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 Review Notes on   IS 16:  Social Movements & Change
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  Syllabus, Online Course 
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 Resources 
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Outline on IS 16:  Social Movements & Change
  
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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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     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   
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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  

 
Internal
Links

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 Outline on  Social Movements
External
Links
  -  Supplement:  Video:  Social Mvmts
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  -  Video:  Living Wage:  The Insider Story:  UVa, 2006        3:07 minutes
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  -  Video:  Living Wage:  The Arrests:  UVa, 2006      27 sec
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  -  Video:  The US vs. John Lennon          1 hr 36 min
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  - Project:  Video:   John Lennon  & Social Movements 
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  A Social Movement is a large number of people acting together on behalf of some objective or idea
 
  A Social Movement usually involves use of non institutionalized means such as marches, protests, rallies, boycotts, etc., to support or oppose some social change
 
  A defining characteristic of a Social Movement is that it involves substantial numbers of people for an extended period of time
 
  A social movement is a group of people who organize in an attempt to encourage or resist some kind of social change  
  A social movement is a group of people who have no political power who join together in order to acquire some  
  People in a social mvmt hope to influence their community or their society by joining together  
 
 A Social Movement has an agenda that it seeks to promote
 
 
 Generally, the agenda of a soc mvmt is contained w/in a larger ideology, which is a  world view (a set of beliefs & values) that it seeks to promote
 
  The success of a social movement depends on its ability to convince participants & general public of the merits of its objectives
 
  A Social Movement has large scale membership, a promotional character, & a sophisticated administrative process whose structure varies as the Social Movement develops
 
  For many social theorists, Social Change & Social Movements are part of a historic, dialectical & mutually reinforcing relationship
 
  Redcliff & Benton demonstrate that there are FOUR broad perspectives to the examination of social mvmts, including:  1.  the Descriptive Approach, 2.  the Historical Approach,  3.  Systematic Classification,  4.  the Comparison of Soc Mvmts & Interest or Pressure Groups  
  1.  The descriptive approach, though not founded on post-modernism, is post modernist in its view that there is no consistent logic that captures all the qualities of soc mvmts  
  Because there is no consistent logic, analysts should rely on general description therefore we must rely on a general description  
  For Yearly there is no categorization that adequately describes Soc Mvmts & we must rely on description & consensus as to what is a SM & what is not  
  Most collective behavior theorist consider soc mvmts to be a type of collective behavior, but others see soc mvmts as a separate, unique form of social behavior
 
  2.  The historical approach to examining soc mvmts attempts to articulate the interest of some developing historical actor  
  Giddens notes that articulating interests may seem easy in retrospect, but is very difficult in practice, & even the most skilled analysts can rarely predict the future beyond a few days or weeks w/ any accuracy  
  See Also:  The History of Soc Mvmts  
  3.  The systematic classification of social mvmts examines the different functions of soc mvmts in society & as well a comparison of the roles or niches that different types of soc mvmts fulfill  
  One important type of systematic classification of social mvmts is done by Giddens in his examination of the institutional dimensions of modernity  
  For Giddens the major institutions of modernity are capitalism, surveillance, militarism, & industrialism  
  For Giddens the power of the major institutions of modernity is being met, reflexively, by soc mvmts  
Link
 The Table of the Institutions of Modernity & the Reflexivity of Social Mvmt shows that soc mvmts balance, challenge, temper, etc. the actions of the most powerful structures of modernity  
  See Also:  Giddens  
  4.  The separation of soc mvmts from "pressure grps" is an important distinction that many analysts fail to make  
  For Redcliff & Benton, soc mvmts do cognitive praxis in that they produce innovative knowledge claims while pressure mvmts are a subset of a soc mvmt in that the latter may disseminate the knowledge that  soc mvmts create  
  Praxis is the combination of theory & social action  
  Soc mvmts define a new way of thinking, a world view, an ideology  
  However, some soc mvmts seem to have no new ideology, i.e. Moral Majority, & these types of mvmts are considered to be a unique type, often called counter mvmts, which are attempting to re-assert an old ideology  
  Major soc mvmt subjects
Political mvmt (revolution) 
Labor mvmt 
Women's mvmt 
Civil rights mvmt 
Envl mvmt 
Peace mvmt		  

 
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The Table of the Institutions of Modernity & the Reflexivity of Social Mvmts
PW
External
Links
Institution of Modernity
Reflexive Social Movement
  
Capital accumulation Labor mvmt  
Surveillance Democracy/free speech mvmt  
Military power Peace mvmt  
Industrialism Ecology mvmt  
The Table of the Institutions of Modernity & the Reflexivity of Social Mvmt shows that soc mvmts balance, challenge, temper, etc. the actions of the most powerful structures of modernity  

 
Internal
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 Outline on the  History of Soc Mvmts
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  For many social theorists, social change & social movements are part of a historic, dialectical & mutually reinforcing relationship  
  The dialectical & mutually reinforcing relationship btwn social change & social movements is seen in the demographic change of the Baby Boom, the relationship btwn it & the post WW2 growth of higher ed, both of which spawned student activism around Civil Rights, Vietnam, the Womens' Mvmt, & the Env Mvmt  
 
 Alain Touraine (1977, 1981) developed an analysis of historicity in soc mvmts examining why there are so many more mvmts in the modern world than there were in earlier times
 
  In the pre modern era, i.e. before the industrial revolution, soc mvmts as we know them were rare  
  There were few soc mvmts because authoritarian regimes brutally oppressed any dissent; there were generally only two classes, & the lower class had virtually no power or resources; communications & transportation were difficult making it difficult to consolidate people, their resources & power; & any significant trend toward a soc mvmt was usurped & developed through political systems, i.e. the Crusades  
  What are now known as the core nations transitioned from traditional societal forms to modern industrialized forms; from agricultural feudal economic systems to industrial econ systems; & from authoritarian kingdoms to democracies  
  Modernization, industrialization, secularization, & democratization have all allowed such social forces as soc mvmts, dissent, & individual & group deviance to flourish  
 
