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Nation
• Nation – Psychological. State – Political. Country – Geographical.
• A nation is a large group or collective of people with common characteristics attributed to
them - including language, traditions, mores (customs), habitus (habits), and ethnicity.
• By comparison, a nation is more impersonal, abstract, and overtly political than an ethnic
group. It is a cultural-political community that has become conscious of its autonomy,
unity, and particular interests.

Joseph Stalin
• A nation is not a racial or tribal, but a historically constituted community of people.
• A nation is not a casual or ephemeral conglomeration, but a stable community of people.
• A nation is formed only as a result of lengthy and systematic intercourse, as a result of
people living together generation after generation.
• A nation is a historically constituted, stable community of people, formed on the basis of a
common language, territory, economic life, and psychological make-up manifested in a
common culture.

Benedict Anderson: "Imagined community" (Paul James: "Abstract community")

• It is an imagined community in the sense that the material conditions exist for imagining
extended and shared connections.
• It is an abstract community in the sense that it is objectively impersonal, even if each
individual in the nation experiences him or herself as subjectively part of an embodied
unity with others.
• For the most part, members of a nation remain strangers to each other and will never
likely meet
o Vance Packard: Hence the phrase, "a nation of strangers"

Two types of nations

• The civic nation of which France was the principal example
• The ethnic nation exemplified by the German peoples
Civic nation was traced to the French Revolution and ideas deriving from 18th-century French
philosophers (Driven by the ideas like Liberty, Equality, Fraternity)

Ernest Renan
• A willingness to "live together", producing a nation that results from an act of affirmation.

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Present day analysis
• Building of national identity sentiments
• Ernest Gellner
o Shared, formal educational system
o Cultural homogenization
o Central monitoring of polity, with extensive bureaucratic control
o Linguistic standardization
o National identification as abstract community
o Cultural similarity as a basis for political legitimacy
o Anonymity, single-stranded social relationships
• Identifying the individual and collective mechanisms within a nation (Duties vs Rights of
a citizen)
• Role of United Nations as an international collectivity
• The role a State plays in a nation (Granville Austin – In India, the State is making the
nation)
• Nations becoming economies
• Issues of Sub-nationalism

Nationalism
• It represents an ideology that those with the common identity and characteristics represent
distinct political community.
• This political community is unified by territorial boundary.

Ernest Gellner’s idea of Nationalism

• Shared, formal education system
• Cultural homogenisation and "social entropy" (natural decay of a social system)
• Central monitoring of polity, with extensive bureaucratic control.
• Linguistic standardization.
• National identification as abstract community (even relating with those who we haven’t
ever seen)
• Cultural similarity as a basis for political legitimacy (politics relating with cultural aspects
to garner legitimacy)

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Eric Hobsbawm
• Nationalist ideology represents a bourgeoisie construct where capitalism replaced
traditional aristocracy and nationalism was the result of economic capital.
Albert Cohen
• Nationalism was the result of a reaction to colonialism in third world Nations.
Modern view
• Nationalism develops in peripheral regions against imbalanced development.
Intellectual nationalism invests with Industrial Revolution and French revolution
Ideological Nationalism in East on basis of religion, culture, ethnicity, Nationalist ideology
Globalised nationalism in Middle East (Arab Spring)

Nationalism And Globalisation

With rise of globalization, internationalisation and Cosmopolitanisation
• Economic globalisation to pose threat to territorial homogeneity and control the economy
of nation state
• Privatization, rise of new non state Agencies, civil society organisations, NGOs, etc. would
make differentials in society
• People lose a sense of culture (identity crisis)

Andrew Pilkington
• Otherisation: As the globalisation grew, the idea that we are different from the others also
grew. Eventually leading to the proposal of the idea of nation and nationalism. It flew from
Elites to lower strata.
• Hybrid Identities – One is English + British + European at the same time
• Hyphenated Identities (minorities) need to be mainstreamed and protected to form
‘inclusive nationalism’.
• Ernest Gellner: Nationalism intensifies with global forces. Recent World War 1 and 2 have
reinforced National ideologies
• Stuart hall: Nationalism provides sense of security to ethnicities amidst turbulence of
global forces
• Ian Robertson: Migrating communities revive National culture in other Nations

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State
Weber: State is a “human community that successfully claims monopoly over the legitimate use
of physical force within a given territory”
o Other groups might resort to violence, but they are termed as terrorists, or hooligans.

Thomas Hobbes – State exercises Sovereignty.

Machiavelli
o State comprises institutions governing members within a territorial boundary.
o Members confined in a boundary are deemed citizens and enjoy several political,
cultural, religious, social and economic rights.
2 problems for contemporary States:
• Territorial: Posed by globalisation.
• Institutional: Posed by blurring of boundary between state and non-state private
organizations, civil society, NGO, voluntary organisations.

Theories
Pluralist
• State controlled by many parties and organisation and represent interest of all.
• Lipset: Institutionalization of class-conflict through parties.
• Aran: Power with people in socialist regimes (pluralism)
Elite
• CW Mills: State represents Elite interest
• Michels: Democracy is rule by oligarchic organisations through Bureaucracy
• Elite interest not put to serious challenge.
Functionalist
• Parsons: State needed for two objectives
- Determining goals based on value consensus
- Mobilizing resources for fulfillment.
• Marxian (state in capitalism)
- State committed to common interest of capitalist and staffed by ruling class.

