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The Case of California: Neopopulism and Retribution

Vanessa Barker

in The Politics of Imprisonment: How the Democratic Process Shapes the Way America Punishes Offenders

This chapter details the case study of California. It shows how a democratic process based on polarized populism led to a retributive penal regime, with high rates of imprisonment for all kinds of ... More

This chapter details the case study of California. It shows how a democratic process based on polarized populism led to a retributive penal regime, with high rates of imprisonment for all kinds of offenders. It analyzes the success of the crime victims movement, facilitated by the direct democracy measures such as the initiative process, in transforming the moral calculus of punishment. The victims movement helped to bring about a more emotive, passionate, and punitive approach to crime control, making crime victims' pain central to the justification, legitimation, and authority of criminal law and penal sanctioning. The chapter analyzes how a more conservative populist movement challenged state authority, weakened social trust, and demanded a tough law‐and‐order approach to crime and fears over growing ethnic and racial diversity, intensifying social divisions and social exclusion.Less

Repertoires of Contention

Charles Tilly

in Regimes and Repertoires

This chapter presents a discussion on the repertoires of contention. We can capture some of the recurrent, historically embedded character of contentious politics by means of two related theatrical ... More

This chapter presents a discussion on the repertoires of contention. We can capture some of the recurrent, historically embedded character of contentious politics by means of two related theatrical metaphors: performances and repertoires. Repertoires vary from nonexistent to weak to strong to rigid. Each position on the continuum identifies a different relationship between the familiarity of a previous performance and the likelihood that it will again appear in a similar situation, ranging from no relationship to perfect repetition. Strong or rigid repertoires imply great embedding of contention in previously existing history, culture, and social relations. The effects of incremental changes in repertoires identify intertwined strands of change in contentious repertoires, attributable to the internal history of struggle, transformations of regimes, alterations of social structure and culture outside the government, and their interaction. Tracing causal connections between regimes and repertoires requires a serious historical and comparative effort.Less

Getting In: Initial and Shifting Engagement

in Patterns of Protest: Trajectories of Participation in Social Movements

This chapter examines trajectories of political participation by focusing on who initially participates. It analyzes the roots of individual participation in social movements and looks at predictors ... More

This chapter examines trajectories of political participation by focusing on who initially participates. It analyzes the roots of individual participation in social movements and looks at predictors of initial engagement in contentious political activity. Three broad types of factors are considered: ideology (religiosity, strength of partisanship, party identification, and efficacy), biographical availability (age, marital status, child rearing, and working), and resources (income, education, and political knowledge). To determine how these factors influence contentious political engagement, the chapter draws on the Jennings and Stoker panel data for testing competing theories of activism. Using two main panel regression models, a random effects and a fixed effects model, it demonstrates that ideological factors indeed predispose certain individuals to become active in contentious politics, but only those who are biographically available are able to translate this disposition into action over time.Less

What Are Regimes?

Charles Tilly

in Regimes and Repertoires

The relationship between regime change and contentious politics is complex, contingent, and variable. The book seeks to explain their mutual influence. It also proposes a dynamic causal account of ... More

The relationship between regime change and contentious politics is complex, contingent, and variable. The book seeks to explain their mutual influence. It also proposes a dynamic causal account of regimes and political contention. It reports the struggle that occurred in Peru from 1989 to 2003 as consequences of more general regularities in the interplay between regimes and contentious politics. Struggles to acquire or retain governmental power involve contentious politics. Moreover, the chapter explains how connections between regimes and contention work. Furthermore, it concentrates on asking how and why political contention varies from one regime type to another, and how contention interacts with movement from regime to regime. The chapter addresses how regime variation and change shape the ways in which people make consequential collective claims: their contentious politics. Finally, an overview of the chapters included in this book is given.Less

The Protesting Middle East

Bahgat Korany and Rabab El-Mahdi

in Arab Spring in Egypt: Revolution and Beyond (A Tahrir Studies Edition)

This chapter discusses the failure of comparative politics of the Middle East to foresee the Arab uprisings that swept the region in 2011. It argues that except for few attempts, the field's focus on ... More

