Class 14: Social Movements online, in effect, dying out, and going forward

Contemporary social movements and beyond: climate, migration

Dr. Michael C. Zeller

Opening notes

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Presentation groups

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

Klausur instructions and brief review

  • exam-day instructions
  • quick review of Vorlesung material, themes:
    1. historical experience
    2. Constitutional Court
    3. parliamentary system, executive dominance
    4. cooperative federalism
    5. elections, parties, and party system change
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Klausur instructions

  • 2 February (Monday) at (promptly!) 8.00 in the AudiMax
  • arrive at 7.45 to get checked in
  • bring your ID!
  • consider going to the toilet before entering Audimax…

Klausur instructions

  • time management: e.g., 15 minutes each for 3 Vorlesung questions; 45 minutes for 1 essay question
  • FIVE questions provided — THREE must be answered
  • Questions consist of factual knowledge component and analytical component
  • Overview of central topics in the lecture plan (under ‘Organisatorisches’). Exam questions relate to these central topics
  • Reference to central articles of the Basic Law relevant for some questions (e.g. Eternity clause Art. 79, Paragraph 3 of the Basic Law; Art. 21 bz Regulation of parties)
  • details about other countries are not required knowledge

Quick review of Prof. Bolleyer’s course material

  • FIVE themes in the Vorlesung course
    1. Germany as system shaped by historical experience
    2. Federal Constitutional Court as above day-to-day politics vs. strategic actor (Vanberg model)
    3. Germany classified as parliamentary system that invites executive dominance
    4. Germany classified as case of cooperative federalism
    5. Elections, parties, and party system change

1. Germany as system shaped by history - basics

  1. Constitutional state based on fundamental rights & parliamentary representative democracy
  2. Designed for power sharing/taming the power of the executive
  3. “Semi-sovereign” state – democratic principle restricted by constitutionality/court
  4. Central role of the parties; simultaneously multi-party system (numerous “veto players”)
  5. State of grand coalitions: tension between party competition and cooperation pressures (federalism)
  6. “Delegating state” (e.g. collective bargaining, central bank)
  7. “Open state” transfer of sovereignty (EU) –> elements counteract the concentration of power in the executive

1. Germany as system shaped by history

  • Lessons from Weimar: e.g., Eternity clause Art. 79 Abs. 3
  • Areas of focus:
    1. constitutional principle vs. democratic principle (BRD: constitutional sovereignty, UK: parliamentary sovereignty);
    2. substantive vs. procedural understanding of democracy (different from the Weimar Constitution)
  • Key concept: wehrhafte Demokratie
    • “defensive democracy” –> intended to prevent democracy from abolishing itself through democratic procedures
    • e.g., Eternity clause; forfeiture of basic rights (Art. 18 GG); group ban (Art. 9 Abs 2 GG); party ban (Art. 21 Abs 2 GG); constitutional protection offices; officials’ duty to be loyal to the constitution (Article 5, 33 GG)
  • Logic of consensus democracy: gov. responsive to as many citizens as possible; maximal interests integrated into decision-making process –> prevent tyrannous majority

2. Federal Constitutional Court

  • independence of BVerfG as sign of separation of powers (checks and balances): “guardian of the constitution”; appointment of judges, required qualifications of judges
  • Forms of (self-)limitation
    1. how political context influences whether the BVerfG declares laws unconstitutional (abstract norm control)
    2. Court relies on enforceability and acceptance
    3. Court tend to exercise restraint in times of crisis (e.g. Corona)
    4. Legislators can change the organisation and resources of the court (with a simple majority, no Federal Council veto)
    5. Legislators can change rules by amending the constitution
    6. Federal Constitutional Court only takes action after a lawsuit

3. Germany: parliamentary system, executive dominance

  • separation of powers (less helpful to understand exec.-leg. relation in parliamentarism — different in presidentialism)
  • Primary characteristic of parliamentarism: dependence of the executive on the legislature
    • result: functional interlocking of powers - government & government majority/factions dominate legislation (“interlocking” also through the government’s right of initiative)
    • opposition factions exercise ‘control rights’
  • Central institutional mechanisms:
    • election of the chancellor (chancellor majority)
    • confidence vote and constructive vote of no confidence – promotes stability (cf. Weimar!)