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Relation between ruling class and governing class
• Stanley Aronowitz: Capitalist staff is organs of state
• Ralph Miliband: State functions to serve capitalist interests. Because of the similar social
origins of members of state, government and the personal ties between members of state
government and the ruling-class elites (elite self-recruitment)
• Poulantzas: The relative autonomy of the state from the capitalist class. The structure of
society is capitalist; thus, state is by default capitalistic in nature. No need for capitalists to
be there in the governing class.
• Westergaard and Risler: Welfare state a myth. Still inequality prevails. Social security
systems concessions to suppress proletarian Revolt.
• Postmodernist: Habermas
o Space between public private is shrinking
o Institutional apparatus serves state interest at cost of individual Liberty
• Ralph Milliband (Marxist) says that state becomes agent of wealthy but direct intervention
is not needed (3rd face of indoctrination)

Antonio Gramsci (Neo Marxist):

• No economic determinism but reciprocity in infrastructure and superstructure.
• Hegemony is achieved not by force but by idea (concessions /dual consciousness – ideas
are not always derived from capitalists)
• Cultural ideological hegemony: In culturally diverse society, ruling class manipulate
culture (beliefs/ explanations/ perceptions/values) so that it becomes accepted.
• Dominant ideology becomes acceptable/perpetual and beneficial for all (status quo) rather
than a fake social construct.
• Operates through state apparatus.

Bob Jessop (The future of capitalist state) Neo-Marxist

• Post Fordist specialised production
o Capitalist don’t run the state always, as state does not serve their interests
o Operational autonomy of the state: capitalism cannot exist without non capitalist
institutions; capitalism merely exercises dominance.
o In regulationist approach, state can harm capitalism
• Shift from Keynesian welfare model to Schumpeterian Workfare Economy (unemployed
should seek work) Post national (International competition in knowledge economy) model.
• Various state capacities like military, financial institutions etc. don’t necessarily act to
achieve same goals.

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Louis Althusser
• Repressive state apparatus: ruling class controls govt/courts/police/military and even
state.
o People submit due to fear of legal prosecution and police action.
• Ideological state apparatus: religion/school/families controlled through ideology (system
of ideas and values)
o People submit due to fear of social ridicule.
Nicos Poulantzas (Neo-Marxist)
• Emphasized importance of social structure and minimizes individual action (capitalist)
• Class origin does not matter, class position does
• Relative autonomy of state (diffuse protests, has to promote myth of inclusiveness,
bourgeois are not free from internal divisions)

Critique
• State is stronger than ever
• Economic growth has become important functional duty of state
• Other sources of power than wealth.
Eric A Nordlinger
• Although some Marxists and Neo Marxists predicted relative autonomy of state but state is
never to go against ruling class. Nordlinger says that state has autonomy.
• TYPE 1: State has different wishes from major groups (state has resources. Decision making
power)
• TYPE 2: Persuades opponents to change their mind (active role in manipulating public
opinion)
• TYPE 3: Apathy of the public (not every group is sure of its demands so leaves it to state)

Theda Skocpol (Bringing the State back in)

• State can have its own goals like reinforce the authority, political longevity etc.
• She talks about state capacity which depends
o On reliable income (taxes from rich)
o No foreign debt
o Increase in state power by having human resource etc.
• When state capacity decreases only then revolution occurs (e.g. Russian, French, Chinese
revolution)

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Globalisation and power of the nation-state

John Baylis and Steve Smith: The globalisation of world politics
Globalisation is a process of increasing interconnection and it has led to a new era in:
• Politics (economic transformation) (state has less control over national economy)
• Electronic Communication (no boundaries)
• Global culture
• Homogeneity
• Cosmopolitan culture
• Global polity (UN –NGOs)
• Risk culture (AIDS, environment)
But
• Globalisation is not New and it is not reducing power of nation state
• Globalisation has impacted Western societies more where infrastructure is present
• Globalisation has exploited the poor explicitly
• Global problems have emerged like terrorism, drug, weapon trade, money laundering
• Global Institutions may not be subject to democratic control.

Leslie Sklair (Sociology of the global system)

Power of transnational companies
• Transnational practices include:
o Economic transnational corporations
o Political capitalist inspired politician
o Cultural ideological consumerism
• Globalisation has mostly negative impact that is class polarization and ecological
unsustainability

David Held And Anthony McGrew: (Democracy and Cosmopolitan order)

Two types of globalisation
• Globalists (economy, global politics, risk)
• Sceptics (nothing new about migration and international trade; people have maintained
strong national identities)

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Transformationalist Stance
• There is nothing new about globalization and in future, it might change direction or can be
reversed
• Globalization is bringing diverse people together which can become source of conflict

Citizenship
• A citizen is not one who lives in a nation state, he is not just an inhabitant (aliens also are),
he is the one who participates in the process of govt-two way – rights (demands on state)
and duties (demand by state).
• Harold J Laski says that state is known by rights it maintains. State is not merely a
sovereign organization which is entitled to citizen’s allegiance. In monarchies, only subjects
are there.
• Citizenship has been defined as legal status of membership in political community.
Citizenship is rights to have rights.
• TH MARSHALL defines citizenship as a status, which is enjoyed by a person who is a full
member of a community
• Citizenship has three components:
o Civil (individual freedom institutionalized in law)
o Political (right to participate in exercise of political power and holding public office)
o Social (right to participate in appropriate standard of living).
• He says that there is permanent tension between citizenship and capitalist market
(capitalism involves inequality while citizenship involves distribution of sources because of
rights).

Marshall theory critique

• Only English experience with no comparative analysis
• Expansionary analysis of citizenship without examining social processes which undermine
citizenship (gender differences, discrimination)
• It is not clear about cause of expansion of citizenship

Talcott Parsons says that citizenship is measure of modernization of society because it is based on
values of universalism and achievement.
Citizenship is treated as an aspect of bourgeois liberalism and sometimes as an aspect of radical
democratic politics. Globalization is transcending regionalism and parochial nationalism to make
us global citizens. Dual citizenship is a new phenomenon where connections are more based on
convenience rather than love of mother land.