This chapter discusses the failure of comparative politics of the Middle East to foresee the Arab uprisings that swept the region in 2011. It argues that except for few attempts, the field's focus on regime-level and formal politics deviated attention from contentious politics that was brewing throughout the region and especially in Egypt. Providing a general synthesis of the literature the chapter introduces key themes in the book that are further developed in other chapters; including the labor movement, women struggles, and the rise of the pro-democracy and anti-war movements. It argues that the Egyptian Revolution as a case in point came as a culmination of a decade of protests and budding social movements. The authors argue for the usefulness of other approaches such as Social Movement Theory, social-anthropology approaches, and political economy to understanding of Middle East politics. The chapter concludes with a synopsis of book and highlighting key aspects of looking at Middle East politics in the post-Arab Spring years.Less

The Rise of the Protest State: Theory and Hypotheses

Mason W. Moseley

in Protest State: The Rise of Everyday Contention in Latin America

This chapter reviews extant work from the contentious politics literature, relating it to the current state of affairs in Latin American democracies. It then proposes an original explanation of ... More

This chapter reviews extant work from the contentious politics literature, relating it to the current state of affairs in Latin American democracies. It then proposes an original explanation of widespread contention in Latin American democracies. Protest states—or regimes high in citizen engagement, but low in terms of institutional quality—are unique in the degree to which contentious politics has normalized. Whereas protests occur on occasion in virtually any country where public opposition to the government is tolerated, in protest states they spring up daily. In such contexts, where institutions remain weak and ineffective, protest becomes the default option for a wide cross-section of society, encompassing citizens who are actively engaged in their communities. Moreover, political organizations and even elites will utilize protest for their own ends in protest states—i.e., politicians will marshal public support for their policy agenda by recruiting followers to participate in street-based activities.Less

How Regimes Work

Charles Tilly

in Regimes and Repertoires

This chapter begins the adventure of classifying regimes and their changes by laying out first some tools for the description and analysis of contentious politics—government, governmental agents, ... More

This chapter begins the adventure of classifying regimes and their changes by laying out first some tools for the description and analysis of contentious politics—government, governmental agents, political actors, regime, political resources, capital, commitment, contention, public politics, and contentious politics. This is then followed by a review of intersections of regimes with various forms of contentious politics. The chapter discusses regime space as a two-dimensional space: capacity democracy. The four crude types of regime are also addressed: low-capacity, nondemocratic; high-capacity, nondemocratic; high-capacity, democratic; and low-capacity, democratic. By following the leads drawn from Aristotle, Dahl, and Finer and concentrating on two sorts of regime variation: from nondemocratic to democratic regimes, and from low-capacity to high-capacity governments, the chapter then simplifies the work of analyzing regimes and contention.Less

The Contentious Politics of Higher Education

Donatella della Porta, Lorenzo Cini, and César Guzmán-Concha

in Contesting Higher Education: Student Movements against Neoliberal Universities

This chapter provides an overview of the analysis of transformation in higher education (HE) policies and student politics, linking them to research on the policy outcomes of social movements. HE ... More

This chapter provides an overview of the analysis of transformation in higher education (HE) policies and student politics, linking them to research on the policy outcomes of social movements. HE policies have been shaped by various waves of student mobilization. Students have often been important actors in contentious politics, mobilizing on all main cleavages in society and often stimulating spin-off movements, as well as affecting institutional politics at large. Student protests are therefore affected by public policies at least as much as they affect them. This book focuses on these complex interactions, aiming at understanding the development of student protests within neoliberal universities. It explores four episodes of student contestation over HE reforms, which have recently taken place in Chile, Quebec, England, and Italy.Less

Conclusions

Charles Tilly

in Regimes and Repertoires

This chapter summarizes the key points and conclusions that were discussed previously in this book. The different chapters have shown amply that contentious repertoires differ dramatically from one ... More

This chapter summarizes the key points and conclusions that were discussed previously in this book. The different chapters have shown amply that contentious repertoires differ dramatically from one type of regime to another. Both governmental capacity and extent of democracy strongly affect the ways that people make collective claims on each other and how authorities respond to those claims. It also demonstrated how new arena, with international institutions and multinational corporations, promises to generate new forms of contentious politics. The location of a regime within the capacity-democracy space strongly influences its rulers' approach to generating and controlling contentious politics. Repertoires and episodes are causally coherent in the sense that systematic regularities across time and place govern their existence, change, and variation. In general, this book has concentrated on determining the causes that belong to change and variation in the organization of national regimes.Less

