Democracy Enable And Disable Social Movements Politics Essay

Democracy Enable And Disable Social Movements Politics Essay Democracy has been one of the greatest aspirations of Modernity and one of its greatest disappointments. The passing of centuries between the collapse of the Ancient Greek precursor and the reestablishment of democracy as a viable system makes its recent globalisation all the more remarkable. The revival of democracy was achieved in part through the victories of social movements over entrenched interests. (Esche 2001: 17) It is true that social movements were determinant for the implementation of democratic systems throughout the world. However, the question concerning this paper is whether democracies are determinant to social movements. Therefore this paper will explore in which ways does democracy enable and/or disable social movements. It will conclude that although democracy is, in theory, the system more prone to the appearance of social movements it is also a regime that, in practice, can prevent and restrict them. The first section of this paper will briefly overview the concepts of democracy and social movements in order to provide a framework for the argument. The second will explore in what ways democracies have provided spaces for social movements to occur. The third, will discuss the opposite. That is, how democratic systems, intentionally or unintentionally, have constrained the rise of associational forms. Both arguments will be illustrated with case studies from experiences within the developing countries. Finally, some concluding remarks will be offered in the end. As Tilly (2003) explained democracy as oligarchy, autocracy for example is a kind of regime and that means that it is a set of relations between a government and persons subject to that governments jurisdiction (p.25). Democracy can also take many dimensions and forms and they differ greatly from one another. For instance, there are liberal democracies and there are representative democracies; there are pluralistic democracies and there are constitutional democracies. This is relevant for the argument because the level of democracy, being the liberal democracy the most flexible one, might have an impact on the creation or restriction at the civil society level. Nevertheless, although they might differ in their construction they also share common values. One of the most important is that it should serve the best interests of their constituents echoing Abraham Lincolns ideal of government of the people, by the people, for the people. In other words, a democracy allows for debate and for decisions to be made according to the will of the majority. It also allows for the creation of spaces between the private sphere and the state. These spaces are the ones where mediation is made between the state and the people or formally known as civil society: Civil society could be viewed as but one form of the political relationship between state and society. [It is] an intermediate associational realm between state and family populated by organisations which are separate from the state, enjoy autonomy in relation to the state and are formed voluntary by members of society to protect or advance their interests and values (White 1996: 181-2). From this definition an important characteristic is worth pointing out. Indeed, an independent civil society is the one who can truly voice peoples discontent. This is because any association with the state can severely undermine their intentions. Without an independent civil society the balance of power can never be challenged; the level of accountability cannot be increased and the chances of having grievances transformed into favourable legislation will be impossible. Furthermore, if the civil society is not independent there is the risk of social movements becoming institutionalised as it will be discussed in a further section. Now that both democracy and social movements it is time to look at the main argument and explore in what ways democracy promotes or disables democracy. It was with the introduction of democracy that the world has seen a dramatic increase in social mobility levels, in more opportunities for education and above all a feeling of individual freedom allied with the right to associate without fear of persecution. Stories from North Korea or China stand to make the argument that democracy is the most open and flexible system. It was with the advent of democracy that previously unrepresented groups began to have both political representation and protection in the form of legislation. One of the most visible social movements throughout history has been the womens movement. Seeking to have representation in the political world women have been fighting in traditional patriarchal societies for their equal place in society. In Ghana the transition to democracy opened a space for women to target their grievances by mobilising women to engage in political activity. This was due to two main factors. First, the pre-democratic regime made impossible for women to even consider the debate of their situation. As soon as democracy was installed women were quick to mobilise and bring the issue into public debate. Second, if a democracy means representation of different groups in society surely women had to be also part of the political life of Ghana (Fallon 2008). This is, however, problematic and sometimes even undesirable. If all groups demand representation then it will be harder to reach consensus, especially in countries with a large number of different ethnicities or religious beliefs. Another feature of democracy, besides the right of freedom of association, is accountability. That is, people have the right to question and protest against any measure or action taken by their government. A key feature for the success of social movements is working governments institutions such as an independent judicial system where everyone, including the government itself, is not free from obeying the law. This was the case in Brazil where President Lulas government faced corruption charges due to misuse of public money. A free press, independent from the government, led the people in searching questions and demanding answers (Flynn 2005: 