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State and Citizenship

• State is important political organization but it mainly pursues its objective through law and
coercive force
• State role is expanding due to welfarism even if as a regulator
• State and citizens often are at opposite end due to difference of opinion on morality, private
sentiments, high social values, aspirations etc. E.g. Kashmir

Democracy
• Democracy entails direct participation of all in political process.
• Gandhi: It is not a legal phenomenon but a spiritual one involving respect for each other
and decentralisation of power.
• Abraham Lincoln: Rule by people and government by, of, for the people.
• Pluralist - democracy requires power at hands of a few to lead and represent.
• Functionalist (Parsons) - people bestow power to leaders which could be withdrawn
during elections (as in a saving account in a bank)
• Political participation of people at the core of democracy.

Types
Participative
• Direct participation via referendum, recall, plebiscite, initiative.
Representative
• Agent based (one who consults the electorate)
• Delegate based (one who acts on his own discretion while taking decisions)
Bestowing responsibility or Power in hands of a few to represent collective interest.
Associative
• In “Professional Ethics and Civic Morals” by Durkheim, Participation via voluntary
organisation (socialist society) Sensitize, check on bureaucracy, Civic culture etc.

Critique
• Bottomore - pluralist societies - Undemocratic: democracy needs social + industrial
democracy and equality of all.
• Marx: Communist societies are true democracies.
• R Aran - communist societies represent all interest. Pluralist represent Elite rule.

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• Lipset and Coleman find control of Institutions by economic elites but Real democracy
requires institutional democracy.
Robert Michels (political parties)
• Iron hand of Oligarchy
• In representative democracy organisation develop a bureaucratic structure that itself has
various flaws.
• It facilitates few to control institutional landscape and suppress genuine people's
participation.
• Elite rule by guile and cunningness.
• Bureaucracy within organisation makes society won't have democracy.
• Dynasty Rule
• Elite Self Recruitment.
• Catch-All: Parties with divergent ideologies tend to become centrist after being voted-in.
• Illiteracy and ignorance of populace.
• Episodic Accountability - Democracy limited to voting only.
• Limited accountability mechanism.
• Alexis de Tocqueville - Tyranny of majority
• Steven Lukes – 3rd Face of Power – State using its power to form opinions of people in its
favour.
• JS Mill: “If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the
contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he,
if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.”

Civil society
• Civil society is community of citizens linked by common interests and collective identity. It
manifests will and interests of the citizens. It is third sector of society after govt and
business. It limits power of state and usher in true and vibrant democracy by enhancing
participation.
• JS Mill and Alexis de Tocqueville: CS is domain of social association which will check
excesses of the state. (based on liberal democratic theory: right bearing individuals are free
to pursue their private associations with others).
• Hegel: Subordinated CS to state as he thought it as a mediating domain where particular
interests of individual and universal interest of state can be reconciled for producing ethical
basis for modern society
• Antonio Gramsci: CS furthers dominant ideologies

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• Partha Chatterjee and Sudipta Kaviraj
o Delineate western CS from Indian.
o Application of concepts of western CS on India is wrong as state in India is not
extensive as on west.
Anthony Giddens
• Groups which fall outside the market and government both can be termed as civil society.
Government and the market alone are not enough to solve the many challenges in late
modern societies.
• Civil society must be strengthened and joined up with government and business.
• Voluntary groups, families and civic associations can play vital roles in addressing
community issues from crime to education
• Some elements of civil society (often characterised as ‘social movements’) seek radical
transformations of the prevailing order.
• However, civil society also includes reformist elements that seek only modest revisions of
existing governance arrangements and conformist elements that seek to reinforce
established rules.
Jan Aart Scholte
• Highlighted how civil society can play a very important role in enhancing democracy
o Public education activities
o Giving voice to stake holders. For e.g. giving voice to Singur farmers in WB, and
unorganised labour
o Fuel debate about governance. For e.g. highlighting environmental issues.
o Increasing transparency: Public scrutiny.
o Increases public accountability: Civic groups can monitor the implementation and
effects of policies.
o Fosters legitimacy: Providing for interaction between people and the government,
giving the government legitimacy
• Caution
o Civil society can pursue anti-democratic goals
o Employ antidemocratic means
o Produce anti-democratic consequences
• But these risks are by no means grounds to exclude civil society, but they give reason to
treat it with care.

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• Six parameters to judge quality of NGO
o People’s participation
o Cost effectiveness
o Institutional/Environmental/ Financial sustainability
o Accountability
o Technical excellence
o Equity concern for deprived and for women

Civil Society & Democracy

General issues
• Funding and elite run
• Mafia and militia group are part of CS (ideology and propaganda)
• Black money in the name of aid
• Internal democracy lacking and corruption
• Govt agencies are ill equipped to handle CS inputs
• Insensitivity to local cultures (foreign NGOs)
Positives
• People power,
• Empowering citizen,
• New leaders,
• End of tyranny,
• Generate public support

Ideology
• An ideology is a set of cultural beliefs, values, and attitudes that underlie and justify either
the status quo or movements to change it
• Ideology can also underlie movements for social change, which rely on sets of ideas that
explain and justify their purpose and methods.