Trajectories of Participation

in Patterns of Protest: Trajectories of Participation in Social Movements

Many people join social movements or engage in contentious politics at some point in their lives, but not all of them are transformed by the experience become committed, lifelong activists. Some ... More

Many people join social movements or engage in contentious politics at some point in their lives, but not all of them are transformed by the experience become committed, lifelong activists. Some disengage after just one period or participate in a more episodic way (a behavior known as individual abeyance or transfer). This chapter explores how individuals participate in contentious politics over time and the different trajectories that political participation can take over the life course. An understanding of these trajectories can shed light on the rise and fall of campaigns and movements over time. This chapter looks at four trajectories of activism—persistence, transfer, abeyance, and disengagement—and how they differ in the duration and continuity of engagement over time. Using the Jennings and Stoker panel data, it follows individuals over the course of their lives, from 1965 until 1997. It also analyzes the organizational and relational context of political activity and their significance across a variety of organizations and for individuals who are active in protest but not in organized groups.Less

Introduction—Popular Contention, Regime, and Transition: A Comparative Perspective

Eitan Y. Alimi

in Popular Contention, Regime, and Transition: Arab Revolts in Comparative Global Perspective

This introductory chapter lays out the rationale for, and merits of, comparing Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) revolts with cases from other parts of the world by situating the book in the ... More

This introductory chapter lays out the rationale for, and merits of, comparing Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) revolts with cases from other parts of the world by situating the book in the recent trend among scholars of social movements and contentious politics to rethink the boundaries between contention in democracies and nondemocracies. It argues that during cycles of contentious politics, in which political and cultural creativity become concentrated and the processual, interactive, and relational-like features of popular claim-making, regime, and transition take on a more rapid pace, the interplay among the three processes becomes intricate, contingent, and indeterminate, producing similarities in the unfolding, trajectories, and outcomes of cycles of contention across time and space. A comparative framework and an analytical model, suitable for fleshing out similarities while respecting dissimilarities in cycles of contention in MENA and non-MENA countries, are introduced.Less

Introduction: Social Movements, Contentious Politics, and Radicalization

Eitan Y. Alimi, Chares Demetriou, and Lorenzo Bosi

in The Dynamics of Radicalization: A Relational and Comparative Perspective

Why is it that despite the prevalence of extreme ideologies, profound deprivation, and aggressive impulses and motives among opposition movements worldwide, only some of the movements’ member ... More

Why is it that despite the prevalence of extreme ideologies, profound deprivation, and aggressive impulses and motives among opposition movements worldwide, only some of the movements’ member organizations actually engage in political violence? To explore this puzzle, the chapter makes the case for the promise of asking “how” and “when” questions, rather than “why” questions. Instead of focusing on why the shift to political violence occurs, then, the focus is placed on how and when factors such as those mentioned above are activated. To be able to capture the indeterminate, conjunctural, and contingent nature of the radicalization process, the chapter points to the benefits of utilizing conceptual, theoretical, and methodological tools from the study of social movements and contentious politics. It is argued that reliance on the relational approach and the mechanism-based method allows for a nuanced understanding of processes of radicalization across diverse contentious episodes.Less

Trajectories of Change

Charles Tilly

in Regimes and Repertoires

This chapter explores regime change, change in the forms of contentious politics, and interactions between them. It attempts to answer this query: when regimes and repertoires alter simultaneously, ... More

This chapter explores regime change, change in the forms of contentious politics, and interactions between them. It attempts to answer this query: when regimes and repertoires alter simultaneously, how do those changes interact, and why? Regimes reshape themselves and thereby alter political opportunities, thus transforming repertoires. Trajectories of regimes and repertoires interact. It closely reviews South Africa's mutual mutations of regimes and repertoires before treating interactions of regimes and repertoires much more generally. A scheme is presented that offers a crude but serviceable model of how regime change does affect popular contention, from governmental change to regime realignment to alterations of political opportunity structures (POS) to changes in contention. The scheme also describes processes that commonly occur when a high-capacity, nondemocratic regime moves toward democracy. South Africa's trajectories belong to a larger family of interactions between changes in regimes and repertoires.Less

