Search Results

Patriotic Daughters and Isolationist Mothers: Conservative Women in the Early Twentieth Century

Michelle M. Nickerson

in Mothers of Conservatism: Women and the Postwar Right

This chapter examines how women developed forms of antistatist protest in the first half of the twentieth century that posed an oppositional relationship between the family and government. By the ... More

This chapter examines how women developed forms of antistatist protest in the first half of the twentieth century that posed an oppositional relationship between the family and government. By the 1950s, anticommunism and antistatism became widespread mechanisms of political protest for women on the right much as peace activism and welfare work came to seem natural for women on the left. But unlike the later generation of Cold Warrior women who exerted themselves most forcefully through local politics, conservative women of the early twentieth century made their strongest impact by attacking that national progressive state. They also demonized “internationalism” as the handmaiden to communism, discovering another foe that women's position in the family obliged them to oppose. Consequently, the earliest generation of conservative organizations adopted the habit of calling themselves “patriotic” groups to contrast their own nationalist sentiment with the internationalism of progressives, which they equated with communism. This pattern continued into the post-World War II era.Less

Exit, Voice, and the State

Albert O. Hirschman

in The Essential Hirschman

This chapter contains Hirschman's reflections on how citizens' exit and voice affect state power and expands his thinking to include a range of political possibilities, from stateless societies and ... More

This chapter contains Hirschman's reflections on how citizens' exit and voice affect state power and expands his thinking to include a range of political possibilities, from stateless societies and small states to the ones that behave like global hegemons. The arguments in this chapter build upon those set forth in a previously published work, which had argued that economists, with their emphasis on the virtues of competition (i.e., exit), had disregarded the possible contributions of voice just as political scientists, with their interest in political participation and protest, had neglected the possible role of exit in the analysis of political behavior. This chapter is a more extensive survey on these previous arguments. In particular, it explores the importance of exit in relation to the state.Less

“No Ways Tired”: An Antidote for Protest Fatigue in the Trump Era

Susan J. Brison

in Protest and Dissent: NOMOS LXII

We have witnessed a resurgence of mass demonstrations and other public forms of political protest in the Trump era, but are protests becoming less effective and delegitimated—counterproductive, ... More

We have witnessed a resurgence of mass demonstrations and other public forms of political protest in the Trump era, but are protests becoming less effective and delegitimated—counterproductive, even—precisely because of their frequency, as Richard Ford maintains in “Protest Fatigue”? Granted, more and more of us may be, in the immortal words of Fannie Lou Hamer, “sick and tired of being sick and tired” and, at marches against ever more virulent manifestations of sexism and racism, signs like “I Can’t Believe I Still Have to Protest This Shit” evince a certain weariness and frustration among the dissenting masses. But, in this chapter, I argue that more, not less, protesting—by more people, in more places, on more occasions—is what we need now, since it can have a galvanizing, reinvigorating effect and be no less legitimate than past protests such as demonstrations for women’s suffrage and the March on Washington. Especially in the digital age, mass protests, far from sapping our energy and yielding diminishing returns, have the potential to tap and replenish the ever-renewable resources of hope and solidarity.Less

Political Violence: Analyses of Events

T.K. Vinod Kumar

in Public Events and Police Response: Understanding Public Order Policing in Democratic India

While there are various forms of disorder in public space in India, one of the most frequently occurring forms of violence is violent political protests and demonstrations. There are various macro ... More

While there are various forms of disorder in public space in India, one of the most frequently occurring forms of violence is violent political protests and demonstrations. There are various macro level explanations of political violence in democracies. The magnitude and nature of political violence, however, varies across societies. Focusing on violent political events in the public space, this chapter analyses the tactics used by participants, the sequence of events, and police response to elucidate the event response dynamics.Less

Varieties of Political Engagement: Activists and Dissidents

Anthony F. Heath, Stephen D. Fisher, Gemma Rosenblatt, David Sanders, and Maria Sobolewska

in The Political Integration of Ethnic Minorities in Britain

This chapter looks at non-electoral forms of political participation, including organizational activity, petitions, protests and demonstrations, donations to political causes, and participation in ... More

