions |
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- people participate in soc mvmts to satisfy a personality need rather than to address a real grievance (Adorno, et al, 1950, et al) |
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- people participate in soc mvmts because they feel isolated & alienated in today's large-scale & often impersonal society |
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At the psychological level, the assumptions of the early soc mvmts are valid in that people do participate at least in part for personal reasons |
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At the social level, people participate in soc mvmts for more than personal reasons |
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Research on the Personality Theories of Soc Mvmts shows that soc mvmt participants are not very different from the rest of the population in terms of personality or psychological makeup |
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Soc mvmt participants are not more alienated than other people; rather they are drawn into mvmts by friends & family |
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Kornhauser's Mass Society Theory presents a decidedly negative view of participants in soc mvmts & mass society that is useful for examining dangerous, extreme, & potentially destructive mvmts such as Fascism, Nazism, Stalinism, McCarthyism, et al | |||||
For Kornhauser a major psychological factor in the formation of soc mvmts & mass society is atomization, which is similar to alienation | |||||
A lack of intermediate group connections makes people feel unable to participate in their social world | |||||
Lack of participation in intermediate groups leads to a poor self-image because the individual feels cut off from society | |||||
Individuals w/o connections to intermediate groups are more eager for activist solutions due to the anxiety caused by their alienation | |||||
Atomized individuals become highly suggestible & believe mass opinions, desires, etc. are their own, developing what Kornhauser calls a mass personality | |||||
For Kornhauser, "mass men" are selfish & unhappy because they do not have close or personal ties to their communities & have given up their thoughts to those of the mass | |||||
The masses main focus is personal satisfaction, & they can't find it because they are self-alienated | |||||
Multiple & varied social connections allow people to form distinctive self-images | |||||
Social connections produce autonomous people who have respect for themselves & therefore respect for others | |||||
In normal society, people are connected to their community which connects them to society & humanity | |||||
People w/ a myriad of connections tolerate disagreement & understand that everyone does not have to like the same things or want the same things |
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- Project: Mass Society in the USA |
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Kornhauser's mass society theory ( MST ) ( 1959 ) holds that the organization of a society may create alienated citizens & collective behavior by members & leaders who have direct influence over society's elites & who are unduly influences by those leaders, leading to the formation of a mass mvmt |
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MST is intended to explain one particular type of soc mvmt: dangerous extreme, & potentially destructive mvmts such as Fascism, Nazism, Stalinism, McCarthyism, Khmer Rouge ( Cambodia), Earth First, PETA, & others | |||||
MST is not useful for analyzing the more common scale, local mvmts such as Reform Mvmts or grassroots political mvmts | |||||
Kornhauser attempts to show how social structure can produce the cultural conditions & personal attitudes that made fascism rise in Italy, Nazism in Germany, Communism in Eastern Europe, the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, the Shining Path in So Am, etc. | |||||
MST is useful for understanding why mass mvmts, as opposed to transformative, reformative, redemptive, etc. mvmts form or why particular types of mvmts tend to appear over & over in the same society | |||||
For Kornhauser, |
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- a mass society creates mass mvmts | |||||
- Mass mvmts are anti democratic & seek to destroy or totally transform their society |
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- the members of mass mvmts believe they are creating a perfect society & often lead to restriction of personal freedom & make their culture an oppressive & sometimes dangerous one |
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- Mass mvmt is a negative term that connotes a "herd society" where everyone wants the same material goods, has the same ideas, & pursues the same lifestyle |
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- Mass soc is dull, uniform, & mediocre |
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- in a mass soc, people do not think for themselves |
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- Mass soc is the opposite of a "pluralistic society," in which a wide variety of different people & orgs all exist together but are independent of each other |
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- the soc structure determines whether a society becomes a mass soc or a pluralistic soc |
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- Mass mvmts are "popular mvmts" that operate outside of & against the social order & they tend to consume an entire society |
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- Mass mvmts can be terribly destructive especially when a society is vulnerable to mvmts which aim to eliminate freedoms |
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WW 2 is a strong influence for Kornhauser & MST, especially those events & mvmts which created Fascist Italy & Nazi Germany |
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Another strong influence on MST was that after WW 2, large parts of Europe fell under despotic Soviet rule & people learned of the horrors of Stalin's regime |
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It is because of the despotic transformations of Italy, Germany, & Russia that MST focuses on the social structure as a source of mass mvmts that can tear entire societies apart |
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The characteristics of a society's social structure that influence its susceptibility to destructive mass mvmts include atomization, intermediate groups, access, & availability, cultural uniformity, & crisis politics |
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Marx's theory of rev was based on his interpretation of human history |
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For Marx, the development of societies is marked by periodic class conflicts which may terminate in a process of rev change | |||||
Class struggles derive from the contradictions, i.e. unsolvable tensions, w/in societies that result from the inevitable divergent interests of the major classes in society |
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For Marx, the serfs, aristocrats, & church leaders of the Middle Ages had inevitably divergent interests |
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For Marx, the proletariat & the bourgeoisie of the Early Industrial Era had inevitably divergent interests |
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Marx would probably agree that the middle & upper classes of today have inevitably divergent interests |
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The source of contradiction is found in econ changes, i.e. change in the forces of production |
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See Also: Marxist Economics | |||||
In a stable society, there is a balance btwn the econ structure, i.e. the base, & the superstructure which includes the social relationships & the political system of the society |
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For Marx, the forces of production experience continual change & development & as they do so, contradiction is intensified, leading to open clashes btwn classes, which then may provoke social change via rev or peaceful political change |
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Marx applied his theory of social change to nearly every historical era from the Early Empire Era circa 3000 BC to his contemporaneous Early Industrial Era of the 1800s |
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FEUDALISM | |||||
Feudal society in Europe was based on production by serfs who were ruled over by two warring classes, the aristocrats & the church leaders |
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Econ changes going on w/in feudal societies gave rise to towns, cities, freemen, merchants, artisans, etc., in which trade & manufacturing developed |
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The new econ system w/in feudal societies, which was the nascent pure capitalism, threatened the very basis of feudalism |