1260). However, accountability is not only related to the rule of law. It is also attached to a governments position on certain issues as previously mentioned. For instance, the United States (US) war on terror has created much discontent within their own borders and caused an anti-war movement due mostly to unilateral decisions such as going to war with Iraq and Afghanistan ironically in the name of democracy and as leaders of the free world. In 2002, Kellner recommended that the war should be fought not on military terms but by a global movement condemning terrorism. Since then there has been a movement, or several, but condemning US use of violent means. Perhaps the best example on how a democratic system allows for social movements lies in the city of Porto Alegre, Brazil. In a country with high-levels of inequalities both between classes and between regions the city of Porto Alegre, with an alternative model of participatory democracy, exhibits a high level of social re-distribution (Ponniah and Fisher 2003: 181). There are, however, several ways in which democracy or the process of democratisation disabling or restricting social movements. The first one has to do with the transition from any kind of authoritarian rule to democracy. A transversal problem across several transitions in the developing world is the fact that the same power structures and elites remain in place (Garretà ³n 1997, Gibbon 1997, Prevost 2006, White 1996). Usually, movements that attain power are not organised or powerful enough to constitute a secure government. Therefore they have to make concessions with old power structures such as the military in order to form a government. In South Africa, the African National Congress (ANC) had to accept that: [à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦] the old government bureaucracy would have to be maintained. [à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦] It did not have the people to fully replace the existing government bureaucracy both in terms of their sheer number and out of a lack of appropriate skills in a wide range of areas (Prevost 2006: 170). As a consequence the same kind of policies and reluctance in accepting a black majority rule prevented in specific the actions of the black movement to be fully realised and in general democracy to be deepened. In South Korea a similar pattern, of restrictive democracy, emerged in the late 1980s. With democracy a large number of organizations entered civil society causing some social and political unrest. However, the political elite joined the two opposition parties into the government and formed a new hegemonic party. White (1996) explains the advantages of forming the latter. First, it absorbs opposition leaders. Second, by doing that the established elites maintain their power and influence in decision-making. The second way in which democracies disable social movements happens when democracy is already in place. If the movements were focused on one aim to overthrow the government then when they achieve it they lose their main thrust and, eventually, become fragmented. As mentioned, democracy opens spaces for unrepresented groups and because within any society there are so many different groups demanding political representation it becomes difficult to mobilise any kind of collective action as there is not a coherent and unique grievance (Melucci 1988, Menon 2000). In some cases, and because there is not a wider movement to support it, some forms of protest are not organised and are destined to fail (Dong 1997). Furthermore, movements might actually compete with each other which further weaken the movements (John 2000, White 1996). A third way in which movements might be disabled is when they become institutionalised (Berger 2003, Flynn 2005, Melucci 1988, Prevost 2006). Becoming institutionalised is when movements lose their independent status. This can happen in three ways. Firstly, in order to have access to power, or resources, social movements might need to associate with mainstream political parties (Houtzager 2000). Secondly, governments in order to gain support but also to avoid contestation co-opt key community leaders into the political system (Prevost 2006: 169). By doing so they are eliminating the radical and influential individuals from their natural habitat the civil society. Both the ANC in South Africa and President Lulas Partido Trabalhador (PT) have used this tactic to gain acceptance and to diminish to possibilities of social movements to mobilise. But movements can also be co-opted by non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Disillusioned with the lack of political space offered by the gover nment and lacking funds, movements often resort to NGOs for support. Eventually, this relationship turns into dependency and because of that they have to accept external policies from NGOs which in turn restricts organizations agenda-setting as this becomes set by western donors priorities. In Guatemala, the womens movement known as Guatelmatacas became a provider of social services replacing governments functions. This was in part because they were representing the interests of NGOs and not their own. As Berger (2003) described it womens groups in due course shifted from a strategy of confrontation to one of conciliation (p. 205). A fourth way that accelerates the weakening of social movements is the advancement of capitalism and its instrument neo-liberalism. Esche argued that capitalism and democracies have developed a special relationship, that it to say that capitalism prefers democratic environments and that democracy favours the introduction of capitalism. He also argued that this simple account of democracy and capitalism should be avoided mainly because capitalism is also able to penetrate in authoritarian governments. However, Roberts (1998) points out that capitalism and market forces at work in democracies accelerate the fragmentation and weakening of popular collective subjects, the labour movement in particular and that neo liberalism has the remarkable capacity to neutralise and dissolve its opposition (p. 270). Capitalism thrives on inequalities and therefore these have to be maintained in an elegant way by governments. This shows that governments