 In the modern era, individuals & grps know that social activism can be used to achieve social goals & reshape society
 
 
 Nations that have not experienced modernization, industrialization, secularization, & democratization are more likely to oppress soc mvmts, dissent, & individual & group deviance
 
 
 Social mvmts are more common in core nations than in peripheral & semi peripheral nations
 
 
 Social mvmts are more common in democratic societies than authoritarian nations
 
 
 In core nations, interest groups become more common & far more diverse, & social control weaker, which makes it easier for people to organize against conditions or ideas they oppose
 
 
 Democracy allows interest groups to flourish & become more diverse whereas authoritarian regimes view social movements as a threat & use techniques such as surveillance & imprisonment to immobilize them
 
 
 Modernization, including industrialization, makes the authoritarian practices of surveillance, imprisonment, harassment, assassination, deportation, etc. more difficult to carry out because people have resources to fight such tactics
 
  The former Soviet Union's authoritarian regime kept many social forces under it's control  
  When the Soviet Union collapsed in the 1990s, Eastern European & Central Asian nations & regions underwent rapid social change  
  In general, Eastern European nations have become more democratic unleashing a wide variety of ethnic, religious, & nationalist mvmts  
  In general, Central Asian nations have become less authoritarian than the former Soviet Union & have developed theocracies  
  Historically the major social mvmts which developed in the US include the Labor mvmt, the Civil Rights mvmt, the the Anti War mvmt, the Womens' mvmt, the Env mvmt, & others  
  The major, early soc mvmts in the US have become institutionalized in that they are widely practiced, important, necessary, & taken for granted part of modern soc structures  
  Some contemporary mvmts include the Nuclear Freeze mvmt, gay rights, intl human rights, animal rights, consumer rights, & others  
  An important quality of soc mvmts today is the development of the soc mvmt industry  
  As the early soc mvmts became institutionalized, they developed the soc mvmt industry which functions both to support &, to a limited extent, create soc mvmts  
 
 The soc mvmt industry offers ready made, for sale support knowledge tech, process tech, & physical tech on the production of ideology, soc mvmts, etc. 
 
 
 Soc mvmts are highly networked in that many work together & support each other
 
 
 Non governmental organizations (NGOs) are closely related to soc mvmts, but are more likely to be engaged in direct assistance or support to a particular class or group of people
 
  NGOs will often try to minimize their ideology in order to raise $$ to support their assistance efforts  
  NGOs & soc mvmts both utilized the soc mvmt industry  
  Soc mvmts, the soc mvmt ind, & NGOs all form a network, which is tightly linked to govt  
  Redclift and Benton (1994) note that little attn is paid to inter soc mvmt relationships; i.e., the extent of soc mvmt cooperation, conflict & it's effect on the shape of society  

 
Internal
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 Outline on  Interest Groups
External
Links
 
 An interest group is organized to pursue specific interests in the political arena, operating primarily by lobbying the members of legislative bodies
 
  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  
 
 Interest grps today often lobby a legislative body, & more recently have also become involved in the public & admin rules making process
 
 
 Interest grps today have also become involved in the implementation of admin rules & serve as watchdogs on govt activities
 
 
 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
 
 
 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
 
 
 Interest grps may be linked to a soc mvmt, but they may also have a much narrower focus on just one issue
 
  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  
 
 Soc mvmts do cognitive praxis in that they produce innovative knowledge claims, while interest grps generally only represent existing knowledge claims
 
  Soc mvmts often employ, hire, or ally interest groups, lobbying groups & other similar types of orgs  

 
Internal
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 Outline on  New Social Movements
External
Links
  -  Project:  The Intersection of Culture & Social Structure via Social Issues by Social Group 
Link
  NSM'S ARE SOC MVMTS THAT ARE 'NEW' IN COMPARISON TO THE ORIGINAL OR 'CLASSIC' SOC MVMTS OF RELIGIOUS UPHEAVALS, POL REVS, THE LABOR MVMT, THE CIVIL RIGHTS MVMT, & THE WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE MVMT   
 
 New social movements ( NSMs ) are the social mvmts that have arisen in the later half of the 1900s in conjunction w/ the rise of democracy & modernization
 
 
 NSMs are distinguished from older social mvmts in that the latter were much more rare, often had to develop into a political mvmt or revolution to succeed, did not have the advantages of voice that democracy offers, nor of communications, the media, etc. as modernization offers
 
 
 Old social mvmts include the Crusades, the Reformation, revolutions, etc. while the NSMs include the Labor Mvmt, the Civil Rights Mvmt, the Women's Mvmt, the Env Mvmt, etc. 
 
 
 The NSMs arose w/ the demise of of traditional working class, the decline of industrial jobs
 
 
 Since the 1950s, the Working Class is down from 50% to 20% of the population w/ less than 15% unionized in US
 
 
 STRUCTURAL CHANGE IN THE 1ST WORLD 
 
 
 Since the 1950s there is a decline of social democrats as seen in the Reaganist dismantling of Keynesianism, the welfare state & other achievements of the FDRites
 
 
 The failure of social democrats to achieve their goals through traditional politics has fostered the fragmentation of the social groups supporting FDRism & social democratic policies into the NSMs
 
 
 A strength & weakness of the NSMs is that they must now accommodate diverse groups including the working class, ethnic & gender minorities (minorities in terms of power) and new middle class of NSMs such as the feminists, env grps, peace grps, anti nuke grps, etc. 
 
