Why do some protest groups use violence in the context of collective action - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages These forms may range from individual actions to groups actions or even roadside group demonstrations (Dalton 2003, p.53). Furthermore, they can advance into use of physical demos or demonstrations by use of technology such as social media. Protests are normally undertaken to promote particular courses and depending on whether protestors or protest groups face some forms of obstacles or not, protests may be violent or non-violent in nature (Gilcher-Holtey 2008, p.5). Therefore, protests groups can be pronounced any form of group in the society that takes any grounds to publicly demonstrate protests or cause civil disobedience. Such acts are normally intended to take the peaceful and non-violent paths and are normally aimed at acting against any form of official repression (Gilcher-Holtey 2008, p.8). The restrictions that such protests groups may face prompting violence entail restricted government policy, the state of the economy, religious barriers, bureaucratic social structures or even the monopoly that exists in the media. The laws of most of the countries in the world are today aligned in a way that allows for an assembly by groups to express the societal interests (Turner 1981, p.12). In the process of expressing pubic concerns, protests by the protests groups should not at any cost be violent; however, as has been stated in the previous paragraph among the stated reasons, protest groups may at times follow violent means to express their message (Dalton 2003, p.67). The society is normally in a position of handling issues up to some defined limits, therefore, the reasons why violence erupts can be summarized as political and socioeconomic in nature (Turner 1981, p.18). These may be in the form of unequal treatment and total disregard of such groups, this arises in the sense that the groups are voiceless and no relevant body wants to lend them an ear. The nature of poverty in which most people live in the society can cause an eruption into violent protest. Greed as depicted on resources as well as the environmental factors is another cause. Insecurity and scarcity of the group demands coupled with the urgency of such demands (Weldon 2011p.23). Political and institutional factors have a range of inbuilt causes of violent eruptions and these ranges from the weaknesses expressed by the state to a breakdown in social contracts and corruption. Such weaknesses provide grounds upon which such bodies find it difficult to manage the internal and external protests of groups (Weldon 2011, p.44). The institutions as a result are not in any position to peaceful management of group conflicts, provide strong protection measures for the different groups in the society or to the worse, unable to provide for the demand for the groups to participate on fair political platform and express themselves. Forms of political ideologies and ways of handling violence in case they occur can result into violent group protests or not. In mature democracies, manage their protesting groups peacefully through democratic inclusion as opposed to autocratic governments who apply force (Gilcher-Holtey 2008, p.4). Violent protests in a given society like in UK could be fuelled by the aforementioned factor. This is so because of the strength possessed by propagators of violence and their ability to retaliate. Violent protests in this platform results mainly from the group fears for the future, the weaknesses of the state and repress violence creating responses by the marginalized groups among other stakeholders (Zamorano 1999,p.234). It is evident that most of the protests that have become violent in Europe have been because of power struggles and exclusion. ...Download file to see next pagesRead More