This chapter looks at non-electoral forms of political participation, including organizational activity, petitions, protests and demonstrations, donations to political causes, and participation in boycotts. A particular focus of this chapter is on the processes that might be expected to lead to discontent and protest, such as grievances over exclusion or the separate lives that some have speculated might lead to conflict. The profile of minority non-electoral participation looks very similar to that of other British citizens, with most not participating. Minority social exclusion and ethnic residential concentration does not seem to reduce participation or increase protest and conflict.Less

Substantial Activisms

Jacob Copeman and Dwaipayan Banerjee

in Hematologies: The Political Life of Blood in India

This chapter focuses on scenes of hematological activism. These scenes constitute a historically significant genre of political performance, in relation to the ebbs and flows of other modes of ... More

This chapter focuses on scenes of hematological activism. These scenes constitute a historically significant genre of political performance, in relation to the ebbs and flows of other modes of activist signification. Specifically, the chapter suggests that blood donation spectacles act as rituals of verification, in contrast to other modes of political protest such as the fast that are increasingly open to accusations of insincerity and dissembling. Blood extracted on political occasions holds an elusive promise of political transparency: it is promissory matter. Yet as this chapter shows, blood also exposes itself to accusations of dissembling and deception: when used by politicians perceived as corrupt, the communicative medium is drained of its material intimacy with sincerity.Less

The Political Consequences of the Economic Crisis in Europe: Electoral Punishment and Popular Protest

Hanspeter Kriesi

in Mass Politics in Tough Times: Opinions, Votes and Protest in the Great Recession

This exploratory chapter tries to link the electoral consequences of the Great Recession and the protest to which it has given rise. In the first part, the expectations of the economic voting ... More

This exploratory chapter tries to link the electoral consequences of the Great Recession and the protest to which it has given rise. In the first part, the expectations of the economic voting literature are confirmed in a comparative analysis of electoral outcomes, which shows that the fiscal consequences (large budgetary deficits) in particular are giving rise to severe punishment of governing parties by the electorate. The second part links this electoral punishment to the political protest which, in the countries most hit by the crisis, is shown to have been triggered (Western Europe)/reinforced (Central- and Eastern Europe) by fiscal problems of the state in the crisis.Less

Characterizing Party-System Changes

in Party-System Collapse: The Roots of Crisis in Peru and Venezuela

This chapter, which examines the changes in traditional political parties and party systems in Peru, Venezuela, and Argentina, describes the interactions between voters and party elites, and the acts ... More

This chapter, which examines the changes in traditional political parties and party systems in Peru, Venezuela, and Argentina, describes the interactions between voters and party elites, and the acts of political protest and violence during the process of party-system collapse. It suggests that these episodes of protests and violence illustrate the high stakes that people in Peruvian and Venezuelan voters attached to political outcomes during the period of party-system collapse and offered an avenue for expression of political dissatisfaction.Less

The Presence and Conceptualization of Contemporary Protesting Crowds

Suman Gupta

in Presence: Philosophy, History, and Cultural Theory for the Twenty-First Century

This chapter argues that contemporary crowd formations, especially those that gather to express political protests, often fracture the unity of conventional ontological assumptions about what a ... More

This chapter argues that contemporary crowd formations, especially those that gather to express political protests, often fracture the unity of conventional ontological assumptions about what a “crowd” is or may be. Beginning with early sociological accounts of crowds by Gustave le Bon and Georg Simmel, this chapter reevaluates the definition and use of “crowd” by pressing into the ways that “transnational massings” in 2003 and the gatherings of crowds that characterized the Arab Spring of 2010 have made manifest the discontinuities between mainstream media representations of the crowd as an identifiable “mass” and the self-understanding of social media groupings as transnational presence.Less

Revolution in the Air: Hijacking, Political Protest, and U.S.-Cuba Relations

Teishan A. Latner

in Cuban Revolution in America: Havana and the Making of a United States Left, 1968-1992

Chapter Three explores Cuba’s image within the U.S. radical imaginary through the surge of airplane hijackings that occurred from the U.S. to Cuba between 1968 and 1973. Seeking political asylum, ... More