4. Germany classified as case of cooperative federalism

  • Cooperative federalism in Germany (vs. dual federalism/separate federalism (e.g. USA))
    • Essentially an executive federalism (state governments in the Bundesrat influence the national constitution, implementation of laws by state administrations centrally)
    • Distribution of powers that encourages cooperation: e.g. competing legislation; community tasks; also: financial integration (community taxes) (vs. clear “separation” in dual/separate federalism)
    • Article 72, Paragraph 2 of the Basic Law “establishment of equal living conditions in the federal territory” (“unitary federalism”) –> Political integration also through voluntary, horizontal cooperation: Conferences of Ministerpräsidenten
  • Bundesrat - strong second chamber: legislative power of consent
    • Composition: government representatives of the states (unlike the classic Senate model)

5. Elections, parties, and party system change

  • Political participation: all activities that citizens do voluntarily with the goal to influence the political system
    • conventional (e.g., voting) vs. unconventional (e.g., protesting)
      • trend towards individual participation forms—away from collective forms (societal changes such as individualisation, secularisation)
    • Voting/elections are central form of participation
      • responsiveness mechanism (according to voter preference) –> increasing tension here
      • generates: legitimation, mobilisation, recruitment, representation, etc.

5. Elections, parties, and party system change

  • Parties: political groups that present candidates for public office (Sartori 1976/2000)
    • parties as “transmission belts” (like interest groups), but operate in society and within political institutions
    • in DE, parties are ‘institutional actors’ or ‘state organs’ (Art. 21 GG)
    • central aspects: participation in political decision-making; obligation of intra-party democracy; state financing (and accountability); possible party ban

5. Elections, parties, and party system change

  • party system: the system of interactions resulting from inter-party competition (Sartori 1976)
  • focus on new ‘players’ in the system or on system characteristics
  • context: established parties face challenges (shrinking membership, sinking trust, greater vote competition from newcomers [Grüne, AfD, BSW], new cleavages)
  • relevant system elements:
    • format: number of parties
    • fragmentation: parties relative size/strength
    • content: policy/ideological position of a parties
    • polarisation: ideological/policy distance between parties
    • segmentation: coalition potential of parties

Vorlesung: example question

“How has political participation in Germany changed over the last four decades and what are the key explanatory factors for this?”

„Wie hat sich politische Partizipation in Deutschland in den letzten vier Jahrzehnten gewandelt und was sind zentrale Erklärungsfaktoren dessen?“

  • Remember: questions consist of factual knowledge component and analytical component
    • no Pro/Contra discussion – not enough time
  • Here, political participation is the key concept (factual knowledge)
    • what does it mean? Explain it briefly in your answer
    • Discuss briefly: less party participation; expansion of participation forms (e.g., protests, petitions); emergence of online participation –> more individualised participation, less collective
  • Causes for these changes (analytical knowlege)
    • secularisation (less religious adherence), expansion in education, change in values, technological innovations (for digital participation) –> all favour more individual participation, less collective

Pointers on research papers

  • basics of a good paper:
    • introduction
    • main body
    • conclusion
  • golden rules for any paper
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Basics of a good paper - introduction

  • What?
    • What is the puzzle or research question?
    • There are two types of questions: interesting questions and researchable questions — unfortunately, there is quite limited overlap between them…
      • a main challenge in research is to find a way to transform a big, interesting question into a researchable one (this is the intricacy of research design)
  • Why? Theoretical, methodological, and/or practical relevance
  • How? Structure of the argument/paper
  • About 10% of entire paper

Basics of a good paper - main body

  • Case selection
    • Which cases (what population)? When? Why?
    • Scope conditions
  • Phenomenon of interest
    • Definitions \(\rightarrow\) systematised concepts \(\rightarrow\) indicators/operationalisation \(\rightarrow\) data source
    • specify what kind of data you will use and where it comes from
  • For descriptive analysis
    • Consider creating a typology/multi-dimensional concept
  • For causal analysis: potential causes of your DV/outcome
    • theories, hypotheses, and causal mechanisms

Basics of a good paper - conclusion

  • Brief summary of argument (and findings)
  • What is it that you are NOT saying and investigating?
  • Future research
  • Maximum 10% of text