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The nascent pure capitalism was not based on the lord serf relationship & a command econ, rather it was based on the open mkt & the worker ( proletariat ) owner ( bourgeoisie ) relationship |
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The contradictions btwn the old feudal econ & the new pure capitalist system taking the form of the Enclosure, violent conflicts btwn the rising capitalist calls & the feudal landowners, mounting debt owed by aristocrats to capitalists, freemen demanding rights, etc. |
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The outcomes of the contradictions w/in feudal society included some societal evolution through social & political change w/ varying degrees of violence & social chaos, as well as outright revolution | |||||
THE TRANSITION TO CAPITALISM | |||||
The French Revolution of 1789 occurred as a process that began in the 1600s & was still occurring in Napoleonic France of the 1800s | |||||
As changes occurred in Europe either through rev or social & political development, Marx argued that the capitalist class achieved dominance | |||||
The development of capitalism presented new contradictions in the form of class conflict btwn workers & owners as well as struggles btwn the capitalists themselves for dominance | |||||
Early in his career, Marx believed that the contradictions of capitalism would lead to revolution; however, as the development of capitalism embraced the reforms of the Labor Mvmt, Marx recognized that social, econ, & political development was transforming society making rev unnecessary | |||||
Marx believed that rev or social development would only occur in totally developed capitalist nations | |||||
Early on, Marx believed that workers & capitalists would come into more & more intense conflict | |||||
Marx believed that labor mvmts & political parties representing the mass of workers would mount a challenge to the rule of the capitalists | |||||
If the capitalists resisted change & were powerful, violence was needed to bring about the required transition into socialism or communism | |||||
If the capitalists could not or would not resist change, the development of society might happen peacefully, using parliamentary /legislative mechanisms | |||||
THE TRANSITION TO SOCIALISM | |||||
For Marx, the transitions to socialism or communism were inevitable & would occur w/ or w/o rev; however, rev was in essence a short-cut to the next stage of human social development which could avoid decades or even centuries of the enmiseration of capitalism | |||||
Early on, Marx expected revs to occur in some Western countries during his lifetime | |||||
Towards the end of his life, when it became apparent that parliamentary induced change & not rev, Marx looked towards Russia & other nations as the most likely site for rev | |||||
Marx held that Russia was an econ retarded society which had new forms of commerce & industry along side of its Czarist / feudalist system | |||||
The mixture of feudalism & pure capitalism proved to be explosive & armed w/ Marxist theory, Lenin, et al, organized the Russian Revolution of 1917 thirty four yrs after Marx's death | |||||
Marx held that the revolution would only be successful if it spread to other Western nations & thus Lenin, et al, tried to foster world rev, but failed | |||||
Post rev Russia took advantage of the developed econs of Europe to enhance its modernization | |||||
Contrary to Marx's expectations & Lenin's aspirations, revs did not occur in the advanced, industrialized societies of the West | |||||
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In most Western nations, except the US, there are politically influential socialist & communist parties which have realized some socialist goals |
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Even the US has accepted components of socialism such as Social Security, unemployment insurance, etc. | |||||
Given socialist parties & the components of socialism in Western nations, Marx's contention that mature capitalist nations would be those most likely to move to the stage of socialism is partially correct | |||||
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Where socialist parties have gained power, they are less rather than more radical | ||||
The development of capitalism has created contradictions btwn workers & owners but these contradictions have been mediated by the Labor Mvmt, socialist political parties, & even the reform of govt & capitalism itself | |||||
GLOBALIZATION | |||||
Marx's views on social development & revolution are useful in understanding conflict in peripheral nations because few of these have developed the mediating social structures that function to resolve conflict in the core nations | |||||
Contradictions in peripheral nations exist because of the expansion of modern industry at the expense of traditional systems | |||||
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As traditional modes of life dissolve or are destroyed, those affected become a source of potentially revolutionary opposition to govts which try to preserve the existing power structure |
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CONDITIONS FOR REVOLUTIONS | |||||
For Marx & many other social scientists, rev depends on | |||||
- class consciousness | |||||
- historical circumstance | |||||
- political organization | |||||
- repression of the working class | |||||
- the global context: Marx & Engels assumed that the revolutionary collapse of capitalism would occur in core states such as France or Britain | |||||
For Marx, whose ideas were later expanded by such theorists /activists as Gramsci, it is necessary to break the hegemony of the dominant class by a combination of political violence & education. | |||||
Althusser, 1966, said revolution is most likely to occur in the weak link in the chain of capitalist society where social contradictions are most prominent |
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Relative deprivation theory (RDT) holds that soc mvmts emerge when people feel deprived or mistreated relative to either how others are treated or how people feel they should be treated |
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Note that RDT refers to relative & not absolute deprivation |
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Tocqueville noted in his travels in Am in the mid 1800s that in a country where everyone is poor, there is great absolute deprivation, but no relative deprivation |
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Where wealth & poverty exist side by side the poor are very conscious of their different situation & come to feel deprived |
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When people are led to believe that there lot is going to improve & it does not, they feel deprived |
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The revolution of rising expectations is the label Davies, 1962, gives to social protest or revolution that occurs when the expectation gap btwn the rich & poor becomes more important as a result of rising expectations |
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For a social mvmt to form, the sense of relative deprivation the individual's view of the situation must make it seem as a collective & not an individual problem |
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Given the necessity of the collective perception of deprivation, Turner & Killian, 1987, prefer to use the label fraternal relative deprivation theory to emphasize the shared feelings of deprivation |
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Merton & RDT | |||||
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RDT builds on Merton's reference group theory which holds that feelings of deprivation depend upon what groups people compare themselves w/ |
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For Merton, & RDT, discontent is a consequence of relative deprivation rather than absolute deprivation |
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For Merton a major question that RDT must answer is why do people choose the reference groups that they do? |
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Runciman found that people choose a particular reference group, which influences feelings of deprivation based on: 1. class consciousness; 2. status; 3. sudden disappointment shared by a group; 4. rising expectations |
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1. Class consciousness is seen in that people normally compare themselves to in group members & if they feel relative deprivation compared to them, then they feel competitive, or resentful toward people in their own group |
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Class consciousness embodies combinations of a sense of injustice & class solidarity based on ethnicity, religion, race, occupation, "recreational group," etc. |
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See Also: Class Consciousness |
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In group comparisons which lead to feelings of victimization often stifles class consciousness, the development of a larger group solidarity, & a shared sense of injustice |
