Political movement

Last updated April 06, 2024

A political movement is a collective attempt by a group of people to change government policy or social values.^[1] Political movements are usually in opposition to an element of the status quo,^[2] and are often associated with a certain ideology.^[3] Some theories of political movements are the political opportunity theory, which states that political movements stem from mere circumstances,^[4] and the resource mobilization theory which states that political movements result from strategic organization and relevant resources.^[2] Political movements are also related to political parties in the sense that they both aim to make an impact on the government and that several political parties have emerged from initial political movements.^[5] While political parties are engaged with a multitude of issues, political movements tend to focus on only one major issue.^[6]^[7]

Political movement theories

Some of the theories behind social movements have also been applied to the emergence of political movements in specific, like the political opportunity theory and the resource mobilization theory.^[2]^[8]

Political opportunity theory

The political opportunity theory asserts that political movements occur through chance or certain opportunities and have little to do with resources, connections or grievances in society.^[4]^[8] Political opportunities can be created by possible changes in the political system, structure or by other developments in the political sphere and they are the driving force for political movements to be established.^[4]

Resource mobilization theory

The resource mobilization theory states that political movements are the result of careful planning, organizing and fundraising rather than spontaneous uprisings or societal grievances. This theory postulates that movements rely on resources and contact to the establishment in order to fully develop. Thus, at the beginning and core of a political movement there lies a strategic mobilization of individuals.^[2]^[9]

Relation to political parties

Political movements are different from political parties since movements are usually focused on a single issue and they have no interest in attaining office in government. A political movement is generally an informal organization and uses unconventional methods to achieve their goals.^[6] In a political party, a political organization seeks to influence or control government policy through conventional methods,^[6] usually by nominating their candidates and seating candidates in politics and governmental offices.^[7]

However, political parties and movements both aim to influence government in one way or another^[6] and both are often related to a certain ideology. Parties also participate in electoral campaigns and educational outreach or protest actions aiming to convince citizens or governments to take action on the issues and concerns which are the focus of the movement.^[7] What links political movements to parties in particular, is that some movements have turned into political parties. For example, the 15-M Movement against austerity in Spain led to the creation of the populist party Podemos ^[10] and the labor movements in Brazil helped form the Brazilian Workers' Party.^[11] These types of movement parties serve to raise awareness on the main issue of their initial political movement in government, since the established parties may have neglected this issue in the past.^[5]

For groups seeking to influence policy, social movements can provide an alternative to formal electoral politics. For example, the political scientist S. Laurel Weldon has shown that women's movements and women's policy agencies have tended to be more effective in reducing violence against women than the presence of women in the legislatures.^[12]

High barriers to entry to the political competition can disenfranchise political movements.^[13]

Examples

Some political movements have aimed to change government policy, such as the anti-war movement, the ecology movement, and the anti-globalization movement. With globalization, global citizens movements may have also emerged.^[14] Many political movements have aimed to establish or broaden the rights of subordinate groups, such as abolitionism, the women's suffrage movement, the civil rights movement, feminism, gay rights movement, the disability rights movement, the animal rights movement, or the inclusive human rights movement. Some have represented class interests, such as the labour movement, socialism, and communism, while others have expressed national aspirations, including both anticolonialist movements, such as Rātana and Sinn Féin, as well as colonialist movements such as Zionism and Manifest destiny. Political movements can also involve struggles to decentralize or centralize state control, as in anarchism, fascism, and Nazism.

Famous recent social movements can be classified as political movements as they have influenced policy changes at all levels of government. Political movements that have recently emerged within the US are the Black Lives Matter Movement, and the Me Too Movement. While political movements that have happened in recent years within the Middle East is the Arab Spring. While in some cases these political movements remained movements, in others they escalated into revolutions and changed the state of government.^[15]

Movements may also be named by outsiders, as with the Levellers political movement in 17th century England, which was named so as a term of disparagement. Yet admirers of the movement and its aims later came to use the term, and it is this term by which they are most known to history.^[16]

Mass movements

A mass movement denotes a political party or movement which is supported by large segments of a population. Political movements that typically advocate the creation of a mass movement include the ideologies of communism, fascism, and liberalism. Both communists and fascists typically support the creation of mass movements as a means to overthrow a government and create their own government, the mass movement then being used afterwards to protect the government from being overthrown itself; whereas liberals seek mass participation in the system of representative democracy.

