Class 8: Aspects of Social Movement Activity

Social movement coalitions

Dr. Michael C. Zeller

Opening notes

Open Stickerfrom Open Stickers

Presentation groups

Presentations line-up
Date Presenters Method
4 Dec: Daichi, Seongyeon, Jehyun ethnography
18 Dec: Ayla, Tara, Theresa, Annabelle TBD
15 Jan: Luna, Emilene, Raffa, Sofia TBD

Poll: SM coalitions opening questions

A QR code for the survey.

Take the survey at https://forms.gle/qmXcNdhWNN3eNNPC8

  • are coalitions helpful to achieve goals?
  • short-term, limited coalitions more likely to achieve goals?
  • factor most important in facilitating coalition formation?
  • most important benefit for a movement in forming a coalition?
  • identity-based movements struggle more to form coalitions?

Are coalitions helpful to achieve goals?

What are the advantages and disadvantages for movements of forming a coalition/collaborating with other actors?

Poll results - why coalition

short-term, limited coalitions more likely to achieve goals?

most important benefit for a movement in forming a coalition?

Poll results - coalition how

What factors enable/hinder coalition formation?

Poll results - coalition how

factor most important in facilitating coalition formation?

identity-based movements struggle more to form coalitions?

Movement coalitions

  • why make coalitions
  • types of coalitions
  • coalition formation
    • key factors
      • intra-/inter-organisational
    • examples: Memorial-Sakharov Centre; Raging Grannies
    • context (opportunities and threats)
  • risks and outcomes
Parks And GIFfrom Parks GIFs

Why movements make coalitions

Coalitions…

  • help build/enhance networks
  • increase resource availability
    • boost mobilisation potential (again, networks)
  • expand tactical repertoires

Types of coalitions

Some coalitions may be enduring; others may be event coalitions

Types of coalitions

Some coalitions may be enduring; others may be event coalitions

Peace protest, Berlin, 2022-02-27

Coalition formation

Van Dyke and Amos (2017) identify five factors critical to coalition formation:

  1. social ties - connections between organisations
  1. conducive organizational structures - structures that enable collaboration
  1. ideology, culture, and identity - shared ideas
  1. institutional environment - opportunities and threats
  1. resources - pooling resources or competing

Coalition formation - intra-/inter-organisational factors

  • ‘exclusive affiliations’ orgs. or ‘multiple affiliations’ orgs.
    • individuals with (other) social ties: ‘coalition brokers’ or ‘bridge builders’
  • broad/multi-issue organisational goals = more likely to form coalition (e.g., Borland 2008)
    • fits with our discussion of framing (e.g., bridging frames)
  • strong organisation (e.g., division of labour, professional leaders) = more likely to form coalition
    • e.g., well organised movements can send representatives to others’ meetings (Borland 2008)
    • non-hierarchical or loose organisations will struggle (e.g., OWS)
    • fits with discussion of orgs. in social media age (Tufekci 2017)

Coalition formation - intra-/inter-organisational factors

  • commonalities and connections between organisations
    • ‘plentiful resources and congruent ideologies’ (2015)
    • overlapping collective identities (e.g., Memorial and Sakharov Centre)
  • ideological compatibility (a necessary condition?)
    • splits within movement (e.g., TERF vs. inclusive feminist groups) by ‘minor’ differences
    • others accommodate …

Coalition formation - intra-/inter-organisational factors

others accommodate, e.g., Raging Grannies: a rowdy aging women’s group in Canada that tempered its strategies to facilitate collaboration with indigenous environmental allies, creating space for indigenous activists at their gatherings, adopting mainstream dress, lending resources to Indigenous protests, and initiating action to ameliorate colonial abuses (Chazan 2016)

Coalition formation - external social and political conditions

  • related to opportunity structures
    • opportunities - general or specific openings for mobilisation or movement activism
      • e.g., northern Ireland civil rights groups found international partners in late 1960s partly due to generally high social mobilisation — access to others’/more/shared resources
    • threats:
      • e.g., government repression often drives organisations to collaborate (e.g., For Fair Elections movement in Russia)

Coalition formed amid government repression

For Fair Elections (Russia, 2011-2012) - strange bedfellows

Coalition formation - external social and political conditions

  • related to opportunity structures
    • institutional arrangements:
      • Obach (2010) suggests that U.S. governmental separation of labor and environmental protection into two separate policy arenas inhibits collaboration of labor and environmental groups even when issues are of interest to both.
  • Free space facilitates the organization of coalitions:

settings within a community or movement that are removed from the direct control of dominant groups, are voluntarily participated in, and generate the cultural challenge that precedes or accompanies political mobilization” (Polletta, 1999: 1).

Coalition formation - summary and ‘potential’

Grouping Factors
Intra-org exclusive vs. multiple affiliations any bridging social ties?
broad organisational goals e.g., bridging frames
strong organisation division (and availability) of labour, professional leaders, (at least some) hierarchy
Inter-org commonalities available resources, overlapping collective identities
ideological compatibility factions vs. willingness to accommodate
Opportunity structure opportunities free space
threats
institutional arrangements

What’s the coalition potential of movement cases you know of? Have they formed enduring and/or event coalitions?

