 The birth of modern social movements/approaches and theoretical (Week 2)

 Perspectives on social movements (Koopmans)

 Citizens and political behavior (Week 3)
 People in protest (Week 4)
 Political Opportunities, Threats, and Mobilization (Session 4)
 Political structuring and opportunities of social movements (Week 5)
 Mobilization in comparative perspective (Week 6)
 Civil society and democratization (Week 9)
 Parties, movements, and the making of democracy (Week 10)
 Resistance against democratic erosion (Week 15)

Approaches and Theoretical Perspectives on Social

Movements (SESSION 2)
Social Movements
 Sustained challenges to power holders in the name of a disadvantaged population living
under the jurisdiction or influence of those powerholders. (Tarrow: 1996: 874).
 Conflict between challengers and authorities as a normal part of society rather than an
aberration from it.
 Contradictions are a constant in society – once conflicts or social and political cleavages
arise, social movements emerge.
 normal part of the process of democratization (not orderly, not gradual, progresses by
way of revolutionary upheavals, and mass social movements)
 Democratization: renegotiating of how power is dispersed in society, wide dispersal of
power.
 Social movement is renegotiating the terms of power sharing in the name of the
disadvantaged population.
 Cracks in the system or social and political cleavages pave the way for movements to
emerge (no movement is built overnight).
Parliamentary of the Streets
 Political struggles are not only contained within the formal arenas of government,
parliaments, or courts-these have spilled over into extra-institutional arenas, particularly
in the streets.
 Further expansion of democracy has rarely happened without an intense political struggle
by social movements.
 Rights movements: looking at disadvantaged populations contending against power
holders.
 Example: free tuition, RH Law
 Movements can lobby.
 Not all movements are created equal.
  Theories are a product of their movement.

Classical Theories of Social Movements

Marx
 Class conflict
 Collective action that would birth a social movement is rooted in class consciousness that
develops through the ripening of the conditions of history.
 Missing: what drives classes to revolt despite the absence of the objective conditions of
history?
Lenin
 Resource mobilization
 Leadership as the primary concern
 Creation of an elite of professional revolutionaries or “vanguard” that would serve to act
as guardians of real workers’ interests.
 Organization was the solution to the collective action problem of the working class.
 Maoism (adaptation and application of Marxist-Leninist practices in waging revolution.
Did not replicate what Lenin did to win the revolution, but retained the basics such as
class consciousness, vanguard, etc.)
Gramsci
 Cultural hegemony
 Two theorems
o Fundamental task of the party was to create a historic bloc of forces around the
working class.
o This would occur if a cadre of organic intellectuals were developed from within
the working class to complement the traditional intellectuals in party leadership.
 Produce a countercultural consensus among workers, give capacity for taking
autonomous initiatives, and build bridges with other social formations.
 Elite organizations should be formed within the working class (working class-led)
 Same with Lenin but focuses more on cultural hegemony.
Tilly
 The polity models.
 Importance of state structure and to state
strategic imperatives.
Parallelisms with Contemporary Theories
 Marxism – Grievances and collective behavior theory
 Leninism – Rational choice and resource mobilization
 Gramsci – Cultures of contention
 Tilly – Political process model

Contemporary Theories
In relation to the role of social movements in democracy
Structure and Agency
 Actors are agency to social structures; social structures enable and constrain the actors.
 Any political reality has structure (context of where that political activity is taking place)
and agency.
 Interactive, actors are assumed to have agency (not simply influenced by enabling and
constraining tendencies of structures, may own agency and autonomy). their actions can
affect structures.
 Theory can be structural or agential (?)

Resource Mobilization – Agential because it focuses on the individuals.

 Mancur Olson (1965) – economic theory of collective action
 Social movements are rational, utility-maximizing actors.
o Centered on “movement entrepreneurs” who set up “social movements
organizations” and larger “social movement industries.”
 Criticized for focusing on movements/sections of movements that were relatively well-
organized, reformist, and middle-class and tended to downplay eruptive and disruptive
aspects of social movements.
 Devoid of political environment or structure
 There are incentives (what incentivized people to take part in the movement).
 Resource (time and willingness to take part).
 Limitations: does not take into account resource-poor movements but thrives.
 Agential model without much regard to political field or structure.