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Marxist view
• A society's dominant ideology is integral to its superstructure
• In the Marxist economic base and superstructure model of society, base denotes the
relations of production and modes of production, and superstructure denotes the dominant
ideology (religious, legal, political systems)
• The economic base of production determines the political superstructure of a society
• Ruling class-interests determine the superstructure and the nature of the justifying ideology
• For example, in a feudal mode of production, religious ideology is the most prominent
aspect of the superstructure, while in capitalist formations, ideologies such as liberalism
and social democracy dominate.
• Hence ideology politically confuses the alienated groups of society via false consciousness
• Marx argued that “The class which has the means of material production at its disposal has
control at the same time over the means of mental production.”
• György Lukács proposes ideology as a projection of the class consciousness of the ruling
class

Antonio Gramsci
• Uses cultural hegemony to explain why the working-class have a false ideological
conception of what are their best interests
• Gramsci wrote about the power of ideology to reproduce the social structure via
institutions like religion and education
• Intellectuals, often viewed as detached observers of social life, enjoy prestige in society
• They function as the “deputies” of the ruling class, indoctrinating the populace to follow
the norms and rules established by the ruling class.
• Importantly, this includes the belief that the economic system, the political system, and a
class stratified society are legitimate, and thus, the rule of the dominant class is legitimate.
• Karl Mannheim, Daniel Bell, and Jürgen Habermas - The Marxist formulation of
“ideology as an instrument of social reproduction” is conceptually important to the
sociology of knowledge.
• Pierre Bourdieu - ideology a psychoanalytic insight that ideologies do not include only
conscious, but also unconscious ideas

Louis Althusser's Ideological State Apparatuses

• Both spiritual and materialistic conception of ideology
• Made use of a special type of discourse: the lacunar discourse. A number of propositions,
which are never untrue, suggest a number of other propositions, which are

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Example, the statement “All are equal before the law”, which is a theoretical groundwork of
current legal systems, suggests that all people may be of equal worth or have equal
“opportunities”. This is not true, for the concept of private property and power over the
means of production results in some people being able to own more (much more) than others
• The rich can afford better legal representation, which practically privileges them before the
law

Ideological State Apparatus - to explain his theory of ideology

• For Althusser, beliefs and ideas are the products of social practices, not the reverse.
• What is ultimately ideological for Althusser are not the subjective beliefs held in the
conscious “minds” of human individuals, but rather discourses that produce these beliefs,
the material institutions and rituals that individuals take part in without submitting it to
conscious examination and critical thinking

Silvio Vietta: Ideology and Rationality

• Described the development and expansion of Western rationality from ancient times
onwards as often accompanied by and shaped by ideologies like that of the “just war”, the
“true religion”, racism, nationalism, or the vision of future history as a kind of heaven on
earth in communism.
• He said that ideas like these became ideologies by giving hegemonic political actions an
idealistic veneer and equipping their leaders with a higher and, in the “political religions”
(Eric Voegelin), nearly God-like power, so that they became masters over the lives (and the
deaths) of millions of people.
• He considered that ideologies therefore contributed to power politics irrational shields of
ideas beneath which they could operate as manifestations of idealism.

Protest, Agitation, Social mouvements, Collective Action, Revolution

Collective action
• Group of people engaged in some sort of interaction, within the group as well as with
other groups, which creates a collective identity.
• In sociology collective action is treated differently from individual action and can be
classified in terms of (DISCOO)
o Duration
o Ideology
o Structure (under what structure is the collective action happening, Authoritative or
Democratic)
o Consequences
o Objective
o Organisation.

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• Individual Action → Social Action → Collective Action

Protest
• The process of opposition against any other person, group, issue or even society.

Agitation
• The activity of showing opposition to fulfil the purpose of protest.
• Both agitation and protest are interrelated and mutually exclusive. Visible at manifest and
latent levels
• Manifest – Verbal Comments, Expression of angers, disruptive activities, sometimes rioting
• Latent – Inaction, inefficient behaviour, distress, tension, disillusionment, alienation
• Common Interest + Collective Action = Protests/Agitation.

TYPES
Both could be
• Organised (Socio-Religious Movements of 19th Century)
• Unorganised (Rioting, blockade)
• Acceptability (Acceptability in the society. Anna Hazare movement)
• Non-Acceptability (Non-Acceptability in the society. LGBT protests, Slut Walk)

Protests – Mostly non-violent

Agitation – Mostly violent
Ghanshyam Shah: Gave testing criteria of Protest or Agitation
• “Compulsive Demand” in Agitation
o E.g. – Salt Satyagraha, Anna Hazare’s Fast unto Death.

Causes
General Causes
• Dissatisfaction (with the prevalent conditions)
• Dissent (Manifest. Difference of opinion)
• Disagreement (Latent)
• Relative Deprivation
• Strain
• Vested Interest

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Special Causes
• Precipitating Factor
• Specific Demands
When same thing is
• Spontaneity in Start
• Sustained
• Non-Institutional (by not being a part of the state)
• Organised (to achieve certain objective)
it becomes Movement.
Example – Driver beaten after an accident is not a movement because it is not sustained, but
Sanskritisation by Rajvanshis is

How Social Movements get Institutionalised in Society (OIL)

• Leadership
• Objective
• Ideology
Gives longevity to movement
• E.g. Bhoodan Movement, Naxal Movement.
Social Movements are
• Collective action
• By a large number of people
• Which is directed towards – Changing (Promoting or Resisting) some of the values, norms
and social relations in a society.

Difference between Protest, Agitation and Social Movement

• Social movements are essentially collective action (Agitation and Protests can be
individualised)
• SM are broader in terms of influence and reach
• SM are sustained in nature
• SM are non-institutional in character
• SM are preceded by Protests and Agitation
Therefore, all SM are collective actions but not vice versa

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Social Movements In The Modern World

Anthony Giddens
“Collective attempts to further a common interest or secure a common goal through action
outside the sphere of established institutions”
Anthony Giddens states that some recent changes have been taking place in modernity. He
believes modernity is developing into a phase which may be called high modernity or radicalised
modernity.