The social scientific study of mass movements focuses on such elements as charisma, leadership, active minorities, cults and sects, followers, mass man and mass society, alienation, brainwashing and indoctrination, authoritarianism and totalitarianism. The field emerged from crowd or mass psychology (Le Bon, Tarde a.o.), which had gradually widened its scope from mobs to social movements and opinion currents, and then to mass and media society.

One influential early text was the double essay on the herd instinct (1908) by British surgeon Wilfred Trotter. It also influenced the key concepts of the superego and identification in Massenpsychologie (1921) by Sigmund Freud, misleadingly translated as Group psychology. They are linked to ideas on sexual repression leading to rigid personalities, in the original Mass psychology of fascism (1933) by Freudo-Marxist Wilhelm Reich (not to be confused with its totally revised 1946 American version). This then rejoined ideas formulated by the Frankfurt School and Theodor Adorno, ultimately leading to a major American study of the authoritarian personality (1950), as a basis for xenophobia and anti-Semitism. Another early theme was the relationship between masses and elites, both outside and within such movements (Gaetano Mosca, Vilfredo Pareto, Robert Michels, Moisey Ostrogorski).

Bibliography (Mass movements)

Hoffer, Eric, The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements , New York, NY: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2002.
Marx, Gary, T. & McAdam, Douglas, Collective behavior and social movements, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1994.
Van Ginneken, Jaap, Mass movements – In Darwinist, Freudian and Marxist perspective, Apeldoorn (Neth.): Spinhuis. 2007.
Wilson, John, Introduction to social movements, New York: Basic, 1973.

Related Research Articles

Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement, characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived good of the nation or race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy.

Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that societies prioritize the male point of view and that women are treated unjustly in these societies. Efforts to change this include fighting against gender stereotypes and improving educational, professional, and interpersonal opportunities and outcomes for women.

Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy as a whole or certain social hierarchies. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in society whom its adherents perceive as disadvantaged relative to others as well as a belief that there are unjustified inequalities that need to be reduced or abolished through radical means that change the nature of the society they are implemented in. According to emeritus professor of economics Barry Clark, supporters of left-wing politics "claim that human development flourishes when individuals engage in cooperative, mutually respectful relations that can thrive only when excessive differences in status, power, and wealth are eliminated."

Right-wing politics is the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position based on natural law, economics, authority, property, religion, or tradition. Hierarchy and inequality may be seen as natural results of traditional social differences or competition in market economies.

A social movement is a loosely organized effort by a large group of people to achieve a particular goal, typically a social or political one. This may be to carry out a social change, or to resist or undo one. It is a type of group action and may involve individuals, organizations, or both. Social movements have been described as "organizational structures and strategies that may empower oppressed populations to mount effective challenges and resist the more powerful and advantaged elites". They represent a method of social change from the bottom within nations. On the other hand, some social movements do not aim to make society more egalitarian, but to maintain or amplify existing power relationships. For example, scholars have described fascism as a social movement.

The left–right political spectrum is a system of classifying political positions, ideologies and parties, with emphasis placed upon issues of social equality and social hierarchy. In addition to positions on the left and on the right, there are centrist and moderate positions, which are not strongly aligned with either end of the spectrum. It originated during the French Revolution based on the seating in the French National Assembly.

The term new social movements (NSMs) is a theory of social movements that attempts to explain the plethora of new movements that have come up in various western societies roughly since the mid-1960s which are claimed to depart significantly from the conventional social movement paradigm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fascism and ideology</span> History of fascist ideology

The history of fascist ideology is long and it draws on many sources. Fascists took inspiration from sources as ancient as the Spartans for their focus on racial purity and their emphasis on rule by an elite minority. Fascism has also been connected to the ideals of Plato, though there are key differences between the two. Fascism styled itself as the ideological successor to Rome, particularly the Roman Empire. From the same era, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's view on the absolute authority of the state also strongly influenced fascist thinking. The French Revolution was a major influence insofar as the Nazis saw themselves as fighting back against many of the ideas which it brought to prominence, especially liberalism, liberal democracy and racial equality, whereas on the other hand, fascism drew heavily on the revolutionary ideal of nationalism. The prejudice of a "high and noble" Aryan culture as opposed to a "parasitic" Semitic culture was core to Nazi racial views, while other early forms of fascism concerned themselves with non-racialized conceptions of the nation.