Political Opportunity Structure/Political Process

  Peter Eisinger (1973(, Charles Tilly (1978), Doug McAdam (1982)
 Context over Internal Factors; Context drives the movements.
 Movements can be studied only in connection with politics, varying in strategy, structure,
and success in different kinds of states.
 Charles Tilly’s (1978) From Mobilization to Revolution elaborated the conditions for
mobilization-including the opportunities and threats to challengers and repression by
authorities.
 A structural theory because context matters.
 Capacity to explain the variations in the amount and type of social movement activity
(ex. Differences in the Women’s rights movements across the globe.)
 Contexts are the determinants.
 Attempts to reconcile structure and agency thru an evolutionary approach, but still in the
works and not fully developed.
Reconciling Structure and Agency: Evolutionary Approach
 Focuses on the interplay of movement-external
(environmental selection) and internal
(variation/innovation and retention/diffusion)
elements.

The Place of Social Movements in Political

Science – Social movements have been central players in the expansion of
democracy, but it can also be a threat to democracy.

Dealing with Society: Citizens, Political Behavior, and

Protests (SESSION 3)
The Need to Talk About Political Behavior
 The wellspring of politics flows from the attitudes and behaviors of the ordinary citizen,
and that institutions of a democratic process be structured to respond to the citizenry.
(Dalton and Klingemann 2007).
Mass Belief Systems and Political Communication
For voters to make meaningful decisions, they must understand the options the polity
faces
  If the bulk of the public is unsophisticated, it is better for democracy that people remain
politically uninvolved (rational choice).
 The sophistication of voters is significantly affected by the political environment
(contextual explanation).
On Political Behavior
 Could explain why actors participate in a social movement.
 Help us explain why movements behave the way they do.
 For rational choice theories (subscribes to the idea that individual actors are self-seeking
utility maximizers): the inherent assumption that the idea of what is meaningful is
something that is standardized. What is meaningful and rational can be subjective.
rationality varies for every individual. rationality in objective terms is something the most
beneficial to that individual.
 contextual explanation: inherent ang agency ng individual, what drives a person's
political behavior, a little room for explaining as to what's the source of sophistication or
unsophistication of citizens.
On Political Participation
 Electoral participation represents the main type of political activity for most people
(Andrain and Apter 1995).
 Protest ~> Mass demonstrations, boycotts, strikes, sit-ins, fights with the police.
 Myriad of ways: voting, joining protests, volunteering, etc.
 Electoral participation does not only pertain to voting, it could also be campaigning,
joining watchdog groups, etc.
 The election is a state0sanctioned activity, legitimate process.
 Any movement formed within the context of the election is a movement formed within
the bounds of formal institutions.

Politics of Protest
 Looks into how challengers are negotiating the terms of the dispersal of power vis a vis
the incumbents or rulers.
 When the movement was successful, reforms happened… if it’s a failure, it can cause
ruptures that can result in regime change.
Protest and Social Change
 Protest movements reflect the key aspect of political life – the relationship between the
rulers and the ruled.
Major Issues
  Why do individuals participate in protest activities?
 Why do participants choose certain tactics to gain their objectives?
 What policy consequences result from the activities of protest movements?

Theory of Political Values

Cultural Values
 New interpretations of political reality mediate through groups and networks have the
potential to challenge dominant values through protests.
 How does political worldview emerge thru socialization (can take place in the family,
schools, peers, etc.)
Sociopolitical Values
 Power of the state, political parties, foreign institutions or how they can aid or
hinder....measurement of the degree of state repression (not only opportunities but also
threats are subjects of sociopolitical values).
Structural Conditions
 Focus is on the power of governments, political parties, domestic social groups, and
transnational institutions over the policy process.
Structural Opportunities Structural Constraints
1. Low coercion power exercised by the Highly repressive state police, security
state. agencies, and the military.
2. Extensive solidarity among protesters. Disunity among antiregime groups.
3. High autonomy of movement from Monitoring of dissidents who are dependent
tight state control. on ruling elites instead of the movement.
4. Support from foreign nation-states and No support from foreign institutions and
international organizations international organizations.