He identifies 4 dimensions of modernity

1. Capitalism: Private ownership
2. Industrialism: Mass production using machines
3. Surveillance: Supervision of activities of subjects
4. Military Power: Control of means of violence

According to Giddens SMs develop corresponding to these 4 dimensions

1. Labour movements
2. Ecological movements
3. Free speech/democratic movements
4. Peace
Giddens believes ecological and peace movements are relatively new phenomenon which have
come up with globalisation and more awareness.
Social movements often arise with the aim of bringing about change on a
• Public issue, such as expanding civil rights for a segment of the population
• In response to social movements, counter-movements sometimes arise in defence of the
status quo
• Example - Abortion movements vs Prolife movements
The American civil rights movement succeeded in pushing through important pieces of legislation
outlawing racial segregation in schools and public places.

David Aberle

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Charles Tilly
• Social movement as a series of contentious performances, displays and campaigns by which
ordinary people make collective claims on others
• For Tilly, social movements are a major vehicle for ordinary people's participation in public
politics

On basis of Ideology
• Marxian
• Gandhian
• Feminist
• Anti-state
• Anti-Society

Theories of Social movement

Herbert Blumer - Theory of social unrest
Blumer saw social movements as motivated by dissatisfaction with some aspects of current
society, which they sought to rectify (outside the sphere of formal party politics). In doing so, they
were trying to build a ‘new order of life’
Types
• 'Active' or outwardly directed, aiming to transform society
o E.g. An example of the former would be the labour movement, which aimed to
radically change capitalist societies in egalitarian ways
• 'Expressive' or inwardly directed, trying to change the people who become involved
o E.g. 'New Age' movements, which encourage people to transform their inner selves
In practice most social movements involve both active and expressive elements
As movement activists and supporters undergo changes in their self-identity as a result of
campaigns to change society.
Many environmental campaigns, for example, are explicitly aimed at preventing environmental
damage, but in the process, they often generate an increasing self-identification with the natural
world, thereby transforming people's perception of self.

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Life cycle- (SPFI)
Involves four consecutive stages
• Social ferment → when people are agitated about some issue but this is relatively
unfocused and disorganized.
• Popular excitement → This develops into a stage of ‘popular excitement’ during which the
sources of people's dissatisfaction are more clearly defined and understood.
• Formal organization → In the third stage, formal organizations are normally created which
are able to bring about a higher level of coordination to the emerging movement and a
more effective campaigning structure is put in place.
• Institutionalisation → Finally comes 'institutionalization', in which the movement, which
was originally outside mainstream politics, comes to be accepted as part of the wider
society and political life.
Of course, some movements partly succeed, while others completely fail. Some endure over quite
long periods of time, while others simply run out of finances or enthusiasm, thus ending their life-
(also, Tilly –
Critics
• Studies tended not to explore the rational decisions This aspect was left for later scholars
to pursue and strategies of movement activists
• Critics argued that these were largely descriptive accounts that did not really pay enough
attention to explanations that were able to connect social movement activity to changes in
the social structure.

Neil Smelser: Strain theory (CS GF AC)

Smelser argued that six 'value-added' elements are necessary for a social movement to develop:
• Structural conduciveness: Structural context has to be conducive to movement formation.
For example, in authoritarian societies there may be very little scope for people to gather
together in large groups or to demonstrate legally against things they oppose
• Structural strain: There needs to be a strain between people's expectations and social
reality.
• Generalised beliefs: If the first two conditions are met, then it is necessary for generalized
beliefs about the causes of strain to develop and spread in order to convince people of the
need to join or form a social movement.
He sees such generalized beliefs as often quite primitive and based on wish fulfilment,
rather than rationally thought through.
• Precipitating Factors: These are essentially events that act as sparks to ignite the flame of
protest action. A good example of this would be the removal of Rosa Parks from a racially
segregated bus in the USA in 1955, which triggered protests and became a key event in the
black civil rights movement. Without them, the process of movement formation may be
stalled for a long period.
Tunisia – Vegetable Vendor self-immolated, started Arab Spring
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• Mobilization for action:
Having witnessed a precipitating event, the next value-added element is effective
communication via the formation of an active social network which allows activists to
perform some of the functions necessary for successful protest and organization-building;
writing and distributing pamphlets, organizing demonstrations, taking membership fees
and so on. All of this activity requires a higher level of networking and social networking.
(made possible in today's times by internet)
• Failure of social control: The final causal factor in Smelser’s model is the response of the
forces of social control. The response of authorities can be crucial in closing down an
emergent social movement or creating opportunities for it to develop.
Sometimes an over-reaction by authorities can encourage others to support the
movement, especially in our media-dominated age. Theda Skocpol calls it—Decrease in
State Capacity.

Critical points
• In focusing attention on generalized beliefs, Smelser's model implied that individuals are
motivated to start social movements for irrational reasons, rooted in misleading ideas
about their situation
• This fell back into an older tradition that saw movements as unusual or marginal
phenomena
• Smelser's theory was also structural functionalist in orientation, setting social movements
in the context of their adaptive function during periods of rapid social change.

