Third World Political Movement Midterm (enhanced)

What is a social movement?

Goal-oriented collective activity by 2+ people to bring about social change and challenge authorities; a vehicle for voicing grievances and claims.

List forms of collective action.

Peaceful demonstrations, political violence, vigils, honoring martyrs, civil disobedience, boycotts.

Examples of interest groups?

Pro-life organizations, NRA, Christian Coalition, Planned Parenthood, animal rights and environmental groups.

Historical movement examples from the lecture?

Civil Rights (1960s), BLM, Vietnam anti-war, French Revolution, Chinese Communist Revolution/Tiananmen 1989, Women’s Suffrage (19th Amendment, 1920), Arab Spring 2011.

Ahimsa and Badshah Khan?

Ahimsa: Hindu concept of non-violence rooted in love. Badshah Khan (Abdul Ghaffar Khan), the “Pashtun Gandhi,” led the Khudai Khidmatgar nonviolent movement.

Contested political issues?

Abortion, civil rights, democratization, environmental protection, gender equality, LGBTQ rights.

“Third World” / Global South — World Bank low income?

Developing world. Low-income = high poverty, GNI per capita of $1,135 or less.

Lipsky and Eisinger: key idea?

Movement activity ebbs and flows with changes that make authorities vulnerable or receptive. Eisinger: “political opportunity” (studied riots in US cities).

Charles Tilly’s contribution?

“From Mobilization to Revolution”; with Lipsky and Eisinger, the political process model: timing and fate of movements and collective action.

Three factors shaping a movement’s rise and success?

Political opportunities, indigenous organizational capacity, and oppositional consciousness (“cognitive liberation”).

Regime properties shaping political opportunity?

Multiple power centers; openness to new actors; unstable alignments; available influential allies; extent of repression or facilitation; changes in these.

Repertoire of contention: contained vs. progressive?

Contained: within regime institutions (Tea Party, Occupy). Progressive: challenges routines and threatens those they protect. Authoritarian regimes repress contention.

Destabilizing events that open opportunity?

War (Civil War, Vietnam, Iraq) and economic crises. Madison: war is the enemy of public liberties.

Movements and courts/elections examples?

Brown v. Board (1954); electoral revolutions shifting outcomes and policy focus; Cesar Chavez farm workers (1962).

Ethnopolitical nationalism in Africa?

Politics based on core ethnic group (staatsvolk); colonial indirect rule, center-periphery conflict. Ex: Rwanda Hutu/Tutsi, South Sudan Dinka vs. Nuer (Kiir vs. Machar), Biafra.

Benedict Anderson on nationalism?

Imagined Communities (1991): a nation is an imagined community with shared history and rituals.

Nation vs. state vs. nation-state?

Nation: people with common identity (language, religion, culture, history).

State: sovereign territory with government.

Nation-state: nation and state share the same boundary.

Treaty of Westphalia (1648)?

Ended the Thirty Years’ War (Protestants vs. Catholics); foundation of the European nation-state system.

Two aspects of a nation?

Identity aspect (shared people, language, origin, history, religion, culture) and territorial aspect (sovereignty, borders, flags, anthems).

Dark side of shared identity?

Groupthink and mob psychology: aggression, intolerance, rage.

De-humanizing vs. de-individuating?

De-humanizing: presenting the “Other” as not human (racism, scapegoating). De-individuating: loss of individual identity in groups; peer validation, persuasive leaders, imitation (“selfish herd”).

four dimensions of nationalism?

1) Established states (patriotism). 2) Ethnic minorities (separatists, e.g. PKK). 3) State-building/national liberation (Ukraine). 4) Less organized uprisings and ethnic cleansing (Rohingya, Myanmar).

Ethnocentricity?

Belief that one’s culture is superior; European ethnography cast Eastern cultures as “uncivilized.” Linked to the French mission civilisatrice.

Dangers of nationalism?

Propaganda, war, devaluing other groups. Ex: Milosevic and ethnic cleansing of Bosnian Muslims. Orwell on antagonism toward other nations.

WWI-era nationalism and Ottoman collapse?

Serbian nationalism vs. Austria-Hungary (Russian support); Armenian Genocide 1914; Ataturk and Turkish nationalism; Muslim Brotherhood 1923.

