Opposition (politics)

Last updated
Stand in Opposition (imprints in front of Old City Hall, Boston) Stand in opposition city hall boston.jpg
Stand in Opposition (imprints in front of Old City Hall, Boston)

In politics, the opposition comprises one or more political parties or other organized groups that are opposed to the government (or, in American English, the administration), party or group in political control of a city, region, state, country or other political body. The degree of opposition varies according to political conditions. For example, in authoritarian and democratic systems, opposition may be respectively repressed or desired. [1] Members of an opposition generally serve as antagonists to the other parties. [2]

Contents

Scholarship focusing on opposition politics did not become popular or sophisticated until the mid-20th century. [3] Recent studies have found that popular unrest regarding the economy and quality of life can be used by political opposition to mobilize and to demand change. Scholars have debated whether political opposition can benefit from political instability and economic crises, while some conclude the opposite. Case studies in Jordan align with mainstream thought in that political opposition can benefit from instability, while case studies in Morocco display a lack of oppositional mobilization in response to instability. In the Jordan case study, scholars reference opposition increasingly challenge those in power as political and economic instability proliferated wereas the opposition in Morocco did not mobilize on the instability. [4]

Furthermore, research on opposition politics in South Asia has helped inform researchers on possibilities of democratic renewal post-backsliding as well as possibilities of political violence. [5]  Despite there being aggressive and powerful regimes in place in various South Asian countries, the opposition still poses a powerful counter-party. For example, members of opposition have made their way into office in Nepal and Sri Lanka has been hosting elections in regions known to previously not hold them. In these cases, the presence of opposition has brought about positive democratic change. [5]

Political opposition through social media communication

As social media has become a larger part of society and culture around the world, so too has online political opposition. Online communication as a whole has also heightened the spread of clearer political opposition. Various factors like censorship, selective censoring, polarization, and echo chambers have changed the way that political opposition presents itself. [6] Many Americans also believe that Social Media sites censor political viewpoints especially when they contradict the status quo. [7]

Controlled opposition

Controlled opposition is the use of black propaganda and saboteurs who claim to oppose a particular faction but are in fact working for the faction.

One alleged example is the Serbian Party Oathkeepers (SSZ), led under their president Milica Đurđević Stamenkovski, who claim to be opposed to the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS).

Controlled opposition can also mean a party or group that stands as a placeholder for the opposition, but who are ultimately completely ineffective and therefore everything is "controlled" by the ruling parties, without necessarily a direct conspiracy taking place. [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Politics of Botswana</span>

Botswana is a parliamentary republic in which the President of Botswana is both head of state and head of government. The nation's politics are based heavily on British parliamentary politics and on traditional Batswana chiefdom. The legislature is made up of the unicameral National Assembly and the advisory body of tribal chiefs, the Ntlo ya Dikgosi. The National Assembly chooses the president, but once in office the president has significant authority over the legislature with only limited separation of powers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Political party</span> Organization coordinating policy priorities and candidates for government positions

A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or policy goals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Federalist Party</span> First political party in the United States

The Federalist Party was a conservative and nationalist American political party and the first political party in the United States. It dominated the national government under Alexander Hamilton from 1789 to 1801. The party was defeated by the Democratic-Republican Party in 1800, and it became a minority party while keeping its stronghold in New England. It made a brief resurgence by opposing the War of 1812, then collapsed with its last presidential candidate in 1816. Remnants lasted for a few years afterwards.

A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term "communist party" was popularized by the title of The Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. As a vanguard party, the communist party guides the political education and development of the working class (proletariat). As a ruling party, the communist party exercises power through the dictatorship of the proletariat. Vladimir Lenin developed the idea of the communist party as the revolutionary vanguard, when the socialist movement in Imperial Russia was divided into ideologically opposed factions, the Bolshevik faction and the Menshevik faction. To be politically effective, Lenin proposed a small vanguard party managed with democratic centralism which allowed the centralized command of a disciplined cadre of professional revolutionaries. Once a policy was agreed upon, realizing political goals required every Bolshevik's total commitment to the agreed-upon policy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Takeo Miki</span> Prime Minister of Japan from 1974 to 1976

Takeo Miki was a Japanese politician who served as prime minister of Japan from 1974 until 1976.

Social conservatism is a political philosophy and a variety of conservatism which places emphasis on traditional social structures over social pluralism. Social conservatives organize in favor of duty, traditional values and social institutions, such as traditional family structures, gender roles, sexual relations, national patriotism, and religious traditions. Social conservatism is usually skeptical of social change, instead tending to support the status quo concerning social issues.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jacksonian democracy</span> 19th-century American political philosophy

Jacksonian democracy was a 19th-century political philosophy in the United States that expanded suffrage to most white men over the age of 21 and restructured a number of federal institutions. Originating with the seventh U.S. president, Andrew Jackson and his supporters, it became the nation's dominant political worldview for a generation. The term itself was in active use by the 1830s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Democratic peace theory</span> International relations theory

Proponents of democratic peace theory argue that both electoral and republican forms of democracy are hesitant to engage in armed conflict with other identified democracies. Different advocates of this theory suggest that several factors are responsible for motivating peace between democratic states. Individual theorists maintain "monadic" forms of this theory ; "dyadic" forms of this theory ; and "systemic" forms of this theory.

Liberal internationalism is a foreign policy doctrine that supports international institutions, open markets, cooperative security, and liberal democracy. At its core, it holds that states should participate in international institutions that uphold rules-based norms, promote liberal democracy, and facilitate cooperation on transnational problems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1993 Japanese general election</span>

General elections were held in Japan on 18 July 1993 to elect the 511 members of the House of Representatives. The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which had been in power since 1955, lost their majority in the House. An eight-party coalition government was formed and headed by Morihiro Hosokawa, the leader of the Japan New Party (JNP). The election result was profoundly important to Japan's domestic and foreign affairs.