Contemporary significance
• Smelser's work on social movements has deservedly received more attention in recent years
and is undergoing something of resurgence
• It still offers a multi-causal model of movement formation and even critics have extracted
elements from it - such as ideas within resource mobilization theory, political opportunity
structures and frame analysis - which have proved very productive
Similarly, his model connects movement activism to social structures and may provide insights
into the rise of new social movements

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Revolution
• A forcible overthrow of a government or social order, in favour of a new system.
• A revolution is a fundamental change in political power or organizational structures that
takes place in a relatively short period of time.
• Generally, the population rises up in revolt against the current authorities
Aristotle described two types of political revolution:
1. Complete change from one constitution to another
2. Modification of an existing constitution
• The most dramatic and far-reaching example of non-orthodox political action is revolution -
the overthrow of an existing political order by means of a mass movement, using violence.
Revolutions are tense, exciting and fascinating events; understandably, they attract great
attention
• Yet for all of their high drama, revolutions occur relatively infrequently
• Any sudden change in government of a society brought about violently often called coup-
d’état or Palace revolution.
• More broadly it's a complete change of social structure where political change reflects one
of its manifestations
• Revolution may be due to political, economic and social factors or a combination of all on
any of these

Theories of Revolution
• J curve theory of revolution - believe that it's a result of relative deprivation when period of
economic prosperity are reversed.
Marxian view
• Describe nature of revolution where changes brought about in economic organisation
results in change in political structure
• For Marx, history of society was history of struggle between the classes (replacement of one
mode of production by another is involved in a revolution)
• Analyses India where periodic changes led to changes in mode of production
• Marxists view revolution in terms of either
o As struggle between two classes
o Conflict in mode of production
• Many believed that Revolution would occur where the social contradictions are more
prominent.
o Example: collapse of socialism in Soviet replaced by multi-party

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• Fukuyama (End of History) - Democracy and economic capitalism called true revolution.
• Althusser believed that Revolution would occur in weak link in chain of capitalism where
social contradictions are more prominent
• Theda Skocpol – Revolutions occur when state capacity weakens. (Russian, French,
Chinese)

Resources Mobilisation Theory

RMT developed in the late 1960s and 1970s, partly as a reaction to social unrest theories, which
appeared to portray social movements as 'irrational' phenomena.

Oberschall, Tilly, Zald, and McCarthy

• Capitalist societies produce chronic discontent so there should be perpetual movements
• Social unrest is always present and movements therefore cannot be explained by reference
to it

Cause
• Chronic discontent turns into social movements when necessary resources are available to
effectively challenge the established order

RMT
• Political dissatisfaction is not enough to bring about social change
• Resources are needed to become an active force in society
• RMT have an economistic feel.
• There are similarities between social movements and the competitive market economy.
• There is a competitive field of movements - a ‘social movement industry’ (SMI)- within
which movements compete for scarce resources, members, and activists
• Social movement organizations (SMOs) therefore find themselves in competition with other
SMOs, some of which may appear to share their aims

Critics
• RMT underplays the effects of post-industrialism or globalization processes in bringing
change on Social Movements. These may change the context of movement struggles.
• One-off incidents, like reporting of an asylum-seeking kid dying while crossing the seas,
stirred the European community to change their asylum policy.
• A lack of resources can be turned to a movement's advantage. Example - 'Poor people's
movements' in the USA.
• This was because activists in the early stages were very enthusiastic and took part in many
direct actions such as strikes and sit-ins.
• But once they became more effectively organized, direct actions became fewer and the
‘dead hand of bureaucracy’, as described by Max Weber and Robert Michels, took over as
the movements lost momentum and impact.

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Isaiah Berlin
Backdrop
• His father has pulled his family out of Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution and fled to
England
o Personal freedom destructed in the new socialist states of Soviet Union and in the
East

Central Idea
• Personal freedom
o “Should we be free to act as we wish and, if not, to what extent should we obey, and
whom should we obey?”
• No single unique way of life.

Details
• Liberty
o Negative Liberty: Extent to which we are free from interference, i.e., the area or
realm that a person or a group can enjoy without being coerced by another person,
group or government
▪ Hobbes in Leviathan “A free man is he that… is not hindered to do what he
has a will to”
o Positive Liberty: Freedom to be something or someone, “to be conscious of myself as
a thinking, willing, active being, bearing responsibility for my choices and able to
explain them by reference to my own ideas and purposes
▪ Berlin says, we are free to the degree that I believe this to be true and enslaved
to the degree that I am made to realise that it is not
▪ Although the idea seems laudable but Berlin takes it to its logical conclusion:
This idea gives rise to “self-mastery” ethic (become true or higher self to fully
realise one’s potential).
▪ But this could lead to situations where it is justified to coerce others to take
steps for greater public good
▪ It may prove to be a license to “bully, oppress, torture” others in the name
and on behalf of their ‘real’ selves
o T.H. Green says “The ideal of true freedom is the maximum of power for all
members of human society alike to make the best of themselves”
▪ Berlin argues that many a tyrant could use this formula to justify his worst
acts of oppression
o True freedom, as per Kant, revolves around the belief that “Nobody may compel me
to be happy in his own way”

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o While positive liberty is invoked to create a certain kind of person, supporters of
negative liberty know that the perfection of humanity is a dangerous myth, however
well-meaning, it inevitably leads to illiberal and usually nasty outcomes
• Rational Society
o Spinoza, Hegel, Marx all assumed that in a rational society the human lust for
power and domination would fade away
o Rational society → everyone wants greater good, no need for coercion
o Engels expressed the same view when he writes about “replacing the government of
persons by the administration of things”
• In place of naked power, a rational society has laws, which although they may impede and
restrict at an individual level, benefit the whole
o Locke: Where there is no law there is no freedom
o Montesquieu, Kant and Burke: Political liberty is not permission to do what we
want, but the power and means to “do what we ought to” within a rational social
structure
o Rights of man in 18thC: idea was that liberation and law are same —> rational laws
have authority of God, nature or history
o We need state and its laws to shape us toward timeless values and productive ends
and away from our irrational and base desires and instincts
o Berlin agrees with Fichte’s statement “No one has rights… against reason”
▪ He notes that if one follows the rational view to its end, “There can be only
one correct way of life”
▪ Wise people follow this way naturally, rest has to be shoe-horned into it for
their own good

• Also, the rationale behind Plato’s enlightened class (Guardians)

