Influence of Political Trends in Social Movements - Essay Example

Influence of Political Trends in Social Movements Changes in political trends will always have an effect on the outlook and perspective of society. One can say that every political act will either have direct or indirect effects on the society. With regards to that, there are social movements established usually by non-government entities. While it can be said that political trends are made by governments for national purposes, it can be said that these trends may not sit well with some sectors of society. Social movements were created to remind the government or the state that not all the political trends being established fulfill the needs of all people in society. Most of the time, these social movements are represented by the marginalized groups and sectors of society, or sometimes those groups which have been socially, politically and economically overlooked by the state as a whole. It should be no surprise that social movements tend to harbor groups such as labor or worker union groups, gender marginalized groups, and even environmentalist organizations. In a wider and outside perspective, the existence of these social movements could serve as both a blessing and a curse. It could be seen as a blessing since it provides marginalized groups in society to voice their grievances, needs, and expectations towards the political trends of the government. On the other hand, too much power on the social movements would result to a divided or fragmented society as discontent against government policies would result to slowing of progress due to civil protest or disobedience. In either case, social movements are there as the voice for social equality and justice regardless how such organizations proceed with their actions. Participants and parties of social movements should not be quick to blame and accuse governments and related agencies to have initial anxieties and suspicions against them. The advent of the early phases of Modern civilization would have served as nearly Hegelian dialectic struggle between the state and social changes. While governments have been usually satisfied to maintain the status quo for the sake of order and stability, social movements wish to liberally challenge such a paradigm. The resistance of the early social movements towards social order was taken back then as a revolutionary in the sense of rebellious or seditious. Women rights movements shook a male dominated society, or disenfranchised labor and worker unions stood against their richer employers, for better treatment under the principles of justice, morality and democracy. These social movements actually proved to influence the way governments had to deal with society as the various causes of these movements would set political trends of their own. Social movements would then be represented in the whole political world as the opposition towards the state, to the point of being quickly identified as rebels. As much as such premise and judgment is rather misleading, but again this cannot be accused as political bias completely. In current history, Goldstone (2003) observed “New Left and Black Power groups also often self-identified with more revolutionary movements (with such anticaptialist heroes as Che Guevarra and Fidel Castro) that were clearly outside and opposed to the establishment” (p.6). Social movements, while having good intentions, joining or cooperating with radical or revolutionary elements of society, would definitely receive suspicion from the established government. Then again, to get that kind of attention from the established order could be the kind of publicity social movements need and want so that their causes could be heard and known to the public. Dobson pointed that “dramatic, highly publicized and often unexpected events can lead to public outrage and major shifts in certain public attitudes. Huge oil spills, nuclear accidents, revelations of serious government misconduct, official violence against dissenters, or the sudden loss of employment serve to foment social movement” (p.2). Any act by the established order that, whether actually or seemingly, infringes the rights of any member of society would be the resounding outcry and motivating factor for social movements to act swiftly and sometimes dramatically. Social movements, regardless how they operate, are necessary in the social and political dynamics of a nation. Ganz (2006) asserted that “social movements are also, almost by definition, “moral projects” in that they couple new individual and collective identities with demands for institutional reform that recognizes the legitimacy of those claims” (p.6). While modern governments have representatives from different sectors of society elected or appointed in their official political assemblies, this does not mean that there is a real representation of the rights and grievances of the marginalized. As Burstein and Linton (2002) noted: Many political scientists would argue, however, that political parties differ from the other two types of organizations in a critical way: unlike interest groups and SMOs, parties actually control the government. It is easy to imagine (for many political scientists, at least) that elected officials would ignore interest groups and SMOs when their reelection is at stake, but the dynamics with regard to political parties are more complicated. Many party activists are likely to have gotten into politics because they are strongly committed to relatively extreme ideological views, and, when their party wins power, may be torn between the need to follow public opinion and their desire to transform their own ideologies into policy. Even elected officials most strongly oriented to reelection, and therefore to public opinion, may find it difficult to ignore party activists holding relatively extreme views. (p.385) Social movement organization can then be said to take the role as the vigilant vanguards towards the causes of those sectors of modern society that have been left out from government attention or looked with suspicion. The theory stands that social movements exist to remind governments and the established orders of their responsibility towards their constituents, especially those not being covered by progress and law. Oliver, Cadena-Roa and Strawn (2003) held that “social movements theory should continue the tendency to treat "social movements" not as a class of objects, but as a pointer to a class of relationships between non-institutional and institutional political actors” (p.234). A noted and highly visible example would be the act of protest by social movements. Participation of protests and signing of petitions would continue to influence social movements in many years to come and consequently would have a significant effect on how a nation’s government will make policies, and sometimes lead to changes of political leadership. As political systems continue to change, people will be more aware to the changes in political trends the more they participate through social movements. In addition, as individuals continue to get more enlightened, they become aware of their rights, and as a result, they become more willing to attend protests and sign petitions. For the most part, current democratic governments accept the existence of social movements as pivotal for national progress and stability. For the most part, the political trend towards the democratizations of many emerging and third world nations poses both an opportunity and challenge for social movements. Political democratizations have been changing significantly in the recent past as globalization, another political trend, has been rapidly spreading. The changes are expected to increase as the rise of emerging democracies undergoes changes within their socio-cultural structures. This reveals that the impact of political democratization as a political trend on social movement will continue to be experienced in the future. The influences of this political trend are expected to increase as individuals continue to become more politically enlightened. When people are have the freedom and the right to know, they become more learned and exposed to the system and mechanisms of the social sphere. Due to this political trend, social movement patterns have greatly changed. This has led to introduction and development of ecommerce by organizations in order to cover the diverse markets resulting from social movements. As a result, economic and technological trends have changed greatly as ecommerce gains root in different industries. This has greatly changed the people’s ways of living as well as their ways of doing business and cultural trendsetting. References Burstein, P., & Linton, A. (2002). The impact of political parties, interest groups, and social movement organizations on public policy: Some recent evidence and theoretical concerns. Social Forces, 81(2):380-408 Dobson, C. (n.d). Social movement: A summary of what works. Retrieved from http://www.citizenshandbook.org/movements.pdf Ganz, M. (2006). “Left behind”: Social movements, parties, and the politics of reform. (Unpublished dissertation). Harvard University, Cambridge Goldstone, J.A. (2003). States, parties, and social movements. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge. Oliver, P., Cadena-Roa, J., & Strawn, K.D., (2003). Emerging trends in the study of protest and social movements. Political Sociology for the 21st Century: Research in Political Sociology, 12, 213-244 Read More