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So long as workers are jealous of their own, there is no solidarity |
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The basis for a social mvmt occurs if people & their in group compare themselves to an out group that is similar, & feel deprivation |
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If many members feel deprivation, then just this common consciousness is the basis for class consciousness & for social action, & the possibility of organizing a soc mvmt | |||||
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2. Status inconsistency fosters unfavorable comparisons w/ other groups & creates a sense of injustice & deprivation |
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Status inconsistency is created by a lack of consistency btwn education, training, socioeconomic status, & income | ||||
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Lower status is, in a sense, a built in relative deprivation | ||||
3. Sudden disappointment, shared by group, of stable expectations may lead to unfavorable comparisons w/ other groups | |||||
Sudden disappointments magnify a relative deprivation | |||||
Econ depression hits the wage earner & inflation hits the pensioner & forces a downward revision in living standards | |||||
There was a widespread conviction in the US during the Great Depression of the 1930s that the nations' wealth was concentrated in the hands of the well to do & that econ problems could be resolved by "soaking the rich" | |||||
4. Rising expectations may lead to comparison w/ a better situated group | |||||
Improved circumstances permit members of the rising grp to assume many of the characteristics of a group above them | |||||
When people begin to dress like a higher group, drive similar cars, live in similar neighborhoods, & speak w/ similar accents, they adopt the higher category as a comparison group | |||||
If their progress is reversed, they are thrown back w/ former members & feel a relative deprivation | |||||
RDT & Revolution | |||||
James Davies examined the factors leading to revolutions | |||||
During innumerable periods in history, people lived in dire poverty, or were subject to extreme oppression, but did not rise up in protest | |||||
People often endure such conditions of dire poverty w/ either resignation or mute despair | |||||
Revolutions are more likely to occur when there is a rise of people's living conditions | |||||
Once standards of living consistently go up, people's expectations also rise | |||||
If improvement in actual conditions subsequently slows down, propensities to revolt are created because gains are less than expectations | |||||
Social protest & ultimately revolutions tend to occur in circumstances in which there is some improvement in people's conditions of life | |||||
Examples of RDT & revolution can be seen in the collapse of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s & early 1990s & it's transformation into partially democratic & partially state capitalist Russia | |||||
Research on RDT | |||||
The research on RDT is inconsistent | |||||
Research has not shown a strong relationship btwn peoples' feelings of deprivation & their participation in soc mvmts | |||||
Regardless of how people feel, they are equally likely to participate in a soc mvmt | |||||
People who participate in soc mvmts often feel quite discontented while many of those who do not participate share the same feelings | |||||
The discontented who do not participate in soc mvmts often face barriers to taking action | |||||
The discontented who do not participate in soc mvmts often do not get support from other around them | |||||
Development of a collective identity is crucial step in becoming involved w/ a soc mvmt |
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- Project: Which Resources are Critical? |
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Resource Mobilization Theory ( RMT ) gained prominence w/ the publication of Social Conflict and Social Movements by Anthony Oberschall (1973) |
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Mass society theory ( MST ) was still the dominant perspective and Oberschall criticized Kornhauser's theory as failing to account for the social processes that make it possible for a mvmt to form & succeed |
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Research done during the 1960s contradicted MST on anti-democratic mvmts such as McCarthyism and the Radical Right in the US or Nazism in Germany |
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RMT pays attention to political & economic factors while MST does not |
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RMT pays much less attention to psychological traits of member & makes no assumptions about individual motivations for joining |
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Individual alienation is considered irrelevant because RMT assumes that all societies contain enough discontent for social mvmts to arise at any time |
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For RMT, it is not the level of alienation in a society that leads to a soc mvmt, rather it is the org & leadership, or lack thereof, that make or break a soc mvmt |
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RMT's central assertion is that no matter how alienated, exploited, angry, etc. people feel, w/o org & leadership they cannot produce soc change | |||||
While discontent is always present in a society, the resources necessary to form soc mvmts are not always available | |||||
For RMT, in order for any mvmt to succeed, the org must acquire physical power, political power, or social support form a majority of citizens & or elites, political leaders, or other social leaders | |||||
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Mobilization refers to the process of forming crowds, groups, associations, & orgs for the pursuit of collective goals |
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Resources for mobilization include people, time, labor, money, communications, technology, intellectual elites, leadership, etc. |
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RMT focuses most heavily on mvmts that succeed through the persuasion & conversion | ||||
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Social support has become the most valued resource for many movements | ||||
Research demonstrates that the most successful mvmts are those that organize themselves in specific ways & manage available resources to their max efficiency | |||||
Average people w/ little or no individual power join together, & thus combine resources, to influence regional or national policy |
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Soc mvmts oppose legitimate authorities as well as any individuals or groups, who usually have significant resources, who benefit from the status quo |
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For RMT, the term Soc Mvmt refers to the presence of beliefs w/in a population that support soc change |
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For resource mobilization theory, the term counter movement refers to beliefs in a population opposed to a social movement |
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A Social mvmt org ( SMO ) is a complex or formal org which functions to carry out a plan of action representative of the beliefs of a soc mvmt or a counter mvmt |
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For example the civil rights mvmt desires racial equality & opportunity & w/in that mvmt there are the SMOs of the National Assoc for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP ), the Congress of Racial Equality ( CORE ), & the Southern Christian Leadership COnference ( SCLC ) |
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The civil rights mvmt gained strength from significant resources offered by sympathetic whites who were conscious constituents | |||||
The mobilization of white resources did not generate the civil rights mvmt, but it did help to sustain & strengthen it once it had become large & influential | |||||
Adherents are individuals & groups who believe in the goals of the mvmt & will benefit from it |
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Conscious adherents are people who believe in the goals of the mvmt even though they personally will not benefit if it succeeds |
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Constituents are adherents who provide resources such as time, labor, money, etc. to specific SMOs & benefit from it |
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Conscious constituents are people who help out SMOs even though they have nothing personal to gain from the group's success |
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Bystander publics are outsiders who don't care about the mvmt | ||||
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Free riders are outsiders who don't care about the mvmt but who will personally benefit from it | ||||
Opponents are outsiders who actively try to block the mvmt; opponents often form counter mvmts | |||||
Because resources are more available in a prosperous econ, growing prosperity is associated w/ protest mvmts | |||||