▪ Berlin points out the problem that this view only makes sense when itis
presumed that we are rational and that those who don’t agree are not
• Berlin’s Assumptions of the Rational Model
o Everyone has one true purpose: rational self-direction
o Ends of rational beings must fit into a single universal, harmonious pattern
o All conflict and tragedy solely due to clash of reason with irrational
o When everybody is rational, they will obey rational laws of their own natures, so
will be wholly law-abiding and wholly free

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• But Berlin notes the following caveats
o If I can see and appreciate what is true, then I have the authority to shape and
control your life

o “Sovereignty of the people” in the French Revolution didn’t mean more freedom for
Individuals
o Mill wrote of the “tyranny of majority” as being little different from any other
kind of tyranny.
o For French philosopher Benjamin Constant, the real question was not who was in
power, but how much power any government should have.
o If one kind of slavery was voluntary, it still amounted to the same reduction of
personal liberty.
• Berlin observes that contemporary philosophers have gone out of their way to separate
politics and philosophy, yet the reality is that politics is “indissolubly intertwined” with
every kind of philosophizing.
o If we do not appreciate the power of political belief, some of these beliefs will
inevitably go uncriticised and unnoticed — until it is too late

Conclusion
• Berlin was not against all social and political movements that seek to improve the lot of
humankind
• What he was against was “the belief that some single formula can in principle be found
whereby all the diverse ends of men can be harmoniously realised”
• Kant believes there is no value higher than that of the individual. Berlin also puts it that to
manipulate men, to propel them towards goals which you — the social reformer — see, but
they may not, is to deny their human essence, to treat them as objects without wills of
their own, and therefore to degrade them… to behave as if their ends are less ultimate and
sacred than my own
• Lord Acton said, freedom is an end in itself
o As J.S. Mill puts forth, there will be millions of experiments in living which will
take place, many of which will fail, but at least those who fail will learn their own
lessons.
o The problem with grand unifying visions of humanity or absolute theories is that
they do not take account of people as they actually are rather than how we might
like them to be
• We are on safer ground when freedom is made the highest value.

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Paul Kennedy
• History is full of great powers whose military and geopolitical ambitions and
commitments could not be sustained; at a certain point, they simply could no longer
afford what the Romans called Imperium.
• Kennedy in 1987 suggested that the US might be simply another example of an age-old
pattern of “imperial overstretch”
o Its decline relative to other powers was clear, and the task of policy-makers was
simply to manage it well.
• There always seems to be a time lag between a nation becoming wealthy and the point at
which its political and military influence increases.
• Great powers in relative decline instinctively respond by spending more on ‘security’ and
thereby divert potential resources from ‘investment’ and compound their long-term
dilemma.
• Around 1500 there were several power centres around the world: Ming China, Ottoman
Empire, Mogul Empire in India, Muscovy, Tokugawa Japan, and the cluster of states in
central-western Europe.
o The problem with all the non-European powers is that they were illiberal. Not only
did they require uniformity in religious belief, commerce and weapons development
only happened with the consent of the ruler.
o In contrast, Europe had no overarching ruler, and the constant warring between
kingdoms and city-states only encouraged the development of military technology,
which spilled over into other technological developments.
▪ Competition also encouraged an entrepreneurial culture that helped to create
wealth.
• After Napoleon’s bid to dominate Europe came to an end in 1815, the rest of the century
was characterised by relative stability and peace.
o America and Russia were focused on domestic instability and developing their
huge landmasses
o Britain was able to achieve naval domination and extend its commercial and
colonial interests while achieving industrial power at home
• Kennedy does not claim that economics alone drives world events.
• Geography, national morale, alliances and other factors can all affect the relative power of
nations within the state system.
• The need to divert investment away from “butter” toward “guns” leads any great power
to the “downward spiral of slower growth, heavier taxes, deepening domestic splits over
spending priorities and weakening capacity to bear the burdens of defense”.

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• He sees America in the late 1980s as being similar to Britain in 1914: an apparently
unassailable great power about to have an uncomfortable reckoning.
o He warns of a “multipolar” world in which US and Soviet dominance is giving way
to a rapidly developing Eastern sphere and an industrialising Third World.
• The cost of maintaining superpower status is so substantial that, even if this power is
retained, it is an obstacle to continued economic dominance compared to other rising
powers.
o Unconstrained by the need for huge military spending, China has been able to focus
on commercial enrichment, which has now set it up to become a major military
power if it wishes to.
• Ability to defend a nation is usually a short-term need, whereas economic growth is a long-
term requirement of national power and it can be hard to balance both.
o The heart of Kennedy’s argument is that there is a tension between strategic security,
which requires significant diversion of the nation’s resources, and economic security,
which depends on growth and high demand, both of which can be eroded by the
higher taxation needed for substantial defense spending.
• On US
o US defense spending is quite affordable given that the country is still way ahead of
China in terms of technology and education, and that America cannot be seen as a
top-heavy military power with a weakening economic base—the classic profile of
empire-fallers according to Kennedy.
o Recent studies suggest that China will not match American in economic output for
another 20 years. Chinese economic power is already held back by authoritarian rule
and corruption, but even if the country were to become increasingly liberal, history
suggests that democratic transitions are accompanied by falling growth rates.
• The combination of American economic resilience and Chinese political fragility may well
prove Kennedy’s thesis about American decline to have been wrong