  NSM'S CRITIQUE OF SOCIETY ADDRESSES MATERIALISM, INDIVIDUALISM, RATIONALISM, ETC.   
  NSMs often offer a broad critique of society as seen in their position that  
  - modern society is based on materialism  
  - modern society is based on individualism in that we often either ignore the problems of others or assume they are individual & not social in nature  
  - science, rationalism, modern society, etc. have the ideology of omnipotence & infallibility, but are flawed, possibly fatally flawed  
 
 NSMs often embrace the modernist view of social change & knowledge, while some such as the anarchists eschew the modernist view in favor of chaos theory, post modernism, nihilism & so on
 
  LIMITS OF NSMs  
 
 The limits of  the modernist NSMs includes the viewpoint that knowledge is 
1.  limited
2.  politicized
3.  a product of existence
4.  the result of the interplay of knowledge & beliefs
5.  the result of globalized issues
 
  1.  LIMITED KNOWLEDGE  
 
 Knowledge is based primarily on limited scientific knowledge
 
  "Knowledge" is an unexamined combination of knowledge which is tested, 'valid' science (which has limitations) & beliefs which are untested 'valid' ideas, values, & norms  
  Environmentalism must be based on more than just environmental enlightenment based on physical science knowledge about the env  
  People view social problems in different ways, using different criteria including different scientific knowledge, values, politics, jobs, etc.  
  Scientific knowledge & beliefs are not fixed, rather they are experiencing rapid change  
  2.  POLITICIZED KNOWLEDGE  
 
 Science is politicized in environmentalism, abortion, & other social issues that enter the realm of public discourse
 
  The politicization of science is the result of the natural dev of paradigms in the creation of knowledge, the use of knowledge by various grps in society, the creation & control of knowledge by grps in society, & the fact that particular socio hist contexts negate the ability of society to accept particular bits or types of society  
  3.  KNOWLEDGE, BELIEFS, ETC. ARE PRODUCTS OF EXPERIENCE   
 
 Beliefs are a product of all levels of social existence
 
  Beliefs are formed through experiences in social structure & culture  
 
 Just as knowledge is learned through everyday experiences of teaching & ed, trial & error, etc., so beliefs, values, & norms are learned through everyday experiences of faith, tradition, etc.   
Link
 The Table on the Intersection of Culture & Social Structure via Social Issues by Social Group shows that knowledge, beliefs, values & norms surrounding an issue vary depending on what structure of society one is functioning in & by the group to which one belongs  
  The concept of master status embodies the idea that people may have a dominant social structure or social group to which they belong which in our society is usually one's occupation  
  However, even one's master status may be significantly influenced by one's relationship to another sphere of life such as ones' family, peers, religion, education, etc.  
  The relationship btwn social issues, social mvmts, social grps, culture, & social structure demonstrates that to a large extent all culture is local, i.e. situationally specific  
  4.  KNOWLEDGE & THE INTERPLAY OF KNOWLEDGE & BELIEFS   
 
 The identity of social problems come & go, i.e. enter & leave the realm of public discourse, on the basis of "knowledge AND beliefs"
 
  Knowledge is changed by science, politics, the media, social mvmts, etc.  
  The concept of the "social construction of reality" holds that the creation of the env debate, or any public debate,  is a product of science, media, politics, culture, etc.   
  5.  KNOWLEDGE & GLOBALIZED ISSUES   
 
 Many social issues are now globalized & have an impact on interest groups, & constituencies around the world, & these diverse groups & levels of analysis are extremely difficult to synthesize
 
 
 The env problem, or any public problem, engenders policies, grps, debates, lobbyists, think tanks, etc. & all of these actors must comprehend all levels of action & discussion from the global level to the national level to the regional level to the local level to the personal, & how these actors & levels interact in the complex processes of the public discussion
 
 
 The globalization of social issues can be seen in the dictum, "the personal is political," in that whether I drive a gas hog or an economy car, or whether I heat w/ coal, oil, nuclear/electric, wood, or super insulation, or whether I eat fast food or food from my own garden are all both personal choices & global issues
 
 
 The difficulty of synthesizing the interests of diverse groups & multiple levels of social existence can be seen in the failure of the env & other mvmts to understand the peripheral nations, the interests of the working class, businesses, & racism, etc.
 

 
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Table on the Intersection of Culture & Social Structure via Social Issues by Social Group
Social Movement or Group that is concerned w/ this issue: 
Social Movement or Group that conflicts or allies w/ the soc mvmt or grp on this issue:
Social Issue:
Social Issues that compete w/ this social issue for this social group: 
Culture -->


 Social Structure  \/
 Knowledge

 
Beliefs

 
Values

 
Norms

 
Peers
 
 
 
 
Family  
 
 
 
Religion  
 
 
 
Govt  
 
 
 
Military  
 
 
 
Economy  
 
 
 
Charity  
 
 
 
Education  
 
 
 
Media  
 
 
 
Recreation & Leisure  
 
 
 
The Table on the Intersection of Culture & Social Structure via Social Issues by Social Group shows that knowledge, beliefs, values & norms surrounding an issue vary depending on what structure of society one is functioning in & by the group to which one belongs

 
Internal
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 Outline on  Non Governmental Orgs
External
Links
  -  Project:  Video:The Power of NGOs
Link
  -  Video:  Lou Dobbs:  The Power of NGOs
Link
 
 Non governmental orgs ( NGOs ) are those orgs & networks that conduct govt or state functions which include the new govt functions of charity, family administration, religious admin, militarism, & so on
 
 
 Examples of NGOs include all types of orgs from the Red Cross, Family Crisis Support Services, Families of the Military, Greenpeace, etc. 
 
 
 NGOs are usually, but not always, non profit; however, they are becoming increasingly business like
 
 
 Even non profit NGOs are being organized & administered like businesses
 
 
 Etzioni notes that people have varying levels & types of commitments (varying value commitments, utilitarian commitment, etc.) to different types of orgs like NGOs
 
 
 See Also:  Etzioni
Link
 
 Profit vs. Non-Profit Orgs
 
 
 Non profits have a nondistribution constraint in that they cannot distribute profits to owners or those in control
 
 
 Some analysts believe that in non profits mgrs do not have the profit restraint as an incentive to manage effectively in 
- the control of costs
- seeking new mkts
- innovation
- expansion
- etc.
 
 
 With the expansion of the number & choices of non profits & NGOs, they effectively compete w/ each other for charitable dollars, & thus do have incentives to manage effectively
 
 
 Both traditional businesses & NGOs have incentives to act responsibly & to not engage in anti social acts such as
- taking advantage of consumers
- providing shoddy goods or services
 
 
 However, given the scope of the mkt for both businesses & NGOs, it is apparent that a few of both types of orgs produce shoddy products or services, or engage in outright fraud
 
 Link
 The Table on the Comparison of Business Firms & NGOs shows that while they vary on a wide variety of qualities, today they are experiencing institutional isomorphism, i.e. they are becoming more alike
 
 
 NGOs are frequently more dependent on their org network to function in that a small charitable org may network w/ several other local & national charities in advertising, holding awareness events etc.
 