An important resource for any mvmt is interpersonal contacts which are a major source of new recruits, as well as of money, & other resources | |||||
Activities such as recruitment & fundraising are facilitated by modern communication tech | |||||
In modern society, like minded people are often concentrated in the same place & by other social factors such as networks form orgs or past mvmts | |||||
Characteristics of the soc mvmt org itself, the SMO, influence its ability to mobilize resources | |||||
An example of an SMO characteristic that is beneficial to the mvmt is when leadership teams include "insiders" & "outsiders" thus representing a broad base of constituents | |||||
Critique of RMT: | |||||
Oberschall insists that outside assistance is required for the success of most soc mvmts & thus many soc theorists believe RMT is elitist in that outsiders, especially powerful outsiders are critical for soc mvmts success | |||||
Oberschall believed that the desegregation achieved as a result of the Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 was the result of "...reform from above by means of legal and institutionalized channels for bringing about social change sponsored primarily by the progressive elements w/in the ruling groups and elites..." | |||||
Oberschall concludes that the civil rights mvmt would not have succeeded w/o the work of powerful whites | |||||
However, many social theorists believe that the mvmt led by black attorneys forced the Supreme Court, Pres. Eisenhower & other key players in the sense that black power made it politically expedient for these players to support civil rights |
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- Project: Can Soc Mvmts Save Politics? |
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McAdams is considered the founder of Political Process Theory ( PPT ) |
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McAdams critiques Mass Society Theory ( MST ) & Relative Deprivation Theory ( RDT ) for focusing on the psychological dynamics of followers, & Resource Mobilization Theory ( RMT ) for focusing on material resources & outside assistance, & ignoring political & social factors |
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Opportunities for soc mvmts are created by the larger social & political processes | |||||
Internal & external factors are considered equally important in PPT | |||||
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Important factors for PPT include org strength, cognitive liberation, ideology, beliefs, political connections, social structure, & political opportunities |
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PPT combines the best of MST, RDT, & RMT into a more historical & political perspective |
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Like RMT, PPT focuses on the factors that make it possible for a mvmt to form & to succeed |
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PPT examines the social factors that allow ordinary citizens to form soc mvmts in opposition to the dominant society |
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For PPT, political & econ factors are considered much more important than personal factors |
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PPT assumes that society is controlled by a small group of powerful elites |
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For PPT, popular opinion becomes one tool in the quest for power | |||||
Social changes does not occur because the people want it, but because a specific group manages to get enough political clout to make it happen | |||||
Soc mvmts are in situations in which common people join together to fight the elite forces that rule society | |||||
In PPT, mvmt members are somewhat viewed as folk heroes | |||||
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Because of the focus on on political & econ factors, the potentially revolutionary power of ordinary people, & the control of society by elites, PPT is considered to be aligned w/ various conflict theories such as Marxism, Mills' Power Elite Theory, Domhoff's Pluralistic Theory & so on |
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See Also: Conflict Theory |
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PPT's factors of soc mvmts include org strength, cognitive liberation, ideology, beliefs, political connections, social structure, & political opportunities |
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See Also: PPT's Factors of Soc Mvmts | ||||
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PPT focuses more on political connections than psychological or material resources |
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A soc mvmt is a political phenomenon, not a psychological one & is in a continuous process from formation to decline which does not develop in a set of rigid stages |
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McAdams assumes that wealth & power are concentrated in the hands of a few groups & that most people have little say in the major decisions affecting their lives |
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Soc mvmts are rational attempts by excluded groups to gain sufficient political leverage to advance their collective interests |
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All soc mvmts are in a struggle for social & political power against oppressors |
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A social structural factors considered by PPT is that the absence of repression of societies that are democratic, industrial, or urbanized makes it easier for soc mvmts to emerge |
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When people believe the system is vulnerable or amiable to protests & other tactics of soc mvmts, mvmts are more likely to emerge |
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People make cost benefit assessments of their potential participation considering whether a potential mvmt will succeed or just make a different or fail | ||||
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The anti nuclear mvmt failed in France but succeeded in Germany because the German govt's procedures provided opportunities for intervention by the public | ||||
In Germany, people perceived that the govt was amenable to change & this fostered their empowerment & activism which changed Germany's policies on nuclear power | |||||
During the Iranian rev of 1979, people believed the monarchy was weak & vulnerable, though by objective measures it was not, & because people acted on their beliefs, they created a power soc mvmt that unexpectedly succeeded in toppling the monarchy |
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- Supplement: Video: Invisible Children |
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- Video: You Tube Video: Invisible Children: 30 Min. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1Q960kPZ7Q |
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- Project: Kony 2012, Invisible Children Movement |
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THE KONY 2012: INVISIBLE CHILDREN MVMT WAS ESTB BY ONE MAN & THE INTERNET & HAS HAD AN IMPACT, BUT HAS ALSO SPAWNED CONTROVERSY BOTH FOR THE METHODS & THE RESULTS |
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Jason Russell decided to make the film internet film Kony 2012 to raise awareness of, & capture the warlord Joseph Kony |
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According to Russell's video, Invisible Children, Joseph Kony is one of the world's worst war criminals, |
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Russell called on leaders to support the international efforts now led by the United Nations & African Union to arrest Kony & his top commanders, bring the child soldiers home, & restore lasting peace |
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THE POWER OF THE MEDIA & ESP THE INTERNET VASTLY INCREASES THE POWER OF A SOC MVMT TO GARNER SUPPORT FROM THE PUBLIC, ESP SYMPATHETIC CONSTITUENTS |
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Russell recognizes the power of the media, esp the internet to bring attn to an issue |
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The global reach of the internet is changing the way the world works |
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Russell asks the philosophical question: 'Who are you to end a war?' And he responds, 'Who are you not to?' | |||||
Russell met a young boy, Jacob, was just 10 yrs old, in Uganda, which is Central Africa, & Jacob told him what he & other children were living through |
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Jacob had been abducted by the rebels led by Joseph Kony |
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Jacob wanted to be a lawyer, but now he feels it would be better if someone killed him so that he could be w/ his friends in heaven | |||||
Russell has been involved in the struggle in Uganda as a videographer for 9 yrs & in 2012 launched the Invisible Children Mvmt to stop Joseph Kony & his Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) from making war & using children to make war | |||||