F.A. Hayek
Background
• He considered himself a child of the Austro-Hungarian empire, and watched aghast as
Hitler rose to power in Germany and then, in 1938, annexed Austria.
• Fearing that Britain would experiment with the same kinds of anti-freedom ideas that
has led to regimes like Hitler’s National-Socialism and the propaganda of Soviet Union, he
resolved to expose the link between “planned” economies and political repression.
o His book The Road to Serfdom made the shocking assertion that countries including
Britain and the US could easily slide into totalitarianism, not by revolution but
through good-intentioned steps toward greater organisation of the economy.
o Ronald Regan, Margaret Thatcher, Milton Friedman, and the leaders of central
Europe’s post-Soviet revolutions were all deeply influenced by Hayek.
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The roots of oppression
• Hayek makes an express link between planned economies and totalitarianism
o Right from the Italian city states to industrial Britain, it was the growth of commerce
that allowed people to be freed of the hierarchical society in which birth alone
determined position in life.
o Economic liberty begetting ever greater political freedom was the process that fueled
the power and wealth of the West.
• Yet the very success of liberalism was the basis of its decline
o Though it had lifted up most of Europe, greater prosperity created ever more
ambition and desire, so it was easy to blame the existing system as a failure
o In reality, to paraphrase Franklin Roosevelt, it was not that free enterprise had failed,
but that it had not yet been properly tried
o Attempting to provide more freedom for those without it, brought with it less
freedom for the whole, and thus a gradual erosion of the traditions of the
individualist, liberal West.

Truth about Planning

• Hayek defines socialism as a species of collectivism in which “the entrepreneur working for
profit is replaced by a central planning body”
o Attractions of planning: We are rational people → we want to plan rather than
leaving things to fate
o Yet problems arise with how we go about this. Socialists say we need central
direction, while Liberals seek a system that allows the free forces of competition to
achieve the same good ends, but with the least amount of coercion.
▪ Advocates of central planning claim that it is “necessary” because an economy
is so complex that it needs guidance by the state.
▪ Yet Hayek says that precisely the opposite is true: The greater the complexity,
the more impossible it is to get an overview of what is happening.
▪ Development is best achieved through decentralisation.
Thus, according to Hayek, societies flourish when people are free to make their own decisions
based on available information, including prices.
• To sum up
o The wish to organise all of society’s resources for a definite social end sounds good,
but in one stroke it ends personal freedom and demonstrates a lack of faith in
individuals’ ability to achieve the “social ends” for which socialists call.

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Socialism and the rule of law
• Hayek notes that under the rule of law by which liberal societies operate, laws “are
intended for such long periods that it is impossible to know whether they will assist
particular people more than others”
o In planned society, it is not left up to future or unknown people to allocate resources;
rather, certain priorities are decided to exist, which identify gainers and losers.
▪ This is the difference between –
1. providing the rules of the road in a Highway Code
2. telling people where to travel
• The key point about rule of law is that it safeguards equality
o It assumes that no one is going to be treated better because of their status or
connections.
o Hayek admits that rule of law does nothing to protect against economic inequality,
yet neither is it designed to benefit particular people in particular ways
o As soon as laws are designed for “distributive justice” some people are put above
others; even if done with good intentions, it inevitably leads to the destruction of the
rule of law.
• The rule of law does not mean simply that a society is run according to law, but that the
powers of government itself are circumscribed by a constitution or laws set well in advance
of its coming to power.

Planned economies and totalitarianism

• Defenders of planned economy say that planning “only” applies to the economy; if we give
up control in this aspect, we will be provided for to pursue, higher things in life.
o However, economic striving is never a “secondary” aspect of our lives, Hayek
observes, but rather our fundamental means to achieve heartfelt goals and live out
certain values.
• The real question is not whether a planned economy will give us what wewant or need, but
whether it takes away our freedom to decide what is important or desirable.
o “Mere” direction of the economy can end up shaping the sort of life we can live
▪ In a planned economy, we may work for years to buy something, only to find
that the state does not consider it worthy and bans it, or it is simply
unavailable because of other production priorities.
• Those in charge of planned economies always maintain that there will be freedom to choose
one’s occupation, but the reality is that economic direction requires certain jobs, industries
and sectors to be more important than others which means that access to other fields will be
more difficult or restricted, or offer little opportunity
o Instead, everyone will be judged according to their fitness for certain defined
categories of work

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o One will no longer work to fulfil one’s own interests or potential, but become merely
a means toward achieving “the good of all”

Freedom v. Economic security

• In planned economy, the biggest problem is incentives for people to do their best
o If your position does not depend on your skills or imagination, but on the state’s
judgement of the job’s importance, it will not really matter whether you work harder
or smarter, since it yields no particular gain to you
o When multiplied with the whole population we have a society whose productivity is
well below what it could be
• Moreover, when everyone is assured of a job under some national program of “economic
security”, what matters most is not the quality or need for those jobs, but the fact that
everyone has some kind of occupation
o In a competitive economy, where there is less economic security there is much more
incentive for you to retrain or study to make yourself more employable.
• In a competitive economy, Hayek notes, failure can end with the bailiff (bankruptcy),
whereas in a planned economy it can end with the hangman
o Trotsky (1937): In a country where the sole employer is the State, opposition means
death by slow starvation. The old principle: who does not work shall not eat, has
been replaced by a new one: who does not obey shall not eat.
• In a society in which economic security is considered more important than freedom,
freedom itself becomes mocked, since it is worthless in providing “the good things of this
earth”
o In these circumstances people will happily sacrifice liberty for security.
• Hayek was not against some form of welfare state
o Extreme privatisation should be protected against but economic security should not
trump freedom as society’s basic value.

To sum up
• Faced with a choice of a reasonably liberal dictatorship or a democracy where the state is
involved in every aspect of the economy and society, Hayek said he would choose the
former
o In his case study of Chile, a democracy does not imply real, personal and economic
liberty. Indeed, the price controls and nationalisation of private businesses that
occurred under the elected government were an assault on the basic freedoms of
exchange and ownership
o Economic freedom may seem less subtle, yet it is crucial if we are to preserve open
societies as well as healthy economies

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