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Chapter 20
Politics and
Social Movements
by Robert Brym
Copyright © 2004 by Nelson, a division of Thomson
Canada Limited.
1
SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND
POLITICAL SOCIOLOGY
•
Social movements are enduring collective
attempts to change part or all of the social order
by means of rioting, petitioning, striking,
demonstrating, and establishing pressure
groups, unions, and political parties.
•
The sociological study of politics and social
movements focuses on why some people's
demands get articulated and implemented while
other people’s demands get ignored or
suppressed.
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2
POWER
FROM
ABOVE:
NORMAL
POLITICS
In a democracy, there
is a two-way process
of control between
state and civil society:
•The state influences
civil society.
•Civil society
influences the state.
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POWER FROM ABOVE
There are five sociological theories of democracy:

pluralist theory

elite theory

Marxist theory

power-balance theory

state-centred theory
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4
PLURALIST AND ELITE
THEORIES
•
Pluralist theory claims that in a democracy no one
social group controls the state because there are
competing interests in civil society and different
groups win political struggles on different occasions.
•
Elite theory claims that the wealthy have
disproportionate influence over the state since they
have disproportionate resources to run for office,
contribute to parties, and influence politicians.
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5
THE ELITIST CRITIQUE OF
PLURALISM
•
Elite theorists criticize pluralism because research
shows that political participation and influence lie
largely with elites. Lower classes are less likely to
vote, run for office, and influence public policy.
Therefore, it is inaccurate to say that all groups
are more or less equal in political struggles.
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6
POLITICAL APATHY AND
CYNICISM
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7
FEDERAL POLITICAL
CONTRIBUTORS
PER 10,000 TAX FILERS
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8
THE MARXIST CRITIQUE OF
ELITE THEORY
• According to instrumentalist Marxists, elites do not
enjoy equal power but form a ruling class
dominated by big business. This is due to the upper
middle-class and upper-class social origins of elite
members and the social ties among elites.
• According to structuralist Marxists, the capitalist
state acts as an arm of big business not because of
the social origins of elite members and the social
ties among elites but because it is constrained to do
so by the nature of capitalism itself.
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9
THE POWER-BALANCE
CRITIQUE OF ELITE AND
MARXISTTHEORY
•
Elite and Marxist theories have been criticized
because they dismisses elections as unimportant,
claiming that decision-making is conducted by the
elite, regardless of the broader public.
•
They cannot explain how and why governments
change, often reflecting shifts in the classes and
groups that control the state.
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10
POWER-BALANCE THEORY
•
Power-balance theory claims that the degree to
which a country is democratic depends on the
distribution of power between upper and lower
classes.
•
A country is more democratic when power is widely
distributed.
•
Although power-balance theorists admit that power
is usually in the hands of the wealthy, they insist
that power is sometimes redistributed with
profound effects.
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11
CONTRIBUTIONS TO FEDERAL
POLITICAL PARTIES BY
SOURCE
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12
RESULTS OF FEDERAL ELECTION,
CANADA, 2000
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13
THE DIGITAL DIVIDE:
SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF
WORLD WIDE WEB USERS
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14
STATE-CENTRED THEORY
• State-centred theory focuses on how the state
itself structures political life independently of the
way power is distributed among classes and
other groups.
•
From this point of view, the high rate of nonvoting in the United States, for example, results
from voter registration laws that restrict voter
turnout.
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15
FIVE SOCIOLOGICAL
THEORIES OF DEMOCRACY
COMPARED
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16
RELATIVE DEPRIVATION
THEORY
•
•
•
Relative deprivation theory argues that
individuals rebel when an intolerable gap
develops between the rewards they feel they
deserve and the rewards they expect to
receive.
Such a gap may develop when, for example, a
period of economic growth is followed by a
sharp economic recession.
However, sociologists have found that unrest
is often not associated with relative
deprivation.
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17
RESOURCE-MOBILIZATION
THEORY
•
Resource-mobilization theory argues that the
success or failure of social movements depends
largely on the availability of resources, such as
jobs, money, arms, and the capacity to create
strong social ties.
•
This theory also calls attention to the interplay
between social movements and other groups
capable of providing or withholding valuable
resources.
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18
WEIGHTED FREQUENCY OF
STRIKES, CANADA, 1946–2000
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19
PERCENT OF NON-AGRICULTURAL
WORKERS UNIONIZED, CANADA,
1945-2000
Insert Figure 20.6, p. 531
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20
FRAME ALIGNMENT THEORY I
•
Frame alignment theory focuses on the way the
activities, ideas, and goals of a social movement
become congruent with the interests, beliefs,
and values of potential movement members or
fail to do so.
•
The theory attempts to bridge the gap between:
• the capacity of disadvantaged people to
gather resources for collective action, and
• the recruitment of movement members.
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21
FRAME ALIGNMENT THEORY II
•
Frame alignment is encouraged by:
• movements reaching out to members of other
sympathetic organizations;
• identifying, idealizing, clarifying, and
elevating the importance of movement values
for potential recruits;
• stretching the movement’s objectives to win
recruits who are not initially sympathetic; and
• the sometimes sudden and radical change of
perspective by people who are initially
unsympathetic to the movement.
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22
CITIZENSHIP RIGHTS
The power of social movements expands citizenship
rights in four stages:
• Civil citizenship: the right to freedom of
speech, religion, and justice.
• Political citizenship: the right to run for office
and vote.
• Social citizenship: the right to a minimum
level of economic security.
• Universal citizenship: the right of marginal
groups to full citizenship and the rights of
humanity as a whole.
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23
NEW SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
New social movements are new in the sense
that they:
• demand universal citizenship;
• attract a disproportionately large number
of highly educated, well-to-do people in
social and cultural occupations; and
• possess more potential for globalization
than did old social movements.
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24
THE WOMEN’S MOVEMENT I
•
The women’s movement was the first new social
movement and originated in the late nineteenth
century.
•
Originally, the women’s movement attempted to
achieve change through established political
organizations.
•
In the latter half of the twentieth century, slow
progress resulted in a grassroots strategy, which
encouraged change “from below” and “from
above.”
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25
THE WOMEN’S MOVEMENT II
The three main divisions in the women’s movement:
• Liberal feminists believe that women can
participate fully in society if they achieve
equality of opportunity with men.
• Radical feminists hold that male domination is
rooted in the family. They champion domestic
equality and reproductive choice for women.
• Socialist feminists argue that legal equality is
not enough to ensure full participation for
women in society. In addition, economic
equality must be provided by the state.
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26
GLOBALIZATION OF SOCIAL
MOVEMENTS
•
•
New social movements today often transcend
local and national boundaries to promote
universalistic goals.
These new social movements include the
anti-nuclear, environmental, and feminist
movements.
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27
SOCIAL MOVEMENTS IN LESS
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
• Outside of the world’s 20 or so richest countries,
Western domination prevented industrialization
and the growth of a large business class. This
constrained the growth of democracy and bred
resentment against Western power.
• Social movements in Third World countries tend to
focus more on restoring independence and dignity
rather than on minority rights, elections, open
markets, and so forth.
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28
SUPPLEMENTARY SLIDES
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29
WEBER’S THREE BASES
OF AUTHORITY
Traditional
LegalRational
Legitimized by
long-standing
custom
Monarchies,
the traditional
patriarchal family
Legitimized by
Canadian Parliament,
rationally
federal bureaucracy,
establishing rules
Prime Minister
and procedures
Charismatic Based on leader’s
personal qualities
Hitler, Napoleon
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VOTER TURNOUT, FEDERAL
ELECTIONS, CANADA, 1958–2000
Voters as 85
Percent of
Eligible
Voters
80
Trend line
75
70
65
60
1958
1963
1968
1973
1978
1983
1988
1993
1998
If the trend in voter turnout continues to decline at the same rate as during 1958-2000, a minority of
the voting age population will vote in an election around 2051.
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31
RESULTS OF FEDERAL
ELECTIONS CANADA, 1980–2000
Seats
Liberal
PC
NDP
Bloc Quebecois
Reform/Alliance
200
150
100
50
0
1980
1984
1988
1993
1997
2000
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32
RESULTS OF FEDERAL ELECTION
CANADA, 2000, BY REGION (IN PERCENT)
Percent
100
80
Liberal
Alliance
Bloc
NDP
Conservative
60
40
20
0
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33
THE THREE WAVES OF
DEMOCRATIZATION, 1828-2002
Number of liberal democracies
80
Third wave
60
40
First wave
20
Second wave
0
1828
Year
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2002
TYPE OF GOVERNMENT BY
INCOME CATEGORY, 1990s
Percent
100%
80%
60%
Autocracy
Intermediate
Democracy
40%
20%
0%
Bottom Second Third
quarter quarter quarter
Top
quarter
Income Category
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CASUALTIES FROM INTERNATIONAL
TERRORIST ATTACKS, 1991-2002
Frequency
7000
Percent of casualties
in Asia and Africa
6000
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
5000
Trend line
4000
3000
2000
1000
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2002
2001
2000
1999
1998
1997
1996
1995
1994
1993
1992
0
1991
Note: Title 22 of the United
States Code defines terrorism
as “premeditated, politically
motivated violence against
noncombatant targets [including
unarmed or off duty military
personnel] by subnational
groups or clandestine agents,
usually intended to influence an
audience.” However, a broader
definition would
include the use by states of
indiscriminate violence against
civilians to achieve military
and political goals. Moreover,
what one side in a conflict would
call terror might be regarded by
the other side as legitimate
resistance to occupation or
oppression.
Year
90.4%
81.0%
97.2%
98.0%
24.2%
97.9%