Cold War liberal is a term that was used in the United States during the Cold War, which began after the end of World War II. The term was used to describe liberal politicians and labor union leaders who supported democracy and equality. They supported the growth of labor unions, the civil rights movement, and the war on poverty and simultaneously opposing totalitarianism commonly seen under Communist rule at the time. Cold War liberals supported efforts of containment, such as diplomat George F. Kennan and U.S. president Harry S. Truman during the post-World War II era, towards Soviet Communism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Political ideologies in the United States</span> Ideologies and ideological demographics in the United States

American political ideologies conventionally align with the left–right political spectrum, with most Americans identifying as conservative, liberal, or moderate. Contemporary American conservatism includes social conservatism and fiscal conservatism. The former ideology developed as a response to communism and the civil rights movement, while the latter developed as a response to the New Deal. Contemporary American liberalism includes social liberalism and progressivism, developing during the Progressive Era and the Great Depression. Besides conservatism and liberalism, the United States has a notable libertarian movement, developing during the mid-20th century as a revival of classical liberalism. Historical political movements in the United States have been shaped by ideologies as varied as republicanism, populism, separatism, fascism, socialism, monarchism, and nationalism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1973 Bangladeshi general election</span>

General elections were held in newly independent Bangladesh on 7 March 1973. A total of 1,078 candidates and 14 political parties contested the elections.

Criticism of democracy, or debate on democracy and the different aspects of how to implement democracy best have been widely discussed. There are both internal critics and external ones who reject the values promoted by constitutional democracy.

Anocracy, or semi-democracy, is a form of government that is loosely defined as part democracy and part dictatorship, or as a "regime that mixes democratic with autocratic features". Another definition classifies anocracy as "a regime that permits some means of participation through opposition group behavior but that has incomplete development of mechanisms to redress grievances." The term "semi-democratic" is reserved for stable regimes that combine democratic and authoritarian elements. Scholars distinguish anocracies from autocracies and democracies in their capability to maintain authority, political dynamics, and policy agendas. Anocratic regimes have democratic institutions that allow for nominal amounts of competition. Such regimes are particularly susceptible to outbreaks of armed conflict and unexpected or adverse changes in leadership.

Political decay is a political theory, originally described in 1965 by Samuel P. Huntington, which describes how chaos and disorder can arise from social modernization increasing more rapidly than political and institutional modernization. Huntington provides different definitions for political development and describes the forms of political decay according to the various definitions. Huntington focuses primarily on political development as modernization and institutionalization. However, he points to the different definitions of political development as being arbitrary ways to understanding the rise of political systems and the relationship between the political systems of different nations.

The labor movement in Taiwan did not start until the 1980s, after the end of martial law in Taiwan. Many of these labor movements began when Kuomintang became more lenient with social movements. In addition, with the help of non-KMT political figures, such as members of the Democratic Progressive Party, many labor unions and State-owned enterprise administrations removed KMT's influence, and this reshaped a huge economic sector of Taiwan from being strictly controlled by the state.

Conservatism in Russia is a broad system of political beliefs in Russia that is characterized by support for Orthodox values, Russian imperialism, statism, economic interventionism, advocacy for the historical Russian sphere of influence, and a rejection of late modernist era Western culture.

Rational choice is a prominent framework in international relations scholarship. Rational choice is not a substantive theory of international politics, but rather a methodological approach that focuses on certain types of social explanation for phenomena. In that sense, it is similar to constructivism, and differs from liberalism and realism, which are substantive theories of world politics. Rationalist analyses have been used to substantiate realist theories, as well as liberal theories of international relations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Democratic Republican Party</span> 1987–1990 political party in South Korea

The New Democratic Republican Party was a South Korean conservative political party which formed in 1987 and dissolved in 1990. It was particularly strong in Hoseo, the home region of party leader Kim Jong-pil. However, it merged with two other parties in 1990 to form the Democratic Liberal Party.

References

  1. Blondel, J (1997). "Political opposition in the contemporary world". Government and Opposition. 32 (4): 462–486. doi:10.1111/j.1477-7053.1997.tb00441.x. S2CID   145343918. Archived from the original on 2013-01-05.
  2. Kersell, John E. (1966). "Review of Political Oppositions in Western Democracies". International Journal. 21 (4): 535–536. doi:10.2307/40184478. ISSN   0020-7020. JSTOR   40184478.
  3. Kersell, John E. (1966). "Review of Political Oppositions in Western Democracies". International Journal. 21 (4): 535–536. doi:10.2307/40184478. ISSN   0020-7020. JSTOR   40184478.
  4. Lust-Okar, Ellen (2004). "Divided They Rule: The Management and Manipulation of Political Opposition". Comparative Politics. 36 (2): 159–179. doi:10.2307/4150141. ISSN   0010-4159. JSTOR   4150141.
  5. 1 2 Staniland and Vaishnav, Paul and Milan (January 24, 2023). "The State of Opposition in South Asia".
  6. Ashokkumar, Ashwini; Talaifar, Sanaz; Fraser, William T.; Landabur, Rodrigo; Buhrmester, Michael; Gómez, Ángel; Paredes, Borja; Swann, William B. (November 2020). "Censoring political opposition online: Who does it and why". Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 91: 104031. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2020.104031. PMC   7415017 . PMID   32834107.
  7. Nadeem, Reem (2020-08-19). "Most Americans Think Social Media Sites Censor Political Viewpoints". Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech. Retrieved 2023-03-06.
  8. https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/controlled_opposition