Financial crisis, economic globalization and the strengthening of neoliberal policies present stark challenges to traditional conceptions of representative democracy. Yet, at the same time, new opportunities are emerging that propose alternative visions for the future of democracy. In this highly articulate book, Donatella della Porta analyses diverse conceptions and practices of participatory and deliberative democracy, building upon recent reflections in normative theory as well as original empirical research. As well as drawing on key historical examples, the book pays close attention to the current revitalization of social movements: the Arab Spring uprisings in processes of democratic transition; the potential of new technologies to develop so-called e-democracy in the Indignados and Occupy Wall Street protests; and proposals for cosmopolitan democracy found in recent campaigns for democratization of the European Union and United Nations. Alongside such social movements, the book also assesses institutional reactions, from the policing of protest to efforts at reform. This contribution to a critical contemporary debate, by a leading political sociologist and scholar of social movements, will be of great value to students and scholars of political sociology, political science and social movement studies, as well as anyone interested in the shape and development of democracy.
Since the very beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, with mass media and social media playing a key role, anti-vax protests have received sustained attention. The first comments often pointed at the heterogeneity of the events, whose participants seemed to belong to different milieus, from the far right to exoteric groups that opposed mainstream medicine, suggesting alternative ones. In reality, in their forms and claims, these protests developed as a regressive response to the health crisis. Conspiracist beliefs—from the politicized QAnon and Great Replacement conspiracies widespread on the far right to the Chemic Trails and 5G ones present in an exoteric milieu that promoted alternative health practices—were clearly expressed in the slogans and symbols used by the protestors. In different moments in different countries, the contestation of the anti-COVID-19 measures proceeded with picks and ebbs, following the waves of contagion and the related increase in policy measures to curve them. Increasing especially during the vaccination campaigns, they seemed to subside however quite quickly as the COVID-19 virus started to become endemic, with vaccination reducing its lethality. This volume builds upon social movement studies in the attempt to illuminate the dynamics of these protests in the various steps of their emergency, growth and decline. Referring to most recent developments in social movement studies, it in particular contributes to the analysis of contentious politics in emergency times, characterized by deep disruption in everyday life and rapid structural transformations in the society. In order to understand how specific strains are transformed into actions, it considers the opportunities and challenges for different actors in moments of intense mobilization in which different and contrasting claims are put forward. While these moments are rich in innovation, they built upon existing social movement infrastructures, that contribute to give meaning to dissatisfaction by proposing a shared definition of problems and solutions. Looking at the wave of anti-vax protests through the lenses of social movement studies, the analysis addresses the spread of the protests, their forms, but also their quick decline.
When corruption is exposed, unknown aspects are revealed which allow us to better understand its structures and informal norms. This book investigates the hidden order of corruption, looking at the invisible codes and mechanisms that govern and stabilize the links between corrupters and corruptees. Concentrating mainly on democratic regimes, this book uses a wide range of documentation, including media and judicial sources from Italy and other countries, to locate the internal equilibria and dynamics of corruption in a broad and comparative perspective. It also analyses the Transparency International Annual Reports and the daily survey of international news to present evidence on specific cases of corruption within an institutional theory framework.
Political corruption has traditionally been presented as a phenomenon characteristic of developing countries, authoritarian regimes, or societies in which the value system favored tacit patrimony and clientelism. Recently, however, the thesis of an inverse correlation between corruption and economic and political development (and therefore democratic maturity) has been frequently and convincingly challenged. Countries with a long democratic tradition, such as the United States, Belgium, Britain, and Italy, have all experienced a combination of headline-grabbing scandals and smaller-scale cases of misappropriation.In Corrupt Exchanges, primary research on Italian cases (judicial proceedings, in-depth interviews, parliamentary documents, and press databases), combined with a cross-national comparison based on a secondary analysis of corruption in democratic systems, is used to develop a model to analyze corruption as a network of illegal exchanges. The authors explore in great detail the structure of that network, by examining both the characteristics of the actors who directly engage in the corruption and the resources they exchange. These processes of degeneration have caused a crisis in the dominant paradigm in both academic and political considerations of corruption.The book is organized around the analysis of the resources that are exchanged and of the different actors who take part. Politicians in business, illegal brokers, Mafia members, protected entrepreneurs, and party-appointed bureaucrats exchange resources on the illegal market, altering the institutional system of interactions between the state and the market. In this complex web of exchanges, bonds of trust are established that allow the corrupt exchange to thrive. The book will serve both as a theoretical approach to a political problem of large bearing on democratic institutions and a descriptive warning of a system in peril.
