Lecture 2 - Social Movements

What is the main argument of Woodly’s article?

Social movements are not just tempory activism byt essential to democratic institutions

Who’s claim does Woodly counter

Woodly counters Obama’s claims that a movement’s value ends once they get “a seat at the table”

How does Woodly counter Obama’s claim?

Movements repoliticize public life and counteract the “politics of despair”

What is politics of despair

a system that is viewed by citizens as rigged or unresponsive. Leads to the lost of faith in political institutions

Democracy fragility

without active, participatory citizen engagment, democracy drifts towards bureaucratic oligarcy

What can social movements be considered as?

The fifth estate. Beyound legislature, executive, judiciary, and press, social movements functions as a check on institutional stagnation and elite capture

The cycles of contention

The 21st cen. has experineced repeated waves of protests such as BLM, Me Too, and the March for our lives. These cycles reinvigorate democracy and public discourse

What is the main argument of the article by Schlozman, Verba, and Brady?

Refutes ration choice theory, which claims that political participation is irrational because individual actions rarely affect the collective outcome. Empirical evidence shows that people participate for civic and social gradifications, not merely matrial gains

What is the rational choice and free rider problem?

Collective action for public goods such as clean air is irrational because individuals can benefit without contrubuting

What is the Selective benefits framework?

Material benefits, social gradificarions, and civic gradifications

What are material benefits and it’s contrubutions

Tangible rewards such as money and jobs. They are the least cited reason for participation

What are social gratifications and it’s contrubutions

Enjoyment, recognition, and camaraderie. They are important for social participation

What are civic gradification and it’s contrubutions

Sense of duty and contribution to the community. Highly significant for all forms of participation

Expressive vs instrumental participation

People often act because the action itself feels meaningful, not just because it achieves a result

What was the result of the citizen participation study?

Most activists report civic and policy motivations, not selfish ones. Participation is sustained by normative and emotional rewards since activism feels morally and socially fulfulling

What does this survey study by Schlozman, Verba, and Brady imply?

Rational choice models fail to capture real human motivations. Participation strengthens democratic cultures and civic norms

According to Prof. Jung, what are the types of participation?

Institutionalized (inside the system) and not insititutionalized (outside the system)

What are examples of institutionalized participation? What are it’s benefits?

Voting, campaigns, and participatory budgeting. It offers vertical accountabilities, where the officals are accountable to voters

What are the problems of institutionalized participation?

Low engagement, corruption, and inefficiency

What are examples of non institutionalized participation? What are it’s benefits?

Protests, marches, boycotts, and blockades etc. They are critical for democracy’s viality

What is relative deprivation

People pretest when they see unfair inequality

What is the resource Moblization Theory?

Sucess depends on mobilizating resources such as money, media, and organization

What is the Political Opportunity Model?

Movements suceed when systemic weakness or cirses create opeinings

What is the Framing Theory?

The language, symbols, and narratives that legitimize movements. For example, “I can’t breath”, “This is democracy”, and “We are sovereign”