Social Movements

Charles Tilly

in Regimes and Repertoires

This chapter investigates how social movements work. Social movements differ from other forms of contentious politics in their combination of sustained campaigns of claim-making, an exceptional array ... More

This chapter investigates how social movements work. Social movements differ from other forms of contentious politics in their combination of sustained campaigns of claim-making, an exceptional array of claim-making performances, and concerted displays of supporters' worthiness, unity, numbers, and commitment. From their eighteenth-century origins onward, social movements have proceeded not as solo acts but as interactive campaigns that target holders of power, political actors and the general public. They combine three kinds of claims: claims to identity, standing, and specific programs. The relative salience of these claims varies significantly among social movements, among claimants within movements, and among phases of movements. Regimes necessarily shape social movements. They also shape repertoires. Demonstrations best illustrate the synthesis of campaigns, performances, and worthiness, unity, numbers, and commitment (WUNC) displays. Most social-movement activity across the world occurs within local, regional, and national frames.Less

Contention and Order

Rasmus Alenius Boserup

in Algeria Modern: From Opacity to Complexity

This chapter examines the re-emergence of nonviolent contentious politics under president Bouteflika’s rule. Arising with the exhausting of violent rebel politics of the late 1990s, non-violent ... More

This chapter examines the re-emergence of nonviolent contentious politics under president Bouteflika’s rule. Arising with the exhausting of violent rebel politics of the late 1990s, non-violent contentious politics has evolved into an important channel for citizens to present specific policy claims relating directly to the redistributive nature of Algeria’s rentier-based political economy. The government’s lenient and often accommodating responses to certain socio-economic and welfare-related demands has made this an effective means for achieving quick political results. While revolutionary contention exists on the margins, the majority of contentious events that Algeria has witnessed over the past decade have shied away from challenging the existing political order. Instead the civil society has demanded that the state performed better within the broad policy areas of welfare and identity. The chapter argues that a long-term drop in financial revenue from the petro-export sector, which finances the perpetuation of the current political order, could trigger a transformation of the well-established repertoire of contention from its current system-sustaining nature to a more transgressive or revolutionary one.Less

Conclusions

Donatella della Porta, Lorenzo Cini, and César Guzmán-Concha

in Contesting Higher Education: Student Movements against Neoliberal Universities

This concluding chapter summarizes the empirical results presented in the previous chapters from a comparative perspective by locating them within previous research on social movement outcomes. In ... More

This concluding chapter summarizes the empirical results presented in the previous chapters from a comparative perspective by locating them within previous research on social movement outcomes. In light of the findings, it reflects on the impacts of neoliberal policies in contentious politics and point at the relevance of coalitions for a sustained impact of mobilization campaigns. But beyond the policy outcomes, the discussion also points toward the student movements' effects in terms of empowerment, the triggering of spill-over movements, and transformations in electoral and party politics. After summarizing the main contributions of the book, the chapter looks at the potential lines of inquiry that can be further pursued by scholars. Given the limited attention that social movement studies have given to contentious politics in universities, it is believed that this book might help stimulate further research on student protests.Less

Collective Violence

Charles Tilly

in Regimes and Repertoires

This chapter creates a typology of collective violence. It then evaluates how forms and intensities of collective violence vary across regimes. It uses the evaluation to civil war and terror, ... More

This chapter creates a typology of collective violence. It then evaluates how forms and intensities of collective violence vary across regimes. It uses the evaluation to civil war and terror, varieties of contention that combine several different types of collective violence. Analysts of collective violence habitually choose among three descriptive strategies: lumping, everyday cataloging, and singling out. Both civil war and terror include collective violence at several different locations within the coordination-salience space. The terror can be located in relation to regimes and repertoires, as an aspect of collective violence. The public politics of high-capacity, democratic regimes brings together widespread collective claim-making; low salience, coordination, and overall levels of collective violence; and impressively restrained domestic use of the government's enormous coercive power. Less democratic and lower-capacity regimes, however, experience more authoritarian and/or more violent forms of contentious politics.Less