Risks of coalition formation

  • where there is disparity/imbalance…
    • resource-rich organisations may try to control resource-poor partner organisations

Coalitions and movement outcomes (2015)

radical flank effects - dynamics between (relatively) moderate and (relatively) radical parts of a movement and their target(s)

  • positive radical flank effect - activity of radical part of movement compels target/authorities to accept moderate demands
    • e.g., Martin Luther King Jr. and moderate NAACP made more appealing to U.S. (federal) government by presence of black nationalists and Malcolm X
  • negative radical flank effect - activity of radical part of movement spooks potential elite allies
    • e.g., U.S. peace/student movement (late 1960s and 1970s) dominated by (radical) Youth International Party (‘Yippies’, Abby Hoffman and Jerry Rubin) more than (moderate) Students for a Democratic Society (SDS, Tom Hayden)

Radical flanks and (non/violent) tactics (Chenoweth and Stephan 2011)

Pay attention to the mechanisms that Prof. Chenoweth specifies in her brief explanation

Radical flanks and (non/violent) tactics (Chenoweth and Stephan 2011)

Pay attention to the mechanisms that Prof. Chenoweth specifies in her brief explanation

  • nonviolent campaigns are better at eliciting broad and diverse support
  • nonviolent campaigns create more defections among the opposition
  • nonviolent campaigns have a broader set of tactics at their disposal
  • nonviolent campaigns often maintain discipline even in the face of escalating oppression

Coalitions and movement outcomes (2015)

Coalitions between parties and movements

  • A. S. Heinze and Weisskircher (2022)
    • research questions
    • types of party responses
    • findings
  • further questions
Do You Want To Form An Alliance With Me GIFfrom Do You Want To Form An Alliance GIFs

A. S. Heinze and Weisskircher (2022) - RQ

How have German political parties responded to anti-Corona street protests?

What do you recall from the height of the pandemic? How did parties (in Germany and elsewhere) respond to mobilisation?

Types of party responses

A. Heinze (2018) on party reactions to radical parties (somewhat compelled to react):

Disengage

  1. ignore
  2. legal restrictions
  3. cordon sanitaire (blocking coalitions)
  4. demonise
  5. defuse
  6. hold

Engage

  1. adopt (co-opt) policies
  2. collaborate (executive, legislative, electoral) [national, regional, local – e.g., cooperation with AfD at lower levels]

Types of party responses

A. S. Heinze and Weisskircher (2022) on party responses to movements (not necessarily compelled to react):

  • dismissive: ignore or disregard the movement
  • accommodative: legitimate or even collaborate with the movement
  • adversarial: oppose/challenge the movement

Heinze and Weisskricher (2022) - response options

Heinze and Weisskricher (2022) - response options

Level Action Description
Formal level legal restrictions most exclusionary possibility: e.g., bans, forced dissolution, event restrictions
counterprotest parties can mobilise counterdemonstrations against pariah protest
tolerate neutral acceptance of the right to protest, even for those that are regarded as pariahs; passive option
cooperate act cooperatively with protest group; mobilise support base
Substantive level ignore disregard, refuse to comment on protest
demonise portray the actor as extreme, dangerous, irrational, or beyond the pale
defuse downplay protest issue importance, shift public attention to other issue(s)
debate acknowledges the importance of an issue put forward by the protestors, with parties discussing different policy positions
adopt adopting positions from protest arena becomes attractive if party considers the issue particularly relevant for competition, hoping to gain electoral advantage

Heinze and Weisskricher (2022) - findings

Formal level - response to Querdenken

Party Legal Restrictions Counterprotest Tolerate Cooperate
CDU Yes No Yes No
SPD Yes Yes Yes No
Greens Yes Yes Yes No
Left Yes Yes Yes No
FDP Yes No Yes No
AfD No No Yes Yes

Substantive level - response to Querdenken

Party Ignore Demonise Defuse Debate Adopt
CDU No Yes No Yes No
SPD No Yes No Yes No
Greens No Yes No Yes No
Left No Yes No Yes No
FDP No Yes No Yes No
AfD No Yes No Yes Yes

Further questions

what about movement responses/approaches to parties?

(is it as relevant? does it matter? movements are not as empowered as parties)

is the epitome of social movement ‘success’ becoming a party?

Any questions, concerns, feedback for this class?

Anonymous feedback here: https://forms.gle/AjHt6fcnwZxkSg4X8

Alternatively, please send me an email: m.zeller@lmu.de

References

Allchorn, William. 2020. “Political Responses to Anti-Islamic Protest: Responses, Rationales and Role Evaluations.” British Politics 15: 393–410.

Chazan, M. (2016). Settler solidarities as praxis: Understanding ‘granny activism’ beyond the highly‐visible. Social Movement Studies, 15(5), 457–470.

Borland, Elizabeth. 2008. “Social Movement Organizations and Coalitions: Comparisons from the Women’s Movement in Buenos Aires, Argentina.” In Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change, Volume 28, edited by Patrick G Coy, 83–112. Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing. https://doi.org/nicht verfügbar?
Chenoweth, Erica, and Maria J. Stephan. 2011. Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict. New York: Columbia University Press.
Heinze, Anna Sophie, and Manès Weisskircher. 2022. “How Political Parties Respond to Pariah Street Protest: The Case of Anti-Corona Mobilisation in Germany.” German Politics 0 (0): 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/09644008.2022.2042518.
Heinze, Anna-sophie. 2018. “Strategies of Mainstream Parties Towards Their Right-Wing Populist Challengers: Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland in Comparison.” West European Politics 41 (2): 287–309. https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2017.1389440.
McCammon, Holly J, Erin M Bergner, and Sandra C Arch. 2015. “"Are You One of Those Women?" Within-movement Conflict, Radical Flank Effects, and Social Movement Political Outcomes.” Mobilization: An International Quarterly 20 (2): 157–78.
Tufekci, Zeynep. 2017. Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Van Dyke, Nella, and Bryan Amos. 2017. “Social Movement Coalitions: Formation, Longevity, and Success.” Sociology Compass 11 (7): e12489. https://doi.org/10.1111/soc4.12489.