This book looks at long-term consequences of social movements in times of transition on the quality of democracy in ensuing regimes. It will be useful to students in courses on political sociology, comparative politics, social movements, democratic theory, democratization, and revolution.
Della Porta has assembled a distinguished group of scholars who have made great strides in illuminating the early phases of the movement. The book includes especially keen analyses of the movement against global capitalism, particularly in its European manifestations." John D. McCarthy, Pennsylvania State University "Della Porta has skillfully coordinated a comparative study in six European countries and the US. Renowned scholars give testimony of the movement in their countries. [This is] the first attempt to document a genuine transnational movement." Bert Klandermans, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam You G-8, we 6 billion!" So went the chant at the international parade leading into the summit in Genoa, Italy. The global justice movement has led to a new wave of protest, building up transnational networks, inventing new strategies of action, constructing new images of democracy, and boldly asserting that "another world is possible". This book examines all this and more with case studies drawn from seven different countries, covering transnational networks and making cross-national comparisons. Leading European and American scholars analyze more than 300 organizations and 5,000 activists, looking at mobilizations that bridge old and new movements and bring politics back to the street. Contributors include: Massimiliano Andretta, Angel Calle, Helene Combes, Donatella della Porta, Nina Eggert, Marco Giugni, Jennifer Hadden, Manuel Jimenez, Raffaele Marchetti, Lorenzo Mosca, Mario Pianta, Herbert Reiter, Christopher Rootes, Dieter Rucht, Clare Saunders, Isabelle Sommier, Sidney Tarrow, Simon Teune, Mundo Yang.
Recent years have seen an enormous increase in protests across the world in which citizens have challenged what they see as a deterioration of democratic institutions and the very civil, political and social rights that form the basis of democratic life. Beginning with Iceland in 2008, and then forcefully in Egypt, Tunisia, Spain, Greece and Portugal, or more recently in Peru, Brazil, Russia, Bulgaria, Turkey and Ukraine, people have taken to the streets against what they perceive as a rampant and dangerous corruption of democracy, with a distinct focus on inequality and suffering. This timely new book addresses the anti-austerity social movements of which these protests form part, mobilizing in the context of a crisis of neoliberalism. Donatella della Porta shows that, in order to understand their main facets in terms of social basis, strategy, and identity and organizational structures, we should look at the specific characteristics of the socioeconomic, cultural and political context in which they developed. The result is an important and insightful contribution to understanding a key issue of our times, which will be of interest to students and scholars of political and economic sociology, political science and social movement studies, as well as political activists.
The birth of democracies owes much to the interventions and mobilizations of ordinary people. Yet many feel as though they have inherited democratic institutions which do not deliver for the people – that a rigid democratic process has been imposed from above, with increasing numbers of people feeling left out or left behind. In this well-researched volume, leading political sociologist Donatella della Porta rehabilitates the role social movements have long played in fostering and deepening democracy, particularly focusing on progressive movements of the Left which have sought to broaden the plurality of voices and knowledge in democratic debate. Bridging social movement studies and democratic theory, della Porta investigates contemporary innovations in times of crisis, particularly those in the direction of participatory and deliberative practices – ‘crowd-sourced constitutions’, referendums from below and movement parties – and reflects on the potential and limits of such alternative politics. In a moment in which concerns increase for the potential disruption of a Great Regression led by xenophobic movements and parties, the cases and analyses of resistance in this volume offer important material for students and scholars of political sociology, political science and social movement studies.