Individual Behaviors
 Ways in which the individual shapes the operation of political institutions
 What motivates an individual to participate in protest movements?
1. The value attached to the goals of an action.
2. Expected profitability of successful goal attainment
 High political efficacy can lead to influencing the policy process.
 Actions resonate with the people.
 Bandwagon is not always negative; it becomes negative when it is not translated into
something politically deeper.
Coercion and Channeling

State Agents Tightly
Connected with National
Elites
State Agents Loosely
Connected with National
Elites
Private Agents
Coercion
Military action against
protests; FBI
counterintelligence
Local Policing of protest;
local police
counterintelligence programs
Violence by
countermovement; private
threats made by a
countermovement
Channeling
Cutting off funding; on
nonprofits
Permitting requirements for
protest; financial aid
restrictions on students
convicted of crimes
Elite patronage is limited to
specific goals or tactics;
company towns

Political Opportunities, Threats, and Mobilization

(SESSION 4)

Central to the discussion:

 What pushes and pulls social movements into success or failure?
 How even is the playing field for all political actors?
 How do political opportunities and threats lead to regime change?
Contention increases when people gain access to external resources that
convince them that they can end injustices and find opportunities in which to
use these resources (Tarrow, 2011: 160)

Political Opportunities and Threats

Opportunities that pushes the support away from
the regime increases opportunities.
 Any change that shifts the balance of
political and economic resources Threats
between the state and its challengers
 Risks and costs of action or inaction,
rather than prospect of success.
It is how threats and opportunities combine, rather than shifts in the prospects of success alone,
that shapes decisions regarding collective action.

Dimension of Opportunities and Threats

Political opportunities are seized and transformed by a variety of challengers under many
different conditions.
 Attribution of opportunity or threat
 Availability of potential allies
 Formation of coalitions, both on the margins of and within the polity
 Framing of entire episodes of contention

Aspects of Political Opportunity Structures

Degree of openness/closure of formal political Degree of stability/instability of political

access; alignments;

Availability and strategic posture of potential Political conflicts within and among elites.
alliance partners; and

On “contentious collective action”

 Contentious collective action by “early riser” can provide master frames for spin-off
movements to expose an opponent’s point of weakness, potential allies, and other threats
and opportunities.
Secondary Effects of Contentious Collective Action
 Expanding one’s own opportunities.
 Expanding others’ opportunities.
 Dialectic between movements and counter-movements.
 Unintended creation of opportunities for elites and authorities.

Opportunities, Threats, and Regime Change

Not all changes in the balance of opportunity and threat change regimes, but all regime change is
based on changes in opportunity and threats.

Political structuring and opportunities of social

movements (SESSION 5) – from the book.

Policy-specific Opportunities
 Focuses on how the policy and institutional environment channels collective action
around particular issues with what consequences.
  Examples, Federal tax code, postal regulations, and state and local fundraising and
demonstration regulations and their enforcement shape the collective action decisions of
contemporary American movements.

Group-specific Opportunities
 Changes in a group’s position in society affect its opportunities for collective action.
Conversely, groups that sprouted from the civil rights movement suffered from
constricting opportunities in the new political environment of the late 1960s.

State-centered Opportunity Structures

Cross-Sectional Statism
 State is “an autonomous, irreducible set of institutions” which shaped political conflict in
the interest of its own survival and aggrandizement.
 “the arena of routinized political competition in which class, status, and state political
conflicts… are played out”

Dynamic Statism
 How states change and how these changes produce – or reduce – political opportunities.
 This perspective is reflected in the work of Tilly and others, who argue that “statemaking
does not end once stately institutions emerge but is continuous… Contentious processes
both define the state vis-à-vis other social and economic institutions and continually
remake the state itself.”
 The entire political systems undergo changes which modify the environment of social
actors sufficiently to influence the initiation, forms, and outcomes of collective action.