and for that matter democracy itself are unable to protect the interests of their citizens. To finalise the argument on how democracies disable social movements it is important to explore the role of the media. One might think that media and specifically the internet, is only used as a propaganda tool in authoritarian countries but the fact is that it is also used in democracies such as the US. In other words, internet technology can be used [..] for democratic or non-democratic means (Hand and Sandywell 2002: 212). If the internet is restricted and controlled in China it is also used as a propaganda tool for democratic countries. The war on terror ideology of good versus evil, the election of Barack Obama as president of the US have shown how democratic countries can also use the internet as a political tool. More recently the Tea Party movement is using the internet to mobilise a grassroots movement with vested interests pro-corporate, anti-tax, anti-regulation. (Monbiot 2010: 29) However, in the context of social movements this is to ignore the fact that it is also a to ol for movements to mobilise groups and create networks of activity beyond the physical world. It is true that the internet is not at the moment a democratic arena but like the majority of the transitions to democracy it will take several social movements to democratise it. This paper has shown that democracy can enable and disable social movements. These possibilities are dependent on the type of democracy but also on how much the civil society sphere can remain autonomous from governments apparatus. If it remains truly autonomous then it is possible to alter the balance of power. As an enabler it was discussed in this paper that democracies allow for the creation of a space between the state and the private sphere. It also allows, on the one hand, for people to associate and express their grievances and, on the other hand, for previously represented groups to engage in political activities. One would say that these two allowances should be enough to guarantee success for all movements. However, there are several ways in which democracy disables movements. First, the transition to democracy does not mean that old elites and power structures are removed meaning that although the terminology has evolved maybe the ways of doing politics have not. Second, on the instalment of democracy movements become fragmented. Movements fight different, smaller, and unfocused battles and this lead to either their extinction or their relevance. As democracies mature so do their governments. In order to control possible future movements, governments co-opt leaders and thus, movements lose their autonomy. This is aggravated with western NGOs advocating westernised ideals. Finally, the spread and level of capitalism penetration in developing countries means that no means are excluded in order to maintain both inequalities and special interests in place. Regarding the media, and with special attention to the internet it was explained that it can work as a force for both democratic and non-democratic fields but above all it allows for the creation of virtual transnational networks of social movements.

“Little boy crying” by Mervin Morris Essay

Mervin Morris writes â€Å"Little boy crying† making reference to the relationship between a kid and an adult, who in this case is his father. Throughout the poem different feelings and emotions are expressed, not only of the child but also of the man. The little boy turned his â€Å"recently relaxed† face into â€Å"tight† because of that â€Å"quick slap struck† his â€Å"guilty† father gave him. But despite the fact that the kid took his father as a â€Å"grim giant† because of hitting him, this man’s intention was not to make him suffer of pain or anything like that; it was just an unwanted but necessary little punishment, perhaps for a prank or misbehaviour. In fact the father felt â€Å"guilty† and full of â€Å"sorrow†. Mervin introduces an allegory of a rather famous story called: â€Å"Jack and the beanstalk†. The child imagined his father as an â€Å"ogre†, who climbed a huge tree. â€Å"He hates him†. He imagined himself â€Å"chopping clean the tree he’s scrambling down or plotting deeper pits to trap him†, as it happens in â€Å"Jack and the beanstalk†. The relationship between the â€Å"three-year-old† full of â€Å"frustration† child and the adult seems to be bursting of complications because the kid is quite capricious and the man has to punish him, so that he learns not to do whatever he wants without evaluating the consequences before. But he â€Å"cannot understand, not yet† how his â€Å"easy tears† affect his father who is wishing to â€Å"curb† boy’s sadness. Even though an ogre can punish you, you know that he loves you and that you have to learn the â€Å"lessons† from him, because you know, very deep inside, that ogre is your father. That last sentence can summaries the moral of the poem. This particular poem uses words to make the reader feel he or she is â€Å"seeing† it, or being part of it: â€Å"the quick slap struck†, this last sentence is composed of monosyllabic words that imitate the sound of the hit. Another example of this â€Å"trying the reader to feel part of the poem† is the use of the â€Å"you†; it is a kind of conversation between the writer and the reader. Other images that facilitate this process are made by the use of words or phrases suggesting movement or sound, like â€Å"chopping† and â€Å"scrambling down†. But in this poem is not all about the kid, and his feelings, the other character has a very important role. He has to pretend being something is not; â€Å"behind that mask† there is a man who suffers the situation more that the kid, but he has to be seen as a strict authority, as any parent must. This poem reflects nothing but the truth of an ordinary relationship between any father and his son during the growing and maturing process of the kid; but it does not end there: in the last paragraph, which is also the last line, there is a nine words long sentence emphasized by being left alone, that carries a moral in it: â€Å"you must not make a plaything of the rain†. This is a metaphor that could be translated as: â€Å"you must not cry just because† (the rain represents the tears).