The Charlie Hebdo attacks were neither the first nor the last within a wave of political violence with religious, fundamentalist motivations that has affected Arab as well as Western countries. In the latter, after the deadly attack on the Twin Towers in New York City on September 11, 2001, the bombs in Madrid in 2004 and London in 2005 shocked the public. Given the religious beliefs and claims of the perpetrators, the ensuing debate revolved around a predictable cleavage. On one side, the Right called for law and order, rallying around the protection of Christian values against invasion by Islam (and migrants in general). On the other side were those defending the values of inclusion and pluralism, as well as migrants' rights overall. The fact that the target of the January 2015 attacks was a journal long identified with the left challenged the established path of argumentation. The right now had to defend freedom of speech for what was often considered a blasphemous outlet. On the left, the argument now had to consider potential limitations not only on free speech, but also on tolerance and pluralism. The attacks thus produced a short circuit, collapsing the debate on several issues related to various dimensions of citizenship, from freedom to security. They did so in a highly emotional atmosphere in which an in- versus out-polarization tended to rise, with Islam emerging as the core definitional element of the attackers and, therefore, of the problem itself. Indeed, the Charlie Hebdo attacks signaled a shift in the strategies of Islamist political violence from targeting the symbols of institutions of Western power - as with the September 11 attacks or the disruptive bombings of public transportation, with indiscriminately selected victims - to the targeting of what was perceived as an alternative, libertarian symbol. The attacks certainly triggered increased security measures and more exclusive politics towards migration, with securitarian policies and increased border control. As they were followed by other brutal acts of violence in France in November and in Belgium the following year, they contributed to calls for and practices of states of emergency that further reduced civil and political rights. The attacks also further influenced the reactions to the so-called "refugee crisis" in 2015 and 2016, as fears about the "terrorists" potentially hidden among the asylum seekers often trumped compassion towards them. While similar acts of political violence often have important consequences, in particular in terms of the policy responses to them - as frequently represented in the literature on terrorism and counter-terrorism - we want to address a specific effect of the Charlie Hebdo attacks by looking at the public debates produced by the event. This perspective seems particularly relevant as acts of clandestine political violence tend to have consequences especially at the symbolic level (della Porta 2015). The forms of action and its victims are part of the message that the perpetrators want to spread. In fact, they do not aim just at terrorizing, but also at articulating - to a certain extent at least - their claims through their deeds. While the violent actors send signals, their message is filtered and brokered as it enters a complex communication field. Indeed, violent acts work as catalyzers of discursive turns, as they are channeled within public spheres in which words, in addition to deeds, have significance"--
Protest campaigns against large-scale public works usually take place within a local context. However, since the 1990s new forms of protest have been emerging. This book analyses two cases from Italy that illustrate this development: the environmentalist protest campaigns against the TAV (the building of a new high-speed railway in Val de Susa, close to the border with France), and the construction of the Bridge on the Messina Straits (between Calabria and Sicily). Such mobilizations emerge from local conflicts but develop as part of a global justice movement, often resulting in the production of new identities. They are promoted through multiple networks of different social and political groups, that share common claims and adopt various forms of protest action. It is during the protest campaigns that a sense of community is created."--BOOK JACKET.
Social movements have often played an important role in emergencies, mobilising in defence of those rights that they perceive as being at risk or more urgently needed than ever. In general, progressive social movements develop in moments of intense change, mobilising with the aim of turning them to their advantage. the variable mix of challenges and opportunities related to a critical juncture. The specific balance of challenges and opportunities faced by progressive social movements during the Covid-19 crisis is a central question addressed in this volume. Based on existing research on the first phases of the pandemic Covid-19, this Element addresses the ways in with the health emergency had an impact on the repertoire of action, the organizational networks and the collective framing of progressive social movements that adapted to the pandemic conditions and the related crises, but also tried to transform them.