 
 Because of their networking quality, NGOs are often networked w/ one or more social mvmts  
 Link
 See Also:  Social Mvmts  
  NGOs may actually be the parent of a social mvmt, & sometimes as a social mvmt becomes institutionalized, they spin off NGOs  

 
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Table on the Comparison of Business Firms & NGOs
PW & ?
Org Quality
Economic ( Business ) Org
NGOs ( Voluntary Orgs )
Instit Isomorphistic Quality
Incentive system utilitarian incentives normative, affective incentives Econ orgs are striving to become more socially responsible while NGOs are increasing efficiency
Commitment resources from the mkt members & constituency bring resources NGOs are utilizing more mkting strategies & tactics
Structure Complex div of labor w/ horizontal differentiation Simple div of labor w/ a simple structure Econ orgs continually spin off or merge in an attempt to become more efficient while NGOs are becoming bigger & more complex
Leadership & authority Hierarchical, centralized decision making, prof leadership Collegial, confederated authority w/ a democratic ideology & decision making & amateur leadership Because of scandal at Enron & World Com & others, econ orgs are becoming more responsive to investors & because of inefficiency, NGOs are becoming more hierarchical, centralized, etc.
Orgl Environment Specialized structure favored in a stable env & orgs tries to become the center of its org network Structure favors turbulent env w/ many orgs in peripheral, dependent position in its org network Econ orgs are experiencing a more turbulent env
Effectiveness The goals of profits, growth are quantifiable The goals of aggregation & expansion of member interests are ambiguous measures of success Critics on all sides complain how econ orgs are replacing their goals of profits w/ social responsibility while NGOs are replacing their member interests w/ goals of profitability
The Table on the Comparison of Business Firms & NGOs shows that while they vary on a wide variety of qualities, today they are experiencing institutional isomorphism, i.e. they are becoming more alike

 
Internal
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 Outline on the  Types of Social Movements
External
Links
  -  Project:  Classify the Types of Soc Mvmts
Link
 
 Because soc mvmts are so historically new, & because the study of soc mvmts is even newer, & because there are so many types of soc mvmts which are evolving & changing, there are several important types or categories of soc mvmts
 
Link
 Interest Groups  
Link
 NSMs  
Link
 NGOs  
 
 There are EIGHT types of soc mvmts, including 
1.  Transformative mvmts   (aka Protest mvmts)
2.  Counter mvmts              (aka Regressive mvmts)
3.  Redemptive mvmts        (aka Religious mvmts)
4.  Reformative mvmts
5.  Revolutionary mvmts
6.  Alternative mvmts
7.  Communal mvmts
8.  Personal cults 
& some theorists delineate one more, viewing Religious Mvmts as a separate form of Redemptive Mvmt
 
 
 The types of soc mvmts should not be confused w/ the various soc mvmts themselves such as the Labor mvmt, the Civil Rights mvmt, the Peace mvmt, the Women's mvmt, the Env mvmt, etc. 
 
 Link
 1.  Transformative mvmts (aka Protest mvmts) are soc mvmts which aim to produce major processes of social change throughout society  
 Link
 2.  Counter Mvmts  (aka Regressive mvmts) are social mvmts who seek to undo social change or to oppose a Transformative or Reformative Mvmt  
 Link
 3.  Redemptive Mvmts  (aka Religious mvmts) are social mvmts which seek to rescue individuals from ways of life seen as corrupting  
 Link
 4.  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  
 Link
 5.  Revolutionary mvmts are soc mvmts whose objective is to achieve some radical change, & remake the entire, or most of society  
 
 Revolutionary mvmts are a type of transformative mvmt
 
 
 A revolutionary mvmt hopes to achieve radical change through the elimination of old social institutions & the establishment of new social institutions
 
 
 Revolutionary mvmts are rare compared to transformative or reformative mvmts
 
 
 Rev mvmts often occur when a series of reform mvmts have failed to achieve the objectives they seek
 
 
 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
 
 
 Many countries have also experienced unsuccessful revolutions, including Chile, Argentina, Hungary, etc.
 
 Link
 6.  Alternative mvmts are soc mvmts whose objective is to bring about change by securing partial change individuals  
 
 7.  Communal mvmts are soc mvmts whose objective is to bring about change by the example of building a model society among a small group
 
 
 Communal mvmts seek not to challenge conventional society directly, but to build alternatives to it
 
 
 Some communal mvmts create household collectives, popularly known as communes, in which people live together, share resources & work equally, & base their lives on principles of equality (Kanter, 1972, 1979)
 
 
 Some communal mvmts develop work collectives, in which people live separately but jointly own, govern, & operate an org that produces & sells some product or service (Rothschild-Whitt, 1979)
 
 
 8.  Personal Cults are soc mvmts which occurs in combination w/ one of the other types of soc mvmts
 
 
 Personal cults are centered around a person, usually a charismatic individual
 
 
 The person at the center of a personal cult is revered by the people in the mvmt & may be elevated to a godlike status
 
 
 Personal cults are particularly common among religious & revolutionary political mvmts
 
 
 Examples of personal cults include Jim Jones & the People's Temple, David Koresh & the Branch Davidians, Do & the Heavens Gate group
 
 
 Personal cults need not all be so radical as seen in fan fanaticism, or in the devotion to a political leader like Mao Zedong, or JFK
 
 
 The classification of soc mvmts may be done by ranking them on their Breadth of Change & Depth of Change
 
Link
 The Table on the Breadth & Depth of Change in Social Mvmts demonstrates that the breadth & depth of change in society impact the type or nature of social mvmts
 
 
 Each of the types of soc mvmts may be seen as having a limited or radical change component, & may apply to individual, groups, or all of society, depending on the particular subject of the mvmt
 