Social movement theory is an interdisciplinary study within the social sciences that generally seeks to explain why social mobilization occurs, the forms under which it manifests, as well as potential social, cultural, political, and economic consequences, such as the creation and functioning of social movements.

Resource mobilization is the process of getting resources from the resource provider, using different mechanisms, to implement an organization's predetermined goals. It is a theory that is used in the study of social movements and argues that the success of social movements depends on resources and the ability to use them.

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Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality, right to private property and equality before the law. Liberals espouse various and often mutually warring views depending on their understanding of these principles but generally support private property, market economies, individual rights, liberal democracy, secularism, rule of law, economic and political freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and freedom of religion, constitutional government and privacy rights. Liberalism is frequently cited as the dominant ideology of modern history.

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References

↑ Meyer, David S. (1997). Coalitions & Political Movements: The Lessons of the Nuclear Freeze. Lynne Rienner Publishers. pp. 164–166. ISBN 978-1-55587-744-6.
1 2 3 4 Rochon, Thomas R. (1990). "Political Movements and State Authority in Liberal Democracies". World Politics. 42 (2): 299–313. doi:10.2307/2010467. ISSN 1086-3338. JSTOR 2010467. S2CID 153900090.
↑ Nicholas, Ralph W. (1973). "Social and Political Movements". Annual Review of Anthropology. 2 (1): 63–84. doi:10.1146/annurev.an.02.100173.000431. ISSN 0084-6570.
1 2 3 Koopmans, Ruud (1999). "Political. Opportunity. Structure. Some Splitting to Balance the Lumping". Sociological Forum. 14 (1): 93–105. doi:10.1023/A:1021644929537. ISSN 0884-8971. JSTOR 685018. S2CID 148013872.
1 2 Kitschelt, Herbert (2006). "Movement Parties". Handbook of Party Politics. London: SAGE Publications Ltd. p. 282. doi:10.4135/9781848608047. ISBN 978-0-7619-4314-3.
1 2 3 4 Hague, Rod; Harrop, Martin; McCormick, John (2019). Comparative Government and Politics. London: Red Globe Press. p. 317. ISBN 978-1-352-00505-9.
1 2 3 McDonald, Neil A. (1955). The Study of Political Parties. Short studies in political science,26. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company. hdl:2027/mdp.39015003545509.
1 2 Goodwin, Jeff; Jasper, James M. (2004). Rethinking Social Movements: Structure, Meaning, and Emotion. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 80–81. ISBN 978-0-7425-2596-2.
↑ Inwegen, Patrick Van (2018). "Non-Violence in Ireland's Independence". In Christian Philip Peterson; William M. Knoblauch; Michael Loadent (eds.). The Routledge History of World Peace Since 1750. New York: Routledge. pp. 273–283. doi:10.4324/9781315157344-22. ISBN 978-1-315-15734-4. S2CID 187589251 . Retrieved 2020-10-06.
↑ Della Porta, Donatella; Fernández, Joseba; Kouki, Hara; Mosca, Lorenzo (2017). Movement Parties Against Austerity. Cambridge: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-5095-1149-5.
↑ van Cott, Donna Lee (2005). From Movements to Parties in Latin America: The Evolution of Ethnic Politics. Cambridge: University Press. p. 14. ISBN 978-0-521-70703-9.
↑ Weldon, S. Laurel (November 2002). "Beyond Bodies: Institutional Sources of Representation for Women in Democratic Policymaking". The Journal of Politics. 64 (4): 1153–1174. doi:10.1111/1468-2508.00167. S2CID 154551984.
↑ Tullock, Gordon. "Entry barriers in politics." The American Economic Review 55.1/2 (1965): 458-466.
↑ George, Susan (2001-10-18). "The Global Citizens Movement. A New Actor For a New Politics". Transnational Institute. Retrieved 2020-05-13.
↑ Bendix, Reinhard; Huntington, Samuel P. (March 1971). "Political Order in Changing Societies". Political Science Quarterly. 86 (1): 168. doi:10.2307/2147388. ISSN 0032-3195. JSTOR 2147388.
↑ Plant, David (2005-12-14). "The Levellers". British Civil Wars and Commonwealth website. Archived from the original on 13 May 2008. Retrieved 2020-05-11.

Political movement

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