Legacies and Memories in Movements addresses the long term effects of democratic transitions on social movements in Italy, Greece, Portugal and Spain. Donatella della Porta and her collaborators examine the concepts of historical legacy and memory, suggesting ways to apply them in analyses of the long-term effects of movements, movement participation, and movement strategies and tactics.
The World Social Forum quickly became the largest political gathering in human history and continues to offer a direct challenge to the extreme inequities of corporate-led globalisation. It has expanded its presence and continues to be an exciting experiment in global and participatory democracy. The book's contributors have participated in World Social Forums around the globe. Recounting dozens of dramatic firsthand experiences, they draw on their knowledge of global politics to introduce the process, its foundations and relevance to ongoing transnational efforts toward democracy. This second edition of Global Democracy shows how the Forums have developed since their inception in 2001 and how they are now connected with other global movements including Occupy, the Arab Spring and beyond.
The ascendance of austerity policies and the protests they have generated have had a deep impact on the shape of contemporary politics. The stunning electoral successes of SYRIZA in Greece, Podemos in Spain and the Movimento 5 Stelle (M5S) in Italy, alongside the quest for a more radical left in countries such as the UK and the US, bear witness to a new wave of parties that draws inspiration and strength from social movements. The rise of movement parties challenges simplistic expectations of a growing separation between institutional and contentious politics and the decline of the left. Their return demands attention as a way of understanding both contemporary socio-political dynamics and the fundamentals of political parties and representation. Bridging social movement and party politics studies, within a broad concern with democratic theories, this volume presents new empirical evidence and conceptual insight into these topical socio-political phenomena, within a cross-national comparative perspective.
A new, fully-revised and updated edition of the leading introduction to social movements and collective action – covers a broad range of approaches in the social sciences. Now in its third edition, Social Movements is the market-leading introductory text on collective action in contemporary society. The text draws from theory-driven, systematic empirical research from across the social sciences to address central questions and concepts in the field. Sophisticated yet reader-friendly chapters offer critical analyses of relevant literature whilst exploring important issues and debates. The global political landscape has undergone significant changes in the years since this book’s initial publication, such as the spread of online protests, the resurgence of nationalist and right-wing activity, global revolts, and increased social and economic polarization. This thoroughly updated edition offers fresh discussions of recent social movements against austerity from around the world, new empirical examples, references to recent episodes of contention, an expanded comparative approach to social movement theory in the scientific literature, and more. Positioned at the intersection of sociology and political science, this book: Presents an empirical and engaging exploration of contemporary social movements Discusses topics such as organizing within social movements, eventful protests, political opportunities, symbolism and identity in collective action, and social change Highlights how core mechanisms of collective action operate in different movements, past and present Provides a conceptual methodology useful for social science students and researchers alike Highlights how core mechanisms of collective action operate in different movements in the past and present Written by two internationally recognized experts in sociology and political science, the third edition of Social Movements: An Introduction is an essential course text and a must-read for students and scholars of sociology, political sociology, political science, and social movement studies.
This book investigates the origins of civil wars which emerge from failed attempts at democratization. The main aim of this volume is to develop a theoretical explanation of the conditions under which and the mechanisms through which social movements’ struggles for democracy end up in civil war. While the empirical evidence suggests that this is not a rare phenomenon, the literatures on social movements, democratization and civil wars have grown apart from each other. At the theoretical level, Social Movements and Civil War bridges insights in the three fields, looking in particular at explanations of the radicalization of social movements, the failure of democratization processes and the onset of civil war. In doing this, it builds upon the relational approach developed in contentious politics with the aim of singling out robust causal mechanisms. At the empirical level, the research provides in-depth descriptions of four cases of trajectory from social movements for democratization into civil wars: in Syria, Libya, Yemen and the former Yugoslavia. Conditions such as the double weakness of civil society and the state, the presence of entrepreneurs of violence as well as normative and material resources for violence, ethnic and tribal divisions, domestic and international military interventions are considered as influencing the chains of actors’ choices rather than as structural determinants. This book will be of great interest to students of civil wars, political violence, social movements, democratization, and IR in general.