 
 Giddens notes that emergent structural processes which appear to be becoming institutionalized dimensions of modernity are fostering the development of social mvmts to oppose them
 
 
 For Giddens, the emergent processes of capital accumulation created the Labor mvmt
 
 
 For Giddens, the emergent processes of surveillance by govt & corps created the democracy / free speech mvmts
 
 
 For Giddens, the emergent processes of the military-industrial- congressional-complex created the peace mvmts
 
 
 For Giddens, the emergent processes of industrialization crated the envl mvmt
 
 
 The emergent processes of globalization is creating the anti globalization mvmts, & the anti free trade mvmts
 
Link
 The Table on the Emergent process of Modernity & Reflexive Social Mvmts shows the reflexivity of social mvmts which arise in response to modernity
 
 
 Giddens & Beck see these soc mvmts as reflexive in that they respond to a social situation & change fundamental societal relationships & institutions
 
 
 Farley delineates FIVE types of soc mvmts, including protest mvmts, regressive mvmts, religious mvmts, communal mvmts, & personal cults
 
 
 Giddens delineates FOUR types of soc mvmts, including transformative mvmts, reformative mvmts, redemptive mvmts, & alternative mvmts
 
 
 Locher delineates FOUR types of soc mvmts, including alternative mvmts, redemptive mvmts, reformative mvmts, & revolutionary mvmts
 
 
 Types of soc mvmts (descriptive approach)
1.  Transformative mvmts    (aka Protest)       Farley  Giddens
2.  Counter Mvmts         (aka Regressive)       Farley
3.  Redemptive               (aka Religious)         Farley Locher Giddens
4.  Reformative mvmts                                    Giddens Locher
5.  Revolutionary mvmts                                 Locher
6.  Alternative mvmts                                     Giddens  Locher
7.  Communal mvmts                                      Farley
8.  Personal cults                                            Farley
 
 
 And how do we treat failed ideologies such as utopianism, Eugenics, etc.
 

 
Top
  
Table on the Breadth & Depth of Change in Social Mvmts

Depth
of 
Change
  
Breadth of Change
 
Specific Individuals
Significant Parts of Society
Entire Society
Limited Change
Alternative
 Mvmts
Transformative, Counter, Communal Mvmts
Reformative
Social Mvmts
Radical Change
Redemptive
Social Mvmts
Personal Cults
Revolutionary
Social Mvmts
The Table on the Breadth & Depth of Change in Social Mvmts demonstrates that the breadth & depth of change in society impact the type or nature of social mvmts

 
Top
  
Table on the Emergent process of Modernity & Reflexive Social Mvmts
Emergent Processes of Modernity Reflexive Soc Mvmt
capital accumulation labor mvmt
surveillance democ/free speech mvmt
military power peace mvmt
industrialism envl mvmt
globalization anti globalization & anti free trade
The Table on the Emergent process of Modernity & Reflexive Social Mvmts shows the reflexivity of social mvmts which arise in response to modernity

 
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 Outline on   Transformative Movements 
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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
 
  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
 
  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
 
  The social change aimed for by trans mvmts are cataclysmic, all embracing, & often violent
 
  Examples of trans mvmts include revolutionary mvmts, some radical religious mvmts, millenarian mvmts
 
 
 Trans mvmts are often called protest mvmts because protest is often their most utilized & effective method of achieving their goal of societal change
 
  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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 Outline on  Counter Movements
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  Counter mvmts are social mvmts who seek to undo social change or to oppose a transformative or reformative mvmt
 
 
 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
 
  Counter mvmts form directly in response to a trans mvmt
 
  Reactionary reformative mvmt are counter movements & they usually form immediately after a progressive mvmt has succeeded in creating changes w/in a society  
 
 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
 
  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
 
  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 
 
  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  
 
 Almost any transformative mvmt that becomes large & influential generates a counter mvmt (McAdam, McCarthy, & Zald, 1988)
 
 
 Counter mvmts develop among groups whose interests, values, or ways of life are challenged by the original transformation
 
 
 Counter mvmts & trans mvmts often engage in efforts to capture the support of public opinion (McAdam, 1983)
 
 
 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)
 
 
 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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 Outline on  Redemptive Movements
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 Redemptive mvmts are social mvmts which seek to rescue individuals from ways of life seen as corrupting
 
 
 Religious mvmts are redemptive mvmts in so far as they concentrate upon personal salvation
 
 
 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
 
  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  
 
 The line btwn a redemptive religious mvmt & a mainstream religion is usually one of institutionalization & general acceptance by society
 
 
 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
 
 
 Many redemptive religious mvmts never become accepted by society & either fade away or remain marginal sects or cults
 
  Examples of redemptive social mvmts include any religious mvmts that actively seek converts, such as the Jehovah's Witnesses & certain Christian fundamentalist & Baptist congregations  
 
 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)
 
 
 Redemptive mvmts include many religious sects, & even some relatively institutionalized churches, that nonetheless oppose some element of the dominant religion or culture
 
 
 Jehovah's Witnesses, Christian Scientists, & Mormons are relatively institutionalized but are not part of mainstream religious mvmts
 
 
 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
 
 
 Liberation theology is a redemptive religious mvmt concentrated in Latin Am Catholics
 
 
 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
 
 
 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
 
 
 Those who join are transformed, but the rest of the population of the world remains unchanged
 
 
 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
 
 
 Members of redemptive soc mvmts believe they are changing the world one person at a time
 
 
 The Promise Keepers, a religious based, men only mvmt, swept the US in the 90s
 
 
 The Promise Keepers are the most recent redemptive mvmt in the US
 
 
 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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 Outline on  Reformative Movements
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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
 
  Reformative mvmts are probably the most common category of social mvmts in American society  
 
 Reformative mvmts are a type of transformative mvmt
 
 
 Reformative mvmts often concern themselves w/ specific kinds of inequality or injustice
 
 
 A reformative mvmt strives to establish new policy in, for example, the env, foreign affairs, or for a particular racial or ethnic grp
 
