PI1018: Citizen politics

Lynn Bennie
19 October 2020
Outline

• What is citizen politics?

• Groups, activism, protest and movements = the politics of influence
• Are these activities new?
• Do they supplement representative democracy or replace/challenge it?
• What does this mean for political equality?

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 Citizen politics (non-electoral/informal politics)

Pressure groups Protest

Self-organisation Social movements

Campaign activism Identity politics

Civil society Social media campaigns

Grassroots people power Politics from below

Group politics
Key distinction:
Interest groups protect sectional interests; aspire to have ‘insider status’ ; are
associated with ‘corporatism’ = Regular government consultation with key
groups. CBI, other business groups, Trade Unions

Cause groups (public interest groups) have outsider status; focus on

mobilising public opinion. Amnesty; Greenpeace; Anti-poverty

Dividing lines fuzzy but interest groups = part of traditional politics. Citizen
involvement fostered by other groups. And even broader concept of
movement politics:

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Social Movements: Black Lives Matter

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Social Movements: Extinction Rebellion

Sarah Pickard ‘Do-It-Ourselves’ (DIO) politics

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Social Movements

• Aims: challenge to political order/anti-establishment

• Organisation: informal, grassroots-based (non-hierarchical); networks (online)
• Often transnational mobilisation and protest
• Tactics: from the moderate (engaging with traditional politics) to the radical
(protest/NVDA)
• Collective action
• Individual actions (lifestyles)
• Collective identity

Informal networks created by a multiplicity of individuals, groups, and

organizations, engaged in political or cultural conflicts on the basis of a shared
collective identity. See Della Porta and Diani 2012.

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Social movements

School strike for climate movement (Greta’s Army)

Global climate strikes September 2019 – 150 countries

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Other examples

• Social justice/ anti-capitalism e.g. Occupy, following financial crisis

• LGBT
• Pro-democracy e.g. fall of communism in Eastern Europe; Arab Spring
protests in Middle East in 2011 (more on these later in the course)
• Peace/Anti-war e.g. protests against Iraq war
• Feminism
• Scottish independence
• Movements online e.g. response to refugee crisis

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New?
YES AND NO

• Group politics not new

• Movement politics not new
• Some new issues? Global emphasis.
• Transnational quality
• Communication tools new – digital technology informs and mobilises

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What does this mean for representative democracy?
We know the following:
• Citizen involvement in FORMAL politics in decline; decline in trust
• Some forms of non-electoral participation on rise (Dalton):
➢ Support for groups
➢ Demonstrations
➢ Political consumerism e.g. boycotts of products;
➢ Petitions
➢ Online activity
• Young more engaged in these ways

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Good for representative democracy?
• Amounts to evidence of engagement in other ways
• = expansion of participation repertoires
• Most conclude that these forms of participation
complement representative democracy
• They strengthen it

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BUT: Implications for political equality
• In established democracies, new forms of (non-electoral) activity are widening
the participation gap between social groups
• Voice of participation middle class/educated/white/male e.g. online activism
• Implications for public policy

Dalton 2017:
1. Evidence points to widening inequality of political voice
and influence
2. Middle class campaign for others – for those who need
help – but not ideal.

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Dalton 2017: 18

Well-educated citizens taking advantage of new participation opportunities

is a positive development for democracy. Many of their concerns address
issues shared by the public at large, empowering the citizenry. They are
being good citizens in representing their interests. So the political process
should not consider limiting their participation. However, if there is a wide
gap in who participates, and the loud voice of some drowns out the weaker
voices of others, this is not beneficial for those who are not heard or the
polity overall.

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Conclusions

• In affluent societies, engagement in formal politics is becoming more

intermittent
• Other action repertoires come to the fore
• Young people more engaged in these new ways
• Political inequality a problem (reflecting increasing economic inequality in
many modern societies)
• In the end, informal and formal politics are connected:

https://blacklivesmatter.com/what-matters-2020/

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