In the Biden multipolar era, Western Democracies face a dilemma: Should they keep marching behind the free market band, or should they engage the Asia new powers in a collegial governance of the common goods? This book looks for precedents that may guide deliberation. When the first age of globalization collapsed into WWI, Carl Polanyi wrote: "While the various shades of anti-democrats each have their own story of the world catastrophe, the democrat has yet to produce his own" (Polanyi 2018, 177). The interwar period is described through the eyes of five witnesses: J.M. Keynes recalls the surreal Versailles conference; E. Canetti, K. Polanyi, and G. Ferrero reflect on the relationship among power, markets, and the people. In the opposite field, F. von Hayek argues for a supranational agency which may ensure global free trade, bypassing the distortions national democracies procure to global markets. For a few years in the 1990s the WTO embodied von Hayek's utopia. This book contends that globalization is an intermittent event. To support that position, two main episodes of globalization are compared: the English textile revolution and the Silicon Valley information age. Each moved through four similar phases: Industry cluster; global infrastructure; regional monopolies; transfer of global leadership. To prevent a repeat of the WWI collapse, Western democracies should promote a concerted governance of environmental issues and other common goods, rather than relying on the free market mechanism.
Among the violent acts perpetrated by radical Islamist groups in Europe, the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris has been one of those that has arguably challenged established categories of public debate the most. Through a multifaceted and detailed analysis of the public discourse around the Charlie Hebdo episode in France, Germany, Italy, and the UK, Discursive Turns and Critical Junctures offers an in-depth analysis of how political groups and religious organizations have reacted to the event, which claims they have made in the public sphere, and how they have justified such claims. Drawing on newspaper sources and discourse analysis, the authors navigate the complexities caused by political violence. They develop a threefold comparison that considers how the debate differs across countries; how it evolved over time; and how it varies when one looks at mainstream media compared to social movement arenas. Based on a triangulation of quantitative and qualitative analyses, the book pays particular attention to radical left, radical right and religious actors and to issues related to migration and integration, secularism and cultural diversity, security and civil rights. In particular, they focus on the way in which transformative events act as critical junctures within different public spheres. Starting from the nefarious attacks on January 2015, this theoretically compelling and methodologically sophisticated study of public debates in Europe adds substantially to the growing body of research into critical junctures and gives insights into into a number of debates.
In recent years, social movements on the left have increasingly begun to make themselves felt in referendums. This has been seen throughout Europe: in votes regarding independence in Scotland and Catalonia, on water rights in Italy, on debt repayment in Iceland, and on the financial proposals of the troika in Greece. This book presents case studies of those referendums and more to analyze the ways that social movements formed in the wake of the 2008 crash have affected referendums' development and outcomes. Looking at general issues of democracy, as well as the political effects of neoliberalism, this book is ideally suited to help us understand some of the issues around Brexit and will be read by a wide audience interested in social movements, referendums, and democratic innovation.
Having long been a neglected issue, the policing of protest began to attract considerable attention in the 1990s, climaxing in the events in Seattle of 1999. These protests and the changing political climate since September 11, 2001 mean that a new cycle of protest is challenging the concept of law and order and civil liberties. This book examines how new policing styles are developing using case studies from North America and Europe. The volume brings together researchers from a number of disciplines – sociology, criminology, political science and mass communication – who focus on new forms of political protest, policing and public order.
Mobilizing for Democracy compares two waves of protests for democracy, in Central Eastern Europe in 1989 and in the Middle East and North Africa in 2011.
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