 
 A reformative mvmt does not strive to eliminate or remake social institutions
 
  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  
 
 As a reformative mvmt, MADD sought to change laws & attitudes of law enforcement officials, politicians, & citizens toward drinking & driving
 
 
 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
 
 
 The suffrage mvmt, the civil rights mvmt, & the feminist mvmt are progressive reformative mvmts
 
  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  
 Link
 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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 Outline on  Revolutionary Movements
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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  
 
 Revolutionary mvmts are a type of transformative mvmt
 
 
 A revolutionary mvmt hopes to achieve radical change through the elimination of old social institutions & the establishment of new social institutions
 
  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  
 
 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  
 Link
 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  
Link
 See Also:  The Forms of Revolution  
 
 Revolutionary mvmts are rare compared to transformative or reformative mvmts
 
 
 Revolutionary mvmts usually occur when a series of reform mvmts have failed to achieve the objectives they seek
 
 
 There are "militia groups" in the US who believe the fed govt is evil & want to overthrow it
 
 
 The Montana Freemen could be considered rev soc mvmts 
 
  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  
 Link
 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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 Outline on the  Forms of Revolution
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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  
 
 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 
 
 
 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   
 
 3.  An insurrection is a revolution that succeeds in taking power, but soon fails at governing   
 
 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   
 
 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.   
 
 The objectives of rebellions usually are to secure more favorable treatment, or to replace a particularly tyrannical individual by someone less harsh 
 
 
 Until 300 yrs ago, the majority of uprisings were rebellions rather than revolutions 
 
 
 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
 
  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  
 
 See Also:  The Socio Historical Development of Revolution  
 
 5.  A coup d'etat is a rebellion by a military leader or leaders
 
  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   
 
 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 
 
 
 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
 
 
 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)
 
 
 For a rev to succeed beyond the initial takeover, the leadership must be able to achieve at least some of its targets
 
 
 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
 
 
 c.  A rev usually includes the threat or use of violence by those participating in the mass mvmt
 
 
 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
 
 
 In some rare cases, there have been peaceful revs, such as "the velvet revolution" in Czechoslovakia
 
  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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 Outline on the  Socio Historical Development of Revolution
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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
 
  Until 300 yrs ago, the majority of uprisings were rebellions rather than revolutions  
 
 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  
 
 Revs brought about historic & far reaching social change over the past 2 centuries
 
 
 The Am & French Revs of 1776 & 1789 were the most important revs of the 18th C & possibly of all time
 
 
 The ideals of those revs, liberty, universal citizenship & equality are fundamental socio political values upon which modern society is now based
 
  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
 
  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
 
  The term revolution came to be employed in its modern sense at the same time as the term democracy
 
  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
 
  Alexis de Tocqueville is credited w/ recognizing the important of the revolutionary, democratic mvmt
 
  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)
 
  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
 
  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
 
  The innovative nature of the Am & Fr revs was not apparent even to those who played the major roles in bringing them about
 
  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)
 
  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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 Outline on   Revolutions
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Outline on Revolutions
  
  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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 Outline on  Alternative Movements
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 Alternative mvmts are soc mvmts whose objective is to bring about change by securing partial change individuals
 
 
 Alt mvmts do not aim to achieve complete alteration in people's habits or lifestyles, but are concerned w/ changing certain specific traits
 
  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  
 
 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
 
  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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 Outline on the  Explanations of the Development of Social Mvmts & Revolutions
External
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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
 
  Giddens notes that articulating interests may seem simple in retrospect, but it is very difficult to read the present & the future
 
  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
 
  For Farley the necessary conditions for the formation of a soc mvmt include...
 
  1.  Dissatisfaction:  -  that people must be dissatisfied
 
  2.  Communication:  -  that people who are dissatisfied must be able to communicate w/ each other
 
  3.  Survival of repression:  -  that people must be able to survive attempts at repression
 
  4.  Perception of chance for success:  -  that the mvmt must seen by participants & potential participants as having a reasonable chance for success
 
  5.  Adequate resources:  -  that people must have adequate resources including leadership, money, supporters, etc.
 
  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
 
  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)		  
 
 The various explanations of the formation of soc mvmts each consider one or more of the necessary conditions for soc mvmts: 
 
Link
 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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 Outline on  Personality Theory of Social Movements
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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
 
  - people participate in soc mvmts to satisfy a personality need rather than to address a real grievance (Adorno, et al, 1950, et al)
 
  - people participate in soc mvmts because they feel isolated & alienated in today's large-scale & often impersonal society
 
  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
 
  At the social level, people participate in soc mvmts for more than personal reasons
 
  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
 
  Soc mvmt participants are not more alienated than other people; rather they are drawn into mvmts by friends & family
 
  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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 Outline on  Mass Society Theory of Soc Mvmts
External
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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
 
  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, 
 
  - a mass society creates mass mvmts  
  - Mass mvmts are anti democratic & seek to destroy or totally transform their society
 
  - 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
 
  - 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
 
  - Mass soc is dull, uniform, & mediocre
 
  - in a mass soc, people do not think for themselves
 
  - 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
 
  - the soc structure determines whether a society becomes a mass soc or a pluralistic soc
 
  - Mass mvmts are "popular mvmts" that operate outside of & against the social order & they tend to consume an entire society
 
  - Mass mvmts can be terribly destructive especially when a society is vulnerable to mvmts which aim to eliminate freedoms
 
  WW 2 is a strong influence for Kornhauser & MST, especially those events & mvmts which created Fascist Italy & Nazi Germany
 
  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
 
  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
 
  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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 Outline on  Marx's Theory of Revolution
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  Marx's theory of rev was based on his interpretation of human history 
 
  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 
 
  For Marx, the serfs, aristocrats, & church leaders of the Middle Ages had inevitably divergent interests 
 
  For Marx, the proletariat & the bourgeoisie of the Early Industrial Era had inevitably divergent interests 
 
  Marx would probably agree that the middle & upper classes of today have inevitably divergent interests
 
  The source of contradiction is found in econ changes, i.e. change in the forces of production
 
  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
 
  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
 
  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
 
  FEUDALISM
  Feudal society in Europe was based on production by serfs who were ruled over by two warring classes, the aristocrats & the church leaders
 
  Econ changes going on w/in feudal societies gave rise to towns, cities, freemen, merchants, artisans, etc., in which trade & manufacturing developed
 
  The new econ system w/in feudal societies, which was the nascent pure capitalism, threatened the very basis of feudalism
 
  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
 
  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. 
 