Kony 2012 is a short film created by Invisible Children, Inc. & released on March 5, 2012 | |||||
The film spread virally | |||||
As of 30 March 2012, the film had over 86 mm views on YouTube, over 16.6 mm views on Vimeo, & other viewing from a central "Kony 2012" web site operated by Invisible Children | |||||
More than half of young adult Americans heard about Kony 2012 in the days following the video's release, making it one of the most popular movements of all time | |||||
The campaign has resulted in a resolution by the US Senate & contributed to the decision to send advisors to assist the African Union | |||||
The film also called for an April 20 world wide canvassing campaign, called 'Cover the Night' | |||||
On April 5, 2012, Invisible Children released a follow up video titled Kony 2012: Part II: Beyond Famous | |||||
THE INVISIBLE CHILDREN MVMT ENLISTED THE SUPPORT OF CELEBRITY CULTURE MAKERS & POLICY MAKERS | |||||
The Invisible Children Mvmt sought to increase impact by utilizing celebrity culture makers | |||||
The Invisible Children Mvmt successfully enlisted the support of culture makers such as George Clooney, Angelina Jolie, Oprah, Taylor Swift & Ryan Seacrest | |||||
The Invisible Children Mvmt successfully enlisted policy makers that have the power to keep US govt officials in Africa in order to work toward the capture of Kony | |||||
The Invisible Children Mvmt successfully enlisted the support of policy makers such as President George W. Bush and his Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and US Senator & former presidential candidate John Kerry | |||||
This list included 20 "celebrity culture makers", such as
The list also featured 12 ". This list includes former U.S. |
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KONY WAS INDICTED AS A WAR CRIMINAL BY THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT (ICC) B/C OF HIS USE OF CHILDREN AS SOLDIERS & SEX SLAVES, & GOVTS HAVE FOUGHT AGAINST HIM, & THE INVISIBLE CHILDREN MVMT HAS LOBBIED THESE GOVTS TO INCREASE OPPOSITION TO KONY | |||||
The original plan was to launch the video in March of 2012 & to estb the international motivation & resources to capture or kill Kony by Dec, 2012 | |||||
It is estm that Kony has abducted 30 K boys & girls into the LRA; the boys as soldiers & the girls as sex slaves | |||||
Kony forces the children to either be dismembered or to kill their parents & then he addicts them to mind numbing drugs | |||||
The ICC indicted Kony as a war criminal in 2005 | |||||
Kony has been the number one war criminal on a number of western most wanted lists | |||||
Even though Kony was well known among the justice systems of many nations, 99 % of the people had no idea who he was & many people have been convinced that Kony & the entire was is a hoax | |||||
At the beginning of Russell's internet blitz against Kony, the US govt, as were most western govts, refused to get involved in Central Africa where clear national interests were not at stake | |||||
The LRA was making war in Uganda as well as escaping to remote regions of neighboring nations | |||||
THE MVMT HAS MADE THE CHILDREN OF CENTRAL AFRICA 'VISIBLE' & HAS MADE KONY A HOUSEHOLD NAME, GOVTS CONTINUE TO PURSUE HIM | |||||
Russell is using money raised by the Invisible Children internet video to bring Jacob & others to the US to speak out, so that the invisible become visible | |||||
Russell took the signatures of 100s of 1000s of Americans to Congress & lobbied both Reps & Dems | |||||
Congress acceded to Russell & his supporters & deployed 100 personnel to Central Africa to advise & assist Ugandan forces in pursuit of Kony | |||||
Russell & the Invisible Children Mvmt made demands to govt leaders
that:
a. the Ugandan military must find & capture Kony b. the technology to track Kony must be made available to pursuing forces c. people must care, support the killing or capture of Kony & stop the LRA d. Kony's name must be everywhere; he must be made visible |
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For 20 yrs no one cared as Kony rampaged over Central Africa, but Kony is now a household name | |||||
Russell & Invisible Children Mvmt ask that supporters get one of their Actions Kits to raise awareness & money | |||||
THE METHODS & OUTCOMES OF THE INVISIBLE CHILDREN MVMT ARE CONTROVERSIAL W/ SUPPORTERS SAYING 'NOW THE CHILDREN ARE NOT INVISIBLE' & CRITICS SAYING LITTLE HAS CHANGED | |||||
Support for the Invisible Children Mvmt (ICM) in the West has noted that before the mvmt, the US was not involved; only the UN & the African Union was involved in pursuing Kony, but since the ICM, the US has twice increased support in the form of advisors & resources | |||||
Critics of the ICM claim that much of the opposition to Kony was already in the pipeline & the mvmt has not increased support | |||||
African supporters of the ICM note that there has been an the increase in support for pursuing Kony, that Kony is less powerful, that Kony is & is now essentially on the run, & that the world now has a greater awareness of the plight of child soldiers & sex slaves | |||||
African critics not that Kony is still at large, that Kony is not merely a Ugandan problem, he rampages through the wildlands of many nations, that the money could be better spent helping to educate children, & rehabilitate child soldiers & sex slaves, that getting rid of one person is not going to change much |
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Terrorism is the use of violence, usually against civilian targets, as a means of intimidation or social control |
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Terrorism is the use of violence usually by nongovt groups to achieve political ends |
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Terrorism is the use of terrorizing methods to produce a state of fear & submission |
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Terrorism is the use or threat of violence to create fear & alarm | |||||
Terrorists murder and kidnap people, set off bombs, hijack airplanes, set fires, and commit other serious crimes | |||||
But the goals of terrorists differ from those of ordinary criminals in that most criminals want money or some other form of personal gain | |||||
But most terrorists commit crimes to support political causes | |||||
The word terrorism first appeared during the French Revolution (1789-1799) | |||||
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The term terrorism came into use in the modern sense during the Reign of Terror in France & also in Russia to describe a political party who aimed at the demoralization of the govt by terror |
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Some of the revolutionaries who seized power in France adopted a policy of violence against their enemies | |||||
The period of the rule of Fr Revolutionaries became known as the Reign of Terror | |||||
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See Also: The History of Terrorism | ||||
Terrorism can be committed either by clandestine orgs or by govts, or by the two in cooperation |
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Clandestine orgs that commit terrorism are usually associated w/ insurgent groups, militant & highly ideological protest groups that are generally revolutionary |
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See Also: Rationality & Collective Behavior |
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Clauswitz ( 1780-1831 ) held that war is "nothing but a continuation of political intercourse w/ an admixture of other means;" i.e. war is politics by other means, or war is an extension of politics |
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In the Clauswitzian sense, terrorism is war by other means; terrorism is politics by other means |
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While in many cases the line btwn behaviors that are labeled as terrorism or war is clearly understood by all, there are nearly as many cases where it is not |
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Often the labeling of a behavior as war or terrorism is drawn by the more powerful, the victor |
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For Clauswitz, "War is thus an act of force to compel our adversary to do our will." Force, "that is to say physical forces, [is the] means; to impose our will upon the enemy is the object." |
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The goals of war & terrorism are often the same, thus the causes of war are often similar in form to the causes of terrorism |
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The participants in war are often different than the participants in terrorism because war is by definition, conflict conducted by states, & while some terrorism is conducted by states, it is often conducted by nongovt orgs |
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Terrorism is often used as an alternative to war since terrorists have no state resources & few other resources w/ which to conduct war |
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States & terrorists sometimes use terrorist tactics when their primary objective is intimidation or fear because they believe war would be ineffective or possibly too costly |