Chapter Three explores Cuba’s image within the U.S. radical imaginary through the surge of airplane hijackings that occurred from the U.S. to Cuba between 1968 and 1973. Seeking political asylum, sanctuary from criminal charges, contact with Third World revolutionary movements, and apolitical adventure, Americans who hijacked airplanes to Cuba often framed air piracy as an act of political protest. Cuban immigration officials were not always convinced, however, viewing many hijackers as criminals, not revolutionaries. Making ninety attempts to reach Cuba in commandeered aircraft, American air pirates ultimately forced the U.S. and Cuban governments into unprecedented high-level negotiations despite the nations’ lack of diplomatic relations. Viewing hijacking as a liability, the Cuban government moved to counter its outlaw mystique in the American popular imagination, with the two governments signing a bilateral agreement to curb hijacking in 1973.Less

Gezi Protests

Necati Polat

in Regime Change in Contemporary Turkey: Politics, Rights, Mimesis

This chapter is on the historic Gezi Park protests of 2013, which promised a novel democratic fusion of otherwise disparate political forces—comparable perhaps to the broad democratic alliance led by ... More

This chapter is on the historic Gezi Park protests of 2013, which promised a novel democratic fusion of otherwise disparate political forces—comparable perhaps to the broad democratic alliance led by ‘former’ Islamists from the late 1990s—enduringly bringing together a colourful variety of political forces, and arguably outside the settled republican reflexes, initially in opposition to an urban development plan in Istanbul, soon to engulf the whole nation. The harsh response by the government to the protests far beyond the limits in the applicable human rights law, which would do much to damage the hard-earned reputation of the administration before international public opinion within only a span of days, is illustrated in this chapter through the plight of three protesters: a young man battered within an inch of his life by the police, a young woman persecuted beyond the limits of credibility, and a child murdered during the protests.Less

Protest

Andrei P. Tsygankov

in The Strong State in Russia: Development and Crisis

Putin’s system began to unravel in 2008 and entered a period of crisis. Among other indicators of the crisis, the country was rocked by rising social protests, which culminated after the flawed Duma ... More

Putin’s system began to unravel in 2008 and entered a period of crisis. Among other indicators of the crisis, the country was rocked by rising social protests, which culminated after the flawed Duma elections in November 2011. The state responded within the parameters of managed democracy by exercising a mixture of firmness and caution.Less

A Future in Relation to the Other

Christine L. Garlough

in Desi Divas: Political Activism in South Asian American Cultural Performances

This chapter discusses the various hate crimes, and other forms of discrimination, that have emerged post-9/11. Among these hate crimes, a number of South Asian Americans have unfortunately also ... More

This chapter discusses the various hate crimes, and other forms of discrimination, that have emerged post-9/11. Among these hate crimes, a number of South Asian Americans have unfortunately also become targets for verbal insults and physical threats from both strangers and neighbors — sometimes even despite lifetimes spent participating in civic activities, building local relationships, or creating community connections. As a result, many South Asian Americans have taken to the streets, protesting through mass demonstrations that demand media attention. Others, however, have engaged in another form of political protest: performance art. This chapter thus considers this particular mode of protest, providing an ethnographic analysis of a semiautobiographical performance called Rise, performed by one Shyamala Moorty to address issues of racial profiling, xenophobic rhetoric, and hate crimes post-9/11.Less

The Fracturing of Police Authority

Ian Loader and Aogán Mulcahy

in Policing and the Condition of England: Memory, Politics and Culture

The central contention of the desacralization thesis is that the economic, political, and socio-cultural transformations experienced by English society since 1945 have fatally undermined the kinds of ... More

The central contention of the desacralization thesis is that the economic, political, and socio-cultural transformations experienced by English society since 1945 have fatally undermined the kinds of steadfastly supportive sensibilities towards police authority. This demise is in large measure caused by the cavernous social divisions and individualized and pluralistic social relations that characterize late modern England. But it is also viewed as the legitimacy-eroding consequence of the police's controversial involvement since the late 1960s in what has become a regular diet of political protests, industrial disputes, and urban disorders. This chapter aims to extend and develop this thesis as well as qualify and revise it in certain key respects by seeking to distil the contours and substance of what is considered to be a range of contemporary public dispositions towards English policing. Drawing on group discussions and biographical interviews with different strata of the English populace, it identifies five perspectives on policing and the social which have been termed: defenders of the faith, the disenchanted, atheists, agnostics, and the hopeful.Less