Government Growth in an Age of Improvement Essay

Democratic accountability is supposed to be alive and well in any political system rather than a government ran on â€Å"auto-pilot† at the expense of neglected and so expected taxpayers and rightful citizens. Introduction It should sound ironical that the president should continue to choose cabinet and sub cabinet officers and both the president and the congress continue to remain accountable to the American people through elections and exercise the power of the purse unlike in other democratic countries a great lack of interest in political administration is evident in the United Nations, resulting to deeper strains in American Society at large. The US has never created a high level, government-wide-civil service or a highly skilled and experienced top executive political manpower. The control of government policies is vested in an informal enduring series of â€Å"iron triangles† who are a link between particular program proposed to the relevant executive bureau, congressional committees and interest groups clientele the iron triangles are disastrously incomplete since they hardly understand changes in politics and administration but rather look for the powerful actors with whom to do business (P. 88). The job of presidential appointees in controlling their own actions and managing the bureaucracy are ultimately complicated. The problem arises where politicians, officials and their fellow travelers fail to meet what the public can understand and accept; thus registering large strains of American politics and society. Organized politics are dissolved and organizational life throughout the nation is politicized. Government Growth in an Age of Improvement The late 1950s and entire 1960s witnessed a wave of federal initiatives in health, civil rights, education, housing, manpower, income maintenance, transportation and urban affairs all associated with low government expenditure. Newer types of welfare concerns such as consumer protection, the environment, cancer prevention, energy, etc. have characterized an ambitious, reform minded period and a big government. However, there has been astonishingly little increase in the overall size of the federal executive establishment. Federal employment never grew either in comparison with spending and regulations (P. 89). Higher costs of existing policies are just one explanation of expanding government and stable bureaucracy and has been important in income maintenance programs. Another explanation is lack of administering programs directly to general population but rather act through intermediary organizations such as state governments, city halls, third party payers, consultants, contractors etc. making the contract between the ordinary citizen and a federal bureaucrat quite rare. This promotes the idea of government by remote control. This in essence is advantageous to the federal government builds support for policies, translating otherwise indivisible collective goods into terms suitable for distributive politics (P. 91). Sidestepping the tremendously difficult task of creating a broad national consensus for the governments administered activities is another advantage. This method of policies has led to mushrooming of federal regulations much in common with federal spending – the government can use regulations and tell the public and private bureaucracies what to do. The federal policy makers are left to distribute funds and bear blames when things go wrong. The style of retailing promises of improved policies and wholesaling the administrative headaches connected with delivery has left the people to expect the government to solve problems but not to get in anyone’s way in the process (P. 93). These results to policy pile up. Washington has in the end been put to the worst of both world-blamed for poor delivery by its public customers and besieged with bills from its middlemen. The possibility of both politicizing organizational life and depoliticizing democratic leadership is an area of concern. Since 1950s greatest policy growth was advocated – programs seeking social betterment in terms of civil rights, income, housing, environment, consumer protection etc. otherwise known as welfare policies. The idea of compensation is a theme in the clamor of group politics meaning that the federal government should put things right fits well for the groups that are disadvantaged and special treatment is required for truly equal opportunity to prevail and for those representing the disadvantaged. The government action is required to redress the impact of the selfish private interests. The prevalent feeling in the US that â€Å"there oughtta be policy† and the connotation of getting in on society’s compensations is decidedly positive. New initiatives in federal funding and regulation have infused old and new organizations with public policy dimensions, especially when such groups are used as administrative middlemen (P. 96-97). Expanding welfare policies on indirect administration have encouraged the development of specialized subcultures composed of highly knowledgeable policy makers some of whom have advanced professional degrees and commonly shared detailed understanding of specialized issues (P. 100-101). Employees in the field and in Washington who perform the routine chores associated with direct