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Terrorists: |
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International terrorists are generally well educated rebels, & not poor, who act on behalf of an ideology, are "true believers," are "ideological purists," & see their own view as "correct" & see those who disagree w/ them as being in need of "education" | ||||
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Terrorists groups often form among ethnic or religious separatists or nationalists who seek to create their own state apart form the larger society in which they live |
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Osama Bin Laden's Al Queda network is based on fundamentalist Islamic nationalism | |||||
French speaking separatists in Quebec, Canada are united by their common heritage | |||||
Basque separatists in Spain are an ethnic group | |||||
Palestinians in the Mideast share a common religion & nationalistic group | |||||
In general, domestic terrorists in the US such as the Ku Klux Klan, various neo Nazi & "skinhead" groups, radical environmentalists groups such as the ELF, & radical animal rights groups are linked less by religion & ethnicity than by ideology | |||||
Domestic terrorists in the US tend to be poor & relatively uneducated although their leaders probably have more ed | |||||
Counter mvmt terrorists in the US include antiabortionists & the Ku Klux Klan | |||||
Terror Tactics: | |||||
Terrorists tend to specialize in one or a few types of violence such as bombings, assassinations, armed assaults, kidnapping, hostage taking, hijackings, etc., however, terrorists may also use crimes of opportunity such as bioterrorism, nuclear terrorism, chemical terrorism, using airliners as missiles, etc. |
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While terrorism is often associated w/ non govt orgs, govts also commit terrorism |
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Often govt sponsored terrorism takes the form of counter mvmt terrorism which aims to intimidate its opponents |
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Govt sponsored counter mvmt terrorism is most common in authoritarian & totalitarian govts though some democratic govts also engage is terrorism |
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Govts engage in terrorism through their police, intelligence, & military, as well as through shadow, non govt groups which they sponsor, encourage, or simply allow to operate w/ impunity |
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The US supported El Salvador w/ millions of dollars of aid, & extensive military training when it was known that the govt had conducted 37,000 political murders from 1979 to `1984 |
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The most common forms of govt sponsored terrorism are political executions, death squads, torture, imprisonment w/o trial, & military attacks against civilian targets |
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Govt also assist insurgent groups in other countries as Iran has in Lebanon, Libya & the US have in Afghanistan w/ the Taliban regime, the US in Nicaragua, the US in Cuba, etc. |
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Govts do not usually participate directly in insurgent terrorism; rather, they assist underground terrorist orgs who carry out the actual attacks |
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Govts also engage in terrorism when the attempt to intimidate military opponents by bombing entirely civilian targets |
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Attacks on civilians by govts were common early in history as is documented by Roman attacks against Europeans, Atilla the Hun's decimation of cities, etc. |
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In the middle ages, war came to be fought almost exclusively btwn armies |
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During WW2, Germany fire bombed London & the US fire bombed Dresden, Germany, Tokyo, Japan, & more |
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The US dropped nuclear bombs on the cities of Hiroshima & Nagasaki |
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Many critics of war believe massive, overwhelming attacks on civilians are terrorism, while other note that civilians today are an integral part of the Military Industrial Congressional Complex |
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The labeling of who is a terrorist & who is a solder is often done by the more powerful, the victor |
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Both govts & advocacy groups characterized their opponents as "terrorists" & their supporters as "freedom fighters" |
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For Farley, it should be behavior & not ideology which defines a terrorist act |
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For Farley, attacks on civilians are terrorism no matter who commits them |
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For Farley, Palestinian bombing attacks by undercover, men, women & children on Israeli civilians and Israeli military attacks on Palestinian refugee camps are properly classified as terrorism |
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What is now considered to be terrorist behavior is as old as humanity, though these acts were considered neither terrorist nor abnormal |
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Terrorist tactics have been used for millennia | |||||
In the early days, the customs of armies depended on might, rather than right & there were no Laws of War as we know them today | |||||
Prisoners of war were slain or made slaves & captured towns & cities were sacked, ravished, & burned & the conqueror's will was supreme | |||||
Over the centuries, civilization brought ameliorating changes & proper treatment of prisoners, the sick & wounded, & the civil population became recognized sometimes by special agreement or conventions btwn belligerents or local commanders, sometimes because of a more civilized influence of the victory | |||||
Ancient Greek, Assyrian, & Roman soldiers used carcasses of animals that had died of anthrax to poison wells | |||||
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Sparticus pillaged the Roman countryside & slaughtered 10's of thousands of solders who had surrendered & Rome responded in kind & then crucified over 6,000 of the insurgents |
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Atilla the Hun would command a city to surrender, & if they did not he would have everyone killed |
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When laying siege to a castle or city, attackers would catapult anthrax bearing animals, or diseased human over the walls to infect the population | |||||
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Political assassination, ambushes, guerilla warfare, torture, mass murder, etc. all were common |
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It was not until the middle ages when some limited rules of war were developed that some behaviors became unacceptable |
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It was not until the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution, 1789, that the term terrorism came to have its modern meaning as a crime, a war crime |
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The US revolutionary army including the Minute Men all who utilized guerilla war tactics were considered terrorists by the British who preferred the "field of honor" battlefield |
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During the Indian wars, British & Am soldiers & intentionally infected Native Americans w/ measles | |||||
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The Molly McGuires were inspired by a group of insurgent terrorists in Ireland in the 1840s who in the 1860s & later engaged in terrorism in the coal fields to win worker rights |
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The coal companies responded in kind & all the Mollies were killed or executed | |||||
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See Also: Molly McGuires | ||||
An American group, the Ku Klux Klan, used violence to terrorize blacks and their sympathizers in the late 1800's and the 1900's | |||||
For many, slavery itself, as well as the methods used to maintain it are a form of terrorism | |||||
From 1885 to 1900, over 2,500 lynchings of Blacks occurred | |||||
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In 1886 the Haymarket Square riot was instigated by a terrorist bomb |
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The perpetrator of the Haymarket bombing will be forever one of history's mysteries but he/she was either a low level labor advocate or an anarchist |
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See Also: Haymarket Square | ||||
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In 1910, union activists bombed the Los Angeles Times newspaper, killing 21 |