Sykes-Picot (1916) and Hussein-McMahon?

Sykes-Picot: French/British colonial division of the Middle East.

Hussein-McMahon: British territories/promises. Led to the Kurdish Question and realignment.

Examples of separatist/nationalist terrorism?

ETA (Basque), IRA (Ireland/UK), Tamil Tigers (Sri Lanka), PKK (Kurds), FLN (Algeria).

Ethnic cleansing definition and cases?

Systematic, deliberate removal of an ethnic/religious group from a territory (deportation, intimidation, mass murder, genocidal r*pe). Ex: Former Yugoslavia, Rwanda/Burundi 1994.

Transnational identity examples?

Bengalis (India-Pakistan), Tamils, Kashmir, Palestinian nationalism and Arab solidarity, Russia-Ukraine; diasporas.

Define ethno-religious conflict.

Conflict between parties defined along religious lines, in societies where religion is integral and institutions hold moral legitimacy.

Eight characteristics of ethno-religious conflict?

1 Identity centrality; 2 intra-state; 3 civilian casualties; 4 intractability; 5 religion and institutions central; 6 religious language/texts/images; 7 colonial impact; 8 crisis of legitimacy.

Impact of colonization on ethno-religious conflict?

“Divide and rule,” lagging development, scapegoating and exploitation of ethnic/religious differences.

Galtung: cultural violence?

Teaching, preaching, or condoning acts that dehumanize the opponent; religion can be abused to legitimize violence.

Babri Mosque conflict?

Built by Mughal Emperor Babur (1528-29); destroyed in 1992 by the VHP Hindu nationalist movement. Golwalkar: “We, or Our Nationhood Defined.”

RSS and Hindutva?

Hindu nationalist paramilitary (1925) seeking Hindu supremacy/majority; a member assassinated Gandhi. Abhinav Bharat linked to 2006 Malegaon bombings.

India’s ethnic makeup?

2,000+ groups; Indo-Aryans ~72%, Dravidians ~25%, Mongoloid minorities ~3%. BJP = Bharatiya Janata Party.

Religion as a source of peace?

Gandhi and Abdul Ghaffar Khan; interfaith dialogue; faith-based actors (legitimacy, healing trauma); sacred texts, rituals, shared values like love.

Examples of religion and social movements?

Early Christianity, Wahhabism (Ibn Wahhab), Political Zionism (Herzl), 1947 Partition, ISIS caliphate, 1979 Iranian Revolution (theocracy).

Sufism basics: nafs, tariqa, sheikh, murid, dhikr?

Islamic mysticism seeking unity with God (ma’rifa/gnosis) by overcoming ego and lower desires (nafs). Tariqa: order/path. Sheikh: guide. Murid: disciple who takes baya (oath). Dhikr: remembrance via recitation; awrad: daily meditations.

Sheikh Khawaja Ahmed Yasawi?

“Sheikh of Turkestan,” buried in Kazakhstan; spread Islam in Central Asia; wrote Divan-i Hikmet (Book of Wisdom); Naqshbandi follower.

Where were Sufi tombs desecrated (intra-faith conflict)?

Pakistan, Libya, Tunisia, Mali, Egypt.

Shi’a view of succession?

Succession should stay in the Prophet’s family (Ahlul Bayt), beginning with Ali, then sons Hasan and Hussein.

The “Shiite Crescent” fear?

Sunni fear of united Shiite Iran, Iraq, Lebanon: dominance and unrest among Shiite minorities (Bahrain ~70% Shi’a, Kuwait 27%, Lebanon 45%, Saudi 14%).

Balance of power conflicts (Sunni vs. Shia)?

Iran-Iraq War (1980-88), Syria (2011, Alawites backed by Iran/Hezbollah), Yemen (2015 Houthi coup), Lebanon; Saudi-led Sunni hegemony in Gulf.

Syria’s composition (2010)?

~65% Sunni Arab, 15% Kurdish, 10% Alawite, 5% Christian, 3% Druze, 1% Ismaili, 1% Twelver Shia.

Intersectionality (Crenshaw 1991)?

Gender, race, class, and sexuality intersect to shape movement dynamics, grievances, tactics, and framing.