  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  
 
 In most Western nations, except the US, there are politically influential socialist & communist parties which have realized some socialist goals
 
  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  
 
 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  
 
 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
 
  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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 Outline on  Relative Deprivation Theory
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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
 
 
 Note that RDT refers to relative & not absolute deprivation
 
 
 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
 
 
 Where wealth & poverty exist side by side the poor are very conscious of their different situation & come to feel deprived
 
 
 When people are led to believe that there lot is going to improve & it does not, they feel deprived
 
 
 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
 
 
 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
 
 
 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
 
  Merton & RDT  
 
 RDT builds on Merton's reference group theory which holds that feelings of deprivation depend upon what groups people compare themselves with
 
 
 For Merton, & RDT, discontent is a consequence of relative deprivation rather than absolute deprivation
 
 
 For Merton a major question that RDT must answer is why do people choose the reference groups that they do?
 
 
 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 
 
 
 1.  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
 
 
 Class consciousness embodies combinations of a sense of injustice and class solidarity based on ethnicity, religion, race, occupation, "recreational group," etc.
 
 
 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
 
 
 So long as workers are jealous of their own, there is no solidarity
 
 
 The basis for a social mvmt occurs if people & their in group compare themselves to an out group that is similar, & feel deprivation
 
  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  
 
 2.  Status inconsistency fosters unfavorable comparisons with other groups and creates a sense of injustice and deprivation 
 
 
 Status inconsistency is created by a lack of consistency between education, training, socioeconomic status, & income  
 
 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 with 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 with a better situated group  
  Improved circumstances permit members of the rising group 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 tend to endure such conditions 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  
  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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 Outline on  Resource Mobilization Theory of Social Mvmts
External
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  -  Project:  Which Resources are Critical? 
Link
  Resource Mobilization Theory ( RMT ) gained prominence w/ the publication of Social Conflict and Social Movements by Anthony Oberschall (1973)
 
  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
 
  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
 
  RMT pays attention to political & economic factors while MST does not
 
  RMT pays much less attention to psychological traits of member & makes no assumptions about individual motivations for joining
 
 
 Individual alienation is considered irrelevant because RMT assumes that all societies contain enough discontent for social mvmts to arise at any time
 
 
 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
 
  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  
 
 Mobilization refers to the process of forming crowds, groups, associations, & orgs for the pursuit of collective goals
 
  Resources for mobilization include people, time, labor, money, communications, technology, intellectual elites, leadership, etc.
 
 
 RMT focuses most heavily on mvmts that succeed through the persuasion & conversion  
 
 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
 
  Soc mvmts oppose legitimate authorities as well as any individuals or groups, who usually have significant resources, who benefit from the status quo
 
  For RMT, the term Soc Mvmt refers to the presence of beliefs w/in a population that support soc change
 
  For resource mobilization theory, the term counter movement refers to beliefs in a population opposed to a social movement
 
  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
 
  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 )
 
  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
 
  Conscious adherents are people who believe in the goals of the mvmt even though they personally will not benefit if it succeeds
 
  Constituents are adherents who provide resources such as time, labor, money, etc. to specific SMOs & benefit from it
 
  Conscious constituents are people who help out SMOs even though they have nothing personal to gain from the group's success
 
 
 Bystander publics are outsiders who don't care about the mvmt  
 
 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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 Outline on  Political Process Theory of Social Mvmts
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  -  Project:  Can Soc Mvmts Save Politics?
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 McAdams is considered the founder of Political Process Theory ( PPT )
 
 
 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
 
  Opportunities for soc mvmts are created by the larger social & political processes  
  Internal & external factors are considered equally important in PPT  
 
 Important factors for PPT include org strength, cognitive liberation, ideology, beliefs, political connections, social structure, & political opportunities
 
 
 PPT combines the best of MST, RDT, & RMT into a more historical & political perspective
 
 
 Like RMT, PPT focuses on the factors that make it possible for a mvmt to form & to succeed
 
 
 PPT examines the social factors that allow ordinary citizens to form soc mvmts in opposition to the dominant society
 
 
 For PPT, political & econ factors are considered much more important than personal factors
 
 
 PPT assumes that society is controlled by a small group of powerful elites
 
  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  
 
 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
 
 
 See Also:  Conflict Theory
Link
 
 PPT's factors of soc mvmts include org strength, cognitive liberation, ideology, beliefs, political connections, social structure, & political opportunities
 
 
 See Also:  PPT's Factors of Soc Mvmts  
 
 PPT focuses more on political connections than psychological or material resources
 
 
 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
 
 
 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
 
 
 Soc mvmts are rational attempts by excluded groups to gain sufficient political leverage to advance their collective interests
 
 
 All soc mvmts are in a struggle for social & political power against oppressors 
 
 
 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
 
 
 When people believe the system is vulnerable or amiable to protests & other tactics of soc mvmts, mvmts are more likely to emerge
 
 
 People make cost benefit assessments of their potential participation considering whether a potential mvmt will succeed or just make a different or fail  
 
 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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 Outline on  Terrorism
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 Terrorism is the use of violence, usually against civilian targets, as a means of intimidation or social control
 
 
 Terrorism is the use of violence usually by nongovt groups to achieve political ends
 
 
 Terrorism is the use of terrorizing methods to produce a state of fear & submission
 
  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)  
 
 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
 
  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  
 Link
 See Also:  The History of Terrorism  
  Terrorism can be committed either by clandestine orgs or by govts, or by the two in cooperation
 
  Clandestine orgs that commit terrorism are usually associated w/ insurgent groups, militant & highly ideological protest groups that are generally revolutionary
 
  See Also:  Rationality & Collective Behavior
 
  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
 
  In the Clauswitzian sense, terrorism is war by other means; terrorism is politics by other means
 
  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
 
  Often the labeling of a behavior as war or terrorism is drawn by the more powerful, the victor
 
  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."
 
