Social movements

What is Tilly’s definition of a social movement? (Tilly 2004)

“A distinctive form of contentious politics -contentious in the sense that…if realized, would conflict with someone else's interests, politics in the sense that governments of one sort or another figure somehow in the claim making.”

What are Tilly’s three elements for a social movement? (Tilly 2004)

Campaign (“a sustained, organized public effort making collective claims on target authorities”), Repetoire (associations, public meetings, vigils, rallies) and WUNC displays (Worthiness, Unity, Numbers and Commitment)

What makes social movements distinctive? (Tilly 2004)

“No single element, but the combination of repertoire and WUNC displays within campaigns, created the social movement's distinctiveness.”

Tilly’s claim regarding social movements and democracy? (Tilly 2004)

"The rise and fall of social movements mark the expansion and contraction of democratic opportunities."

What sovereignty claim do social movements make per Tilly? (Tilly 2004)

"Social movements assert popular sovereignty… the whole apparatus of campaign, repertoire, and WUNC displays embodies the more general claim that public affairs depend, and should depend, on the consent of the governed."

Stipulated end of social movements per Tilly? (Tilly 2004)

“Either governmental decentralization, extensive privatization of governmental activities, or weakening of government capacity, the eclipse of the state by transnational powers, or widespread de-democratization”

Increase in Parliamentarization and thus growth of social movements? (Tilly 1997)

(i) increase in central government's influence over decisions/resources; (ii) within central government, parliament's relative and absolute command; (iii) outside government, increasing centrality of parliament to power struggles

What shift in repertoire does Tilly identify in 1830s Britain? (Tilly 1997)

A "decisive shift from spur-of-the-moment provocation and violent retribution toward planned gatherings aimed at declaring collective positions with regard to public issues."

What was the trade-off in moving to parliament-facing claim-making? (Tilly 1997)
—> Abandoned grain price-fixing seizures, public shaming of underpaid workers, direct attacks on poorhouses

Social-movement tactics required "cumulation, planning, coordination, anticipatory negotiation with authorities, frequently failed, and even when successful often demanded years of sustained effort."

What is Wasow's central thesis on 1960s Black-led protests? (Wasow 2020)

“Nonviolent activism, particularly when met with state or vigilante repression, drove media coverage, framing, congressional speech, and public opinion on civil rights. Counties proximate to nonviolent protests saw presidential Democratic vote share increase 1.6-2.5%”

What is "agenda seeding" per Wasow? (Wasow 2020)

Marginal groups use disruptive tactics "to overcome these barriers" of elite media dominance.

How does Wasow position himself between elite and pluralist theories? (Wasow 2020)

A synthesis model that "recognizes elite dominance of political communication but focuses on the ability of activists to overcome asymmetries through tactics like disruption

Cohen (1963) quote on the press via Wasow 2020?

The press "may not be successful much of the time in telling people what to think, but it is stunningly successful in telling its readers what to think about."

Wasow on minority group tactics? (Wasow 2020)

“For subordinate groups in democratic polities, though, tactics matter.”

Stephan and Chenoweth definition of nonviolent resistance? (Stephan and Chenoweth 2008)

"A civilian-based method used to wage conflict through social, psychological, economic, and political means without the threat or use of violence."

How does nonviolent struggle differ from other nonviolent political processes? (Stephan and Chenoweth 2008)

"Nonviolent struggle takes place outside traditional political channels, making it distinct from other nonviolent political processes such as lobbying, electioneering, and legislating."

What is the Stephan and Chenoweth headline success-rate stat? (Stephan and Chenoweth (2008))

“Nonviolent campaigns are more than six times likelier to achieve full success than violent campaigns that also faced regime repression.”

What is the "public opinion tax" in Manekin and Mitts? (Manekin and Mitts 2021)

“Minority groups pay a 'public opinion tax' when turning to nonviolent resistance, which can offset some of the benefits that have been associated with it in the literature.”

What is Manekin and Mitts's headline empirical finding? | Manekin and Mitts (2021)

"Ethiopian and Arab protesters engaging in the same activity are seen as 11% and 16% more violent and are 93% and 52% more likely to be recalled as violent" than white protesters

How was Syria a hard case for social movement theory per Pearlman? | Pearlman (2021)

“Syria's security state prohibited political parties, independent associations, or other spaces in which citizens could speak freely… Pervasive surveillance sowed fear and distrust. According to conventional theory and many Syrians themselves, revolution under these conditions was simply 'impossible.’”

What is Pearlman's main theoretical claim? | Source: Pearlman (2021)

—> Prefigurative power

“Mobilizing structures might follow initial protest events rather than precede them”

What is Pearlman's "from scratch" thesis in one line? | Source: Pearlman (2021)

I”n repressive settings, the real engine of mobilization might instead be made 'from scratch.'"

What is Le Bon's "crowd psychology" view of collective action? | Source: Le Bon (1895) The Crowd

—→ Tilly differs by treating social movements as rational, organized, strategic actors using a deliberate repertoire.

Le Bon characterised crowds as governed by "irrational thoughts"—a "popular mind" displacing individual reason with collective contagion

What is Michels's "iron law of oligarchy"? | Source: Michels (1911) Political Parties

"Who says organisation says oligarchy." All democratic mass organisations tend toward oligarchy through professionalisation of leadership: specialised skills, control of information, and incumbency advantages

What is the "abstract political authority" link to social movements?

Making a claim on an abstract political authority seems distinctive" to the social movement form. Pre-modern contention targeted concrete local powerholders (landlord, magistrate).

Typology of social movement contributions?

Constitutive, Agenda-setting, Outcome, Prefigurative

Typology of boundary conditions?

Regime contexts (democratisation/centralisation), Identity (minorities “opinion tax”), tactics (Non-violence) and Organizational substrate

Are social movements really shifting power?

—>"Or do they just represent popular demands for the legislature to make certain changes?"

(i) constitutive—they shift power TO the people; (ii) representational—they merely express popular demands that the legislature may or may not act on

How does Pearlman save part of Tilly?

Pearlman challenges Tilly's DEMOCRATISATION precondition but not the CENTRALISATION precondition—Assad's Syria was highly centralised.

"Worthiness in whose eyes?" critique?

Worthiness isn't a neutral display—it's a performance that has to be legible AS worthy to a particular audience (typically a majority-white, middle-class, respectability-oriented one).

Does seeding really "actualise" popular sovereignty?

If a movement's influence runs through media frames, public opinion, and elite responsiveness, then what's being "actualised" is something quite distant from direct popular self-rule—it's mediated influence via the dominant communication infrastructure

What is the "whiggish/liberal complacency" critique?

The literature's optimism about social movements as engines of progressive change may be ideological—an attractive story for a liberal-democratic self-image rather than an empirical finding.