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In 1914, a Serbian national assassinated the Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, providing the spark that started WW 1 |
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In the 1930's, the dictators Adolf Hitler of Germany, Benito Mussolini of Italy, and Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union used state terrorism to discourage opposition to their governments |
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After centuries of conflict w/ Britain, in 1920, Ireland was divided into Ireland & Northern Ireland, & guerilla war broke out |
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Terrorist bombing by Irish Catholics, & military domination by British soldiers continues today | |||||
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Operations of war by civilized countries are governed by rules known as the Laws of War | ||||
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Some of the Laws of War, like the British or Am common law, are unwritten, although generally recognized while others are set in treaties & conventions to which many nations are parties | ||||
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The bases of the laws of war are military necessity, humanity, & chivalry | ||||
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Many of the important written laws of war are contained in the Hague conventions of 1899 & 1907 which deal w/ the opening of hostilities, the laws & customs of war on land, the duties & rights of neutrals, submarine mines, bombardment by naval forces, & projectiles from balloons, & the Geneva conventions of 1929 on the treatment of prisoners | ||||
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Violations of the Hague & Geneva conventions by sneak attacks & other terrorist methodologies are considered to be war crimes | ||||
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During WW 2, the fire bombing of London, Dresden, Germany, Tokyo, etc. were considered by some to be terrorist acts since they were attacks on civilian centers, while others maintained that since civilians were now an integral part of the Military Industrial Congressional Complex, such attacks were justified | ||||
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After WW 2, the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg was composed of one Am, Brit, Fr, & Russian judge | ||||
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Nuremberg confirmed older policies that there is a distinction btwn just & unjust war in that the unjust war is a war of aggression or a war which violates a peace treaty while just war is one that defends or responds to an attack on an ally | ||||
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Nuremberg also developed the concept of crimes against humanity which include murder, extermination, deportation, torture, & other mass atrocities, persecutions of entire racial, religious, & political groups provided such crimes are committed w/ crimes against peace, i.e. during a war of aggression | ||||
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Nuremberg thus left open the question of whether the complicity of govt against entire groups of its own population constitutes a crime against humanity | ||||
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Many terrorist acts can be considered war crimes as in crimes against peace & the more massive terrorist attacks could be considered as crimes against humanity | ||||
Before the independence of Israel in 1948, a Jewish group used terror to speed the end of British rule in Palestine and create a Jewish homeland | |||||
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As recently as the 1950s, terrorism in the form of lynchings of Blacks continued in the US |
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Another wave of terrorism began in the 1960's which had operations in many western nations & was politically inspired | |||||
Terrorist groups included the Red Brigades in Italy, which was active until the late 1980's, and the Red Army Faction in West Germany, which was active until the early 1990's | |||||
Both the Italian Red Brigade & the German Red Army Faction sought the destruction of the political & econ systems in their home countries & the development of new systems | |||||
Since 1960, Palestinian groups, including Hamas and Hezbollah, have carried out campaigns of terrorism aimed at establishing an independent Palestinian state | |||||
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In 1972, Palestinian Terrorists murdered Israeli Olympians |
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Since the inception of Israel, terrorism has become a method of war of Arab groups against Israelis | ||||
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In the 1970s, "DB Cooper" developed the innovation of airline hijacking & since then it has become an important terrorist weapon | ||||
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Recent Terrorist Acts Against the US: | ||||
198?: Bomb in German nightclub kills Am servicemen | |||||
198?: Truck bomb in Lebanon against Am barracks | |||||
1993: Bombing of Airliner over Lockerbee, Scotland | |||||
1993: Truck Bomb attack on the WTC by Mideasterners. A bomb exploded in the parking garage of the World Trade Center in New York City. The next year, a federal court convicted four men, including two Palestinians, of planning the bombing | |||||
1995: Truck bomb attack on the Murrah Fed building by Am anti federalists, w/ 168 fatalities | |||||
1996: Package bomb attack at Atlanta's Olympic Centennial Park by an Am | |||||
1998: Bombing of a US embassy in Kenya & Tanzania, Africa, w/ 224 fatalities | |||||
2000: Small boat, suicide bomb on the USS Cole in Yemen by Mideasterners | |||||
2001: Airliner attacks succeed against the WTC & Pentagon, fail against the Capital Bldg, by Mideasterners, w/ over 3,000 fatalities |
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The causes of terrorism parallel those of war, & thus are similar but not the same as the causes of war |
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Theories of terrorism must be tailored to account for the different groups that practice terrorism, ranging from anarchists to traditional religious groups, as well as the aims they hope to achieve, including revenge, publicity, organizing, social change, etc. | |||||
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Whatever the causes of war, the aim is to intimidate the enemy & force them to submit to your will, as is the aim of terrorism |
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If one follows Clauswitzian theory in that 'war is politics by other means,' & build on him to say that 'terrorism is war by other means,' & extending further, that 'terrorism is politics by other means,' then the aim of terrorism is political in nature usually attempting to bend the will of a larger or more powerful force |
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Terrorism occurs when war is considered to be ineffective because the enemy is superior in size, strength, etc. |
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The most widely accepted view of terrorism is that it is caused by socio political econ factors in that one party desires to force its society, its way of life on another group |
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Early theories of war, which may be applied to terrorism, are social psychological in nature as seen in McDougall's (1871-1938) view that tendency to war can be traced to an "instinct of pugnacity," an instinct not triggered by specific stimuli but by the blocking of other instincts |
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The theory that humanity is inherently aggressive is difficult to prove or disprove & it is not even clear if more or less people are engaged in war & war related activities & it is not clear whether the number of people killed in war as a percentage of the population is going up or down |
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War & terrorism are influenced by many of the same principles that influence other forms of collective action |
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Terrorists, people engaged in war, & people engaged in collective action generally have grievances; however, only terrorists & people engaged in war use violence |
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While the frequency & pervaisiveness of war is not clear, terrorism, social mvmts, & collective action in general are increasing |
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Terrorism, & social mvmts in general, can more easily occur in democratic, modern, industrial, global societies because freedom allows one to take advantage of the system |
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Post modernists note that as society has become more fragmented, soc mvmts have become less coherent & structured, thus becoming more expressive & less instrumental or effective |