  The goals of war & terrorism are often the same, thus the causes of war are often similar in form to the causes of terrorism
 
  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
 
  Terrorism is often used as an alternative to war since terrorists have no state resources & few other resources w/ which to conduct war
 
  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
 
  Terrorists:
 
 
 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"  
 
 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
 
  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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 Outline on  Govts & Terrorism
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  While terrorism is often associated w/ non govt orgs, govts also commit terrorism
 
  Often govt sponsored terrorism takes the form of counter mvmt terrorism which aims to intimidate its opponents
 
  Govt sponsored counter mvmt terrorism is most common in authoritarian & totalitarian govts though some democratic govts also engage is terrorism
 
  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
 
  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
 
  The most common forms of govt sponsored terrorism are political executions, death squads, torture, imprisonment w/o trial, & military attacks against civilian targets
 
  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. 
 
  Govts do not usually participate directly in insurgent terrorism; rather, they assist underground terrorist orgs who carry out the actual attacks
 
  Govts also engage in terrorism when the attempt to intimidate military opponents by bombing entirely civilian targets
 
  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.
 
  In the middle ages, war came to be fought almost exclusively btwn armies
 
  During WW2, Germany fire bombed London & the US fire bombed Dresden, Germany, Tokyo, Japan, & more
 
  The US dropped nuclear bombs on the cities of Hiroshima & Nagasaki
 
  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
 
  The labeling of who is a terrorist & who is a solder is often done by the more powerful, the victor
 
  Both govts & advocacy groups characterized their opponents as "terrorists" & their supporters as "freedom fighters"
 
  For Farley, it should be behavior & not ideology which defines a terrorist act
 
  For Farley, attacks on civilians are terrorism no matter who commits them
 
  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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 Outline on the  History of 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 
 
  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  
 
 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
 
 
 Atilla the Hun would command a city to surrender, & if they did not he would have everyone killed
 
  When laying siege to a castle or city, attackers would catapult anthrax bearing animals, or diseased human over the walls to infect the population  
 
 Political assassination, ambushes, guerilla warfare, torture, mass murder, etc. all were common
 
 
 It was not until the middle ages when some limited rules of war were developed that some behaviors became unacceptable
 
 
 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
 
 
 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
 
  During the Indian wars, British & Am soldiers & intentionally infected Native Americans w/ measles  
 
 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
 
  The coal companies responded in kind & all the Mollies were killed or executed  
 
 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  
 
 In 1886 the Haymarket Square riot was instigated by a terrorist bomb
 
 
 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
 
 
 See Also:  Haymarket Square  
 
 In 1910, union activists bombed the Los Angeles Times newspaper, killing 21
 
 
 In 1914, a Serbian national assassinated the Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, providing the spark that started WW 1
 
 
 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
 
 
 After centuries of conflict w/ Britain, in 1920, Ireland was divided into Ireland & Northern Ireland, & guerilla war broke out
 
  Terrorist bombing by Irish Catholics, & military domination by British soldiers continues today  
 
 Operations of war by civilized countries are governed by rules known as the Laws of War  
 
 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  
 
 The bases of the laws of war are military necessity, humanity, & chivalry  
 
 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  
 
 Violations of the Hague & Geneva conventions by sneak attacks & other terrorist methodologies are considered to be war crimes  
 
 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  
 
 After WW 2, the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg was composed of one Am, Brit, Fr, & Russian judge  
 
 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  
 
 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  
 
 Nuremberg thus left open the question of whether the complicity of govt against entire groups of its own population constitutes a crime against humanity  
 
 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  
 
 As recently as the 1950s, terrorism in the form of lynchings of Blacks continued in the US
 
  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  
 
 In 1972, Palestinian Terrorists murdered Israeli Olympians 
 
 
 Since the inception of Israel, terrorism has become a method of war of Arab groups against Israelis  
 
 In the 1970s, "DB Cooper" developed the innovation of airline hijacking & since then it has become an important terrorist weapon  
 
 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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 Outline on the  Causes of Terrorism
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 The causes of terrorism parallel those of war, & thus are similar but not the same as the causes of war
 
  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.   
 
 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
 
 
 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
 
 
 Terrorism occurs when war is considered to be ineffective because the enemy is superior in size, strength, etc. 
 
 
 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
 
 
 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
 
 
 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
 
 
 War & terrorism are influenced by many of the same principles that influence other forms of collective action
 
 
 Terrorists, people engaged in war, & people engaged in collective action generally have grievances; however, only terrorists & people engaged in war use violence
 
 
 While the frequency & pervaisiveness of war is not clear, terrorism, social mvmts, & collective action in general are increasing
 
 
 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
 
 
 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
 
 
 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
 
 
 Terrorism grows when diverse groups hold radically different views of the world 
 
 
 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
 
 
 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
 
 
 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
 
 
 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
 
 
 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  
 
 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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 Outline on  Countering Terrorism
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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
 
  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)
 
  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
 
  Target hardening includes making targets more secure & safe
 
  The law & the legal system may discourage attacks, but more importantly, it has the ability to defuse the structural causes of terrorism
 
  The effectiveness of pre emptive strikes is in doubt since they often cause more animosity
 
  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
 
  Is the American attack against Afghanistan in 2001-2002 effective?
 
  The US bombings in Afghanistan & Africa in retaliation to the bombing of the USS Cole are generally thought to be counter effective
 
  The US bombing of Libya in response to the Berlin attacks is thought to have caused the Flight 103 bombing
 
  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
 
  2.  ECONOMIC & SOCIAL SOLUTIONS  
  If inequality, oppression, & other social problems lie at the heart of terrorism, then this is where the solution lies
 
  Rubenstein argues that terrorism derives from US imperialism & that an end to US involvement in other nations would do much to end terrorism
 
  Most experts on globalization agree that economic & social conditions around the world are worsening
 
  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  

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