Why is protest seen as a “masculine activity”?

Women face disproportionate household/workforce labor, political constraints; media devalues women’s and LGBTQ activism; trans people underrepresented.

1970s feminist strategy?

Consciousness-raising groups through friendship circles, workplaces, and online. Global South uses context-specific strategies.

Examples of women’s activism in the Global South?

Thai garment workers’ leadership study; Egypt’s sexual harassment laws and HarassMap; women in the Arab Spring (Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, Sudan).

Gender and organizations?

Organizations perpetuate inequality. In the Civil Rights Movement men held leadership while women were grassroots “bridge leaders”; sex-stratified jobs.

#MeToo?

Began 2017 after survivors came forward (Harvey Weinstein case); spread to 85 countries.

Gender regime and gendered opportunity structures?

Gender regime: structural/cultural configuration of gender inequality in an institutional or historical context (e.g. religious context). Shapes gendered opportunity structures.

Who are the Kurds?

25-35 million people in mountainous Syria, Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Armenia; 4th largest ethnic group in the region; stateless.

The Kurdish Question?

Desire for a nation-state and sovereignty, arising after the 1920 Ottoman collapse.

Mustafa Barzani?

(1903-1979) prominent Kurdish leader; 1946 leader of the KDP (Kurdistan Democratic Party) in Iraq.

PKK and Abdullah Ocalan?

PKK: Kurdish ethno-nationalist, Marxist-rooted movement labeled terrorist. Ocalan, jailed and sentenced to death, shifted it toward political/democratic aspirations.

Radical democracy?

Marxist-framework alternative to liberal democracy: politics beyond state, organization beyond party, subjectivity beyond class; “democracy an incomplete project.” Hardt and Negri 2004.

Kurdish reformation (2000-2004)?

Entry into Turkish politics, demands to EU (Kurdish-language education, cultural recognition), “democratic autonomy project,” Democratic Society Party/Congress, autonomous local governments.

Kurds and US security?

Peshmerga (2013-14) fought IS in Iraq/Syria; YPG defended Kurdish enclaves; SDF captured Raqqa.

Who was Mahsa Amini?

A Kurdish woman whose treatment by police sparked the movement; police treatment varies by religion, status, wealth, ethnicity.

Velayat-e Faqih?

Iran’s guardianship system: a just jurist (faqih) leads in the absence of the infallible Imam Mahdi; rooted in Shia Imamate thought, unlike the Sunni caliphate doctrine.

Guardian Council and Marja’?

Guardian Council: 12 religious jurists vetting laws and candidates for Islamic conformity. Marja’ al-taqleed: jurist as source of guidance and imitation.

Gasht-e Ershad?

Iran’s morality police enforcing Islamic dress code; “promote virtue and prevent vice.”

Iran’s political leadership timeline?

1979 revolution (theocracy); Khamenei Supreme Leader since Khomeini’s 1989 death; Raisi died in 2024 helicopter crash; June 2024 election of reformist Pezeshkian.

Protest slogans?

“Women, Life, Freedom”; “Death to the dictator”; “Mullahs get lost”; “Death to the supreme leader.” Movement now described as a “silent revolution.”

Bolivar, Gran Colombia, Pan-Hispanism?

Bolivar was born in Caracas. Gran Colombia (Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador), Enlightenment-inspired, dissolved 1834. Pan-Hispanism: cultural and political cooperation of the Hispanic world.

Chavismo and Bolivarianism?

Hugo Chavez (1999-2013), PSUV founder: left-wing populist, anti-imperialist, democratic socialism, participatory democracy, self-sufficiency, resource redistribution, anti-corruption.

Venezuela’s political crisis timeline?

Guaido opposition (2019); PUD formed 2021; July 2024 election Gonzalez vs. Maduro; Machado blocked from ballot; US sanctions and non-recognition of Maduro; 7.7M fled (mostly to Colombia).

“Mother of All Marches”?

Protests starting April 2017 (2.5M in Caracas) against Maduro’s anti-democratic changes, assembly dissolution, corruption, rights abuses; reinvigorated by the 2024 election.

Petro-state and rentier economy?

Oil-dependent economy (OPEC member, largest reserves); oil rents fuel corruption and are used to repress or co-opt opposition.