Socail Movements Midterm

Regarding their interactions with social movements, economic targets are assumed to be ultimately concerned about which of the following?

The impact of movement activities on profits ("the bottom line").

In the classic The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan discussed which of the following:

The lack of happiness felt by women who were achieving the domestic ideal (husband, kids, house in the suburbs, etc.).

Despite overwhelming public opinion in favor of the enactment of gun control laws (such as background checks to prevent people on terrorist watch lists from obtaining guns), these laws are almost never enacted. Based on yesterday's lecture, why not? (Choose one or more answer.)

The pro-gun lobby (i.e., the NRA) has greater electoral leverage than the organizations in favor of gun control. Public attention to the gun control issue is relatively brief after a mass shooting such that, after a few days, attention drifts elsewhere.

Unlike previous studies that concentrate on characteristics of the social movement under investigation, Luders argues in The Logic of Social Change that an explanation of movement outcome should focus more attention on which of the following:

The targets of the social movement

Which option most accurately describes the authority structure within Islam.

Which option most accurately describes the authority structure within Islam.

(1) Chenoweth and Stephan discuss how civil resistance may bring about the overthrow of regime by getting the social pillars of the regime to withdraw their support (loyalty shifts). List three such pillars. (Bullet points are fine.) (2) According to Chenoweth, why might economic elites withdraw their support for the ruling regime? (One bullet point or sentence.)

1) Elites that support the regime - Security Forces - The media 2) Because if a group boycotts elites products, their concern will be getting their customers back, rather than supporting the regime.

In their research on civil resistance, Chenoweth and Stephan found that campaigns above a certain proportion of the population were always successful. What is that figure?

3.5% of the entire population

"Sectoral variation" refers to:

Differences in the vulnerabilities of economic actors to movement activities (e.g., protests, boycotts, etc.)

In one or two sentences, disruption costs might be defined as:

Disruption cost is the negative impact placed on a regime by a social movement

According to Kurzman, most Muslims are also Islamists.

False

For Chenoweth and Stephan, civil resistance works because it sends a persuasive moral message to the rulers, not because it is disruptive to the social order.

False

From the political process perspective (as described by McAdam), the emergence of civil rights agitation in the 1950s is best seen as a spontaneous reaction to white provocations, such as the lynching of Emmett Till.

False

The consensus among scholars is that Islamic religiosity is positively correlated with support for the use of violence against civilians.

False

Choose one or more option. As described in the in-text box of the Freeman reading, "cognitive liberation" should be understood basically as a combination of:

Feelings of injustice (that the status quo is unfair) Feelings of efficacy (that collective action can bring about a meaningful change).

In her analysis of the women's movement, Freeman offers set of propositions about movement emergence. These are... [Choose one or more of the following options]

For successful emergence, a strain or crisis of some sort is necessary to galvanize spontaneous action. For successful emergence, a movement needs a communications network with which to spread ideas. For successful emergence, a movement needs a communications networ that is cooptable - that is, it can be repurposed by the movement.

Compared to violent insurgencies, the total number is participants in campaigns of nonviolent civil resistance is:

Generally much