Elements of Opportunity
The political structure is consistent – but not necessarily formal, permanent, or national – signals
to social or political actors which either encourage or discourage them to use their internal
resources to form social movements. political opportunity emphasizes not only formal structures
like state institutions but the conflict and alliance structures which provide resources and oppose
constraints external to the group (Kriesi 1991; Kriesi and Giugni 1990; Kriesi et al. 1995).

The Opening Up of Political Access

 the relationship between protest and political opportunity is neither negative nor positive
but curvilinear: Neither full access nor its absence encourages the greatest amount of
protest (Eisinger).
 protest is most likely "in systems characterized by a mix of open and closed factors."
(Eisinger)
Unstable Alignments
  Second aspect of opportunity structure which concerns the instability of changing
political alignments, as indicated in liberal democracies by electoral instability.
 Examples: the changing fortunes of government and opposition parties.
 Not only electoral instability encourages collective action, because there are peasant
uprisings in undemocratic systems. Example: Chinese Communist Revolution.
Influential Allies
 Third aspect of political opportunity structure.
 Allies can act as a friend in court, as guarantors against brutal repression, or as acceptable
negotiators on behalf of constituencies which - if left a free hand - might be far more
difficult for authorities to deal with.
Dividing Elites
 Conflict within and among elites creates political opportunities.
 Divisions among elites not only provide incentives for resource-poor groups to take the
risks of collective action; they also encourage portions of the elite to seize the role of
"tribune of the people" in order to increase their own political influence.

Civil Society and Democratization (WEEK 9) – notes

ni Jerome
“Non-governmental Organizations are part of the civil society”

Ordinary People in Extraordinary Times

Ordinary People
No extraordinary powers vis-à-vis states Individuality, group members
Ordinary people are the citizens.
 1. How often they do abandon individual pursuits of comfort to contribute to the creation of
new political landscapes?
2. Do they defend democracy or embrace dictatorships?

Baseline Measurements
 Human Rights – every human needs to undergo due process
 Mutual toleration – between or coexisting with one another despite the differences of
beliefs, political coalitions, etc.
Polarization
 when political actors group themselves in opposite and distant ideological camps, they
vacate the middle ground where cooperation is most likely and leave democracy
vulnerable to collapse.
 Non-mutual relation – Duterte vs De Lima (witch hunting)
 Not a single process but a set of processes unfolding with different sets of actors in
different spheres, and with different degrees of intensity.
 Weakness of elite’s democratic convictions lead to use of polarization as rationalization
for creating their own authoritarian regime.
o Polarizing tactic to divide a unified civil society to put the final blow.

Pitfalls of Existing Literature on “Polarization

 The pluralization model with some political actors betters than the others ~> elites and
leaders of groups in civil society which contributes to the breakdown at democracy.

Civil Society
 Networks of formal and informal associations that mediate between individual actors and
the state.
 Offers the fellowship, resources, and reinforcement that makes acts of defiance seem
feasible.
Civic Culture – A shared culture of political accommodation. It is where political socialization
happen. For example, Bowling alone (Bowling alley is the place of association for the mass
sphere), Golf place (a place of association for the wealthy).

Functions of Civil Society

 Protection from state arbitrariness.
 observation and control of state power.
  democratic socialization of citizens.
 creation of the public sphere and the provision of the actors who operate in this sphere.

Civil Society as “Salvation”

 A barrier against tyranny.
 Serve as reservoirs of resistance to arbitrary or tyrannical actions.
 Basis of good and effective government because of diffusion and distribution of state
power. For example, NGOs.

Civil Society as “Spoiler”

 Classified by literature in the 1960s and 1970s as harmful to democracy.
 Unregulated “asking too much” or overly active could spoil democracy.
 Involvement and commitment of civil society must be moderated. Political cleavage still
exists, but is kept in check (civic culture).

Channeling ~> not showing your cards but doing through legislation. Example: Anti-terror Law

Democratization
 Democratization is a social process, or, more precisely, a spectrum of complex and
interweaving processes that can be separated from each other only analytically.