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W/ the fragmentation of society, comes the fragmentation of systems of knowledge resulting in people having fundamentally different ways of knowing, ways of interpreting & acting in the world |
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Terrorism grows when diverse groups hold radically different views of the world |
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However, it must be noted that it is only in the modern age that humanity has had the hubris to posit one, or even a few ways of knowing, i.e. rationalism, & that historically the fragmentation of systems of knowing is much more common than the harmony of systems of knowing |
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The causes of terrorism can be understood in light of political economics in that if a system functions to keep particular classes, ethnic groups, religious groups oppressed economically, socially, politically, etc., then it is likely that they will try to change their system |
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If an oppressive group perceives that there is no legitimate route to change w/in the system, & if they perceive that war is not an option, then the opportunities offered by democratic, modern, industrial society offer the avenue of terrorism through which to pursue social change |
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Globalization itself is often seen as so oppressive to traditional, or tribalist groups, that it fosters hate toward the engines of globalization, i.e. the core nations & the multinational corps, & the ensuring terrorism |
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Some terrorists seek equal opportunity in the global competitive system, others are counter mvmts who seek to establish theocracies, still others want one particular govt brought down, others want one policy changed | ||||
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Political economic solutions are seen as addressing all of these grievances in that equal opportunity allows for the growth of a middle class who to date has always preferred democracy, the separation of church & state, equality for all parties & other core values of the modern system | ||||
Political economic solutions create the moderate middle class who can serve as a bulwark against radical tribalists, religious mvmts, and so on |
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- Project: Counter Measures to Terrorism |
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1. MILITARY SOLUTIONS | |||||
Almost all of the work on counter terrorism focuses on insurgent & transnational terrorism & typically ignores vigilante & state terrorism |
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There cannot be an all purpose solution to terrorism because there is no unified terrorist thereat & because of the diversity of objectives (short & long term) |
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Law enforcement & military approaches discourage attacks, stop attacks, & respond to attacks & while their actions are important, we must look to other sources for a more comprehensive view |
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Target hardening includes making targets more secure & safe |
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The law & the legal system may discourage attacks, but more importantly, it has the ability to defuse the structural causes of terrorism |
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The effectiveness of pre emptive strikes is in doubt since they often cause more animosity |
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The Israeli invasion of the West Bank in 2002 destroyed some bomb factories & capturing some leaders, but history will tell whether it is radicalizing an entire generation of Arabs |
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Is the American attack against Afghanistan in 2001-2002 effective? |
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The US bombings in Afghanistan & Africa in retaliation to the bombing of the USS Cole are generally thought to be counter effective |
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The US bombing of Libya in response to the Berlin attacks is thought to have caused the Flight 103 bombing |
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Counter terrorism poses a threat to our civil liberties though
the implementation of such policy options as
- the universal ID - video surveillance - treasury surveillance of all of our financial transactions ( begun in 2004 ) - lax restrictions of wire tapes, surveillance, incarceration, etc. in the name of national security |
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2. ECONOMIC & SOCIAL SOLUTIONS | |||||
If inequality, oppression, & other social problems lie at the heart of terrorism, then this is where the solution lies |
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Rubenstein argues that terrorism derives from US imperialism & that an end to US involvement in other nations would do much to end terrorism |
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Most experts on globalization agree that economic & social conditions around the world are worsening |
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Amnesty International documents the worst examples of govt violence | |||||
There is always the question of whether terrorists can be assuaged or where they desire the downfall of western society | |||||
Many social analysts including significant actors in the political & military sectors of western society recognize that law enforcement & military solutions to terrorism, war & other forms of collective violence are merely addressing symptoms of collective violence | |||||
Reducing poverty, exploitation, & oppression is the ultimate solution to terrorism & war | |||||
However, law enforcement & military solutions are easier in that social solutions are less developed & much more complex | |||||
Social solutions to poverty, exploitation, & oppression on a global scale have only been developed in the last few decades through orgs such as the UN, the Peace Corp, & other such efforts as the program to establish free nations in the Balkans after the Balkan war of the 1990s, & Iraq in the 2000s | |||||
And nation building in Iraq certainly focused more on a military solution than a nation building solution, at least in the beginning | |||||
It is not clear how to establish a nation in Iraq at this time | |||||
Perhaps when nations spend as much money on their equivalent of the State Department, focusing on diplomatic & economic development, as on the Department of Defense, nation building will be as viable & effective a solution as military domination & war | |||||
It is important to note that in general the economic elite of the world both benefit from war because supplying the military industrial complex is highly profitable, & because they have a secured grip on the wider economy | |||||
Because the world elite classes would lose their advantages of the profitability of the military industrial complex & the wider economy if solutions to poverty, if exploitation, & oppression were to be eliminated, some social analysts view the elite as actively working to preserve their interests & inflame war & conflict, while other social analysts disagree | |||||
3. RELIGIOUS SOLUTIONS | |||||
While some maintain that religious radicalism is also a root cause to terrorism, war & other forms of collective violence, this has not been conclusively demonstrated | |||||
Throughout history, in nations throughout the world, radical, violent religious sentiments have lessened as economic & social justice have expanded | |||||
An example of the lessening of radical & violent tendencies of religion can be seen in the development of Christianity which in the Middle Ages & the Early Industrial Era was a factor in centuries of warfare around the world but now is not generally seen as an important factor | |||||
Radical, violent religious sentiments increase under conditions of social & economic oppression & lessen under favorable social & economic conditions | |||||
The role of religion in collective violence is often confused because religious, race, & ethnic lines often parallel class lines | |||||
The parallel of religious, race, & ethnic lines w/ class lines can be seen in the situation of Northern Ireland where the Protestant British upper class exploited & militarily dominated the Catholic Irish in their own nation of Ireland | |||||
This Protestant - Catholic war which has raged & cooled over centuries has on the surface appeared as a religious war when it has as much to do w/ economic & social exploitation of a poor nation by a powerful one in order to be able to economically exploit the conflicted territory | |||||
The Arab - Israeli conflict in the middle east appears as a Islamic - Jewish religious war when it has has as much to do w/ economic & social exploitation | |||||
While there is no doubt that ideologies of religious & moral tolerance are an important part of ending collective violence, most social analysts believe that these messages must be combined w/ economic & social solutions |
The End
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