administration have become less prominent whereas those with necessary technical and supervisory skills have become more important. This in essence, results to expansion of the upper and middle levels of officialdom rather than increase the overall size of the bureaucracy. More technical skills and higher supervisory levels have become a requirement. Stable sets of clear goals in all modern organizations, even non profit oriented are the causes of increasing complexities and specializations affecting leaders. The pressure for more expert staff assistance have become immense for decision makers in governments where policy goals have been neither stable nor clear in the last twenty years and this applies to legislators and public executives (P. 101). Weakness in executive leadership below the level of the president have never really been due to interest groups, party politics or congress, rather the problem lies on the lack of any democratically based power political executives yet their popular mandate to act in the bureaucracy secondhand, from either an elected chief executive in congress political democrats further weaken the scenario. As much as political administrators become close to specialized policy networks the gap between them and the ordinary citizen widens a typical presidential appointee hardly gets time to see or listen to an ordinary member of the public. Only a minority of citizens gets a chance to be moralized in the various networks while those who are not policy activists depend on the ability of the government institutions to work on their behalf (P. 118). Conclusion More communication may need to be involved incase the gap between the policy networks and the bulk of the population is created by information. Policy forensics among the networks yield more experts making more sophisticated claims and counter claims that non-specialists becomes inclined to concede everything and believe nothing that he hears. Many factors and events are linked to these changing public attitudes. The prominence of issue networks is bound to aggravate problems of legitimacy and public disenchantment. The influential systems for knowledgeable policy making tend to make democratic politics difficult (P. 118-119). References Hugo Heclo, 2007 â€Å"Issue Networks and the Executive Establishment. †

Movie Vs Movie Essay - 1206 Words

The movies that I selected are â€Å"The Founder and â€Å"We Were Soldiers†. I wanted to choose movies that illustrated leadership traits within the Army and the commercial sector. I will compare and contrast the two main characters and the movies. The main characters from both movies share some similar leadership styles and personalities but also have very different values and morals. These leaders exercised critical and creative thinking in order to accomplish their goals. As I will illustrate, one leader is one that I would follow into battle (or work for) and the other certainly not. I will start with reviewing the movie â€Å"The Founder† and its main character Raymond â€Å"Ray† Kroc. McDonalds has locations in all 50 states in the United States, more†¦show more content†¦He arrives at the California McDonalds and is introduced to this new concept restaurant. He is immediately impressed and wants to be a part of the business. He meets the owners and gets them to tell their story. The McDonald brothers were originally from New Hampshire and moved to Hollywood California in the late 1920’s. The brothers noticed during the great depression the only person making money was a small stand selling Hotdogs and root beer. Inspired they set up their own small stand that sold hotdogs and orange juice. The business was doing okay but there was not a large enough population to ensure growth. The brothers wanted to relocated their business to San Bernardino but did not have money to buy a new stand. They wanted to move their current stand but w ere unable to because of a bridge between the two towns. The stand would not clear the bridge. Then Dick McDonald came up with the idea of sawing the stand in half to clear the bridge and relocate the stand. Upon relocation, the brothers looked at the current market and decided that their new business would be transformed into a drive-in restaurant. They opened the new business know as â€Å"McDonalds Famous BBQ†. The restaurant had a 27-item menu with carhops who brought your order to your car. Initially the business was doing well but then began to level off. The brothers noticed that the drive-in model was costly and attracted an undesirableShow MoreRelatedThe Hobbit Movie Vs Movie Essay1473 Words   |  6 Pagesthrough all our heads when we are in English class is, can t we just watch the movie? The answer is no, we can t just watch the movie because the book has many major details that the movie does not include. For our age, reading the book will have a major impact on our life ahead, how we look at the world, and how we look at others. Some of us may be unhappy that we are reading the book and not just watching the movie, but we need to realize, that not only with The Hobb it but with all movies, theyRead MoreDisney Movie Vs Movie Essay1890 Words   |  8 Pageswilled women who has many similarities to the Greek goddess Artemis. She does not want to be married, potentially ever. 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