Golden rules for any paper

  • Structure: paper should have a structure which is
    • clear, summarised in introduction, explicit as the paper unfolds
    • One paragraph = one idea
    • Help your reader: (i) sum up a section, (ii) link to/justify next section
  • Answer the question you have chosen:
    • a tragic mistake is to give a brilliant answer to a question that is subtly different to the one you asked
  • Writing:
    • words have precise meanings, use them with care—they are the tools of the scholarly trade!
    • KISS (keep it simple, stupid): clear words; short sentences

Summarising and moving forward

  • SMs in the round: big course take-aways
  • movements of the future: migration-related and climate-related
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SMs in the round: big course take-aways

movements are integral to modern democracies, and many other systems/societies

movements are shaped by the context (POS) in which they emerge \(\rightarrow\) but movements can reshape context (if they are lucky and very successful)

even modestly successful movements can change how people understand issues (through framing) and set the stage for later (more successful) movements

UN Global Compact for Migration (GCM)

instructor note: this news outlet consistently represents a far-right, often Islamophobic perspective. The video below innacurately portrays the GCM to bolster an editorial narrative (e.g., ‘Brexit’)

Migration-related - Rone and Fielitz (2023)

  • UN Global Compact for Migration (GCM)
    • comprehensive treaty covering international migration
  • Rejection/abstention (in order, all second half of 2018) by Hungary, Austria, Czechia, Poland, Slovakia, Italy, Bulgaria, Latvia, Romania
    • any patterns here?
  • movements and parties launched a multi-faceted campaign that generated protest and spurred advocacy networks transnationally
    • movement influence on foreign policy
      • (rare because foreign policy is supposedly reserve of elite-level politics, but movements do occasionally impact; cf. ‘International Campaign to Ban Landmines’)
    • movement influence on discourse and policy on immigration

Migration-related - Rone and Fielitz (2023)

  • four country cases: Austria, Belgium, Germany, and Italy (different governing parties and mobilisation on migration)
    • strong anti-GCM campaigns: Germany (helped by AfD and Junge Alternative (Heinze 2024) and movement orgs. like Identitarians), Belgium (Vlaams Belang and nationalist youth groups) – but ultimately unsuccessful; beaten in parliament
    • anti-GCM campaign unnecessary: Italy (competitive collaboration between Lega and FdI)
    • complementary anti-GCM campaign: Austria (movement activity supporting ÖVP and FPÖ government decision)
  • is it all down to the strength of parliamentary allies?

Climate-related - Zhang (2023)

  • investigating (informational) diffusion and ‘connective’ action of Germany’s FFF using Twitter data
    • retweeting sequences and the following/follower relationships
  • development of digitally networked movements depends on their ability to influence and spread among different networked publics
  • right-leaning actors’ attempted to delegitimise the movement; left-leaning actors engaged to condemn leading parties and bring digital politics into the discourse

diffusion mechanisms of information, discourses, and beliefs of digitally networked movements were mainly enabled by… preexisting networks rather than situational spontaneity. However, they varied according to issue salience and were distinguished by the network structures, political positions, ideological lines, and geographical proximities of the involved communities

Final thoughts and further questions

Movements in the future

  • intensifying competition of movements and states/targets
  • danger of social media companies’ self-regulation
  • transnationalism of movements (climate movement[s], anti-migration movement[s])

THANK YOU!

  • No class next week – good luck on your exam!
  • Essays (for those not taking Klausur) due 2026-03-07
  • Thank you for the feedback on course evaluations: if you have any follow-ups, please write to me or see me during office hours

Thanks for coming and being great students!

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

Heinze, Anna-Sophie. 2024. “Drivers of Radicalisation? The Development and Role of the Far-Right Youth Organisation ‘Young Alternative’ in Germany.” International Political Science Review, January, 01925121231221961. https://doi.org/10.1177/01925121231221961.
Rone, Julia, and Maik Fielitz. 2023. “‘Stop the Pact‘! The Foreign Policy Impact of the Far-Right Campaigning Against the Global Compact for Migration.” Geopolitics, October, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/14650045.2023.2260314.
Zhang, Xixuan. 2023. “Diffusion Dynamics and Digital Movement: The Emergence and Proliferation of the German-speaking #FridaysForFuture Network on Twitter.” Social Movement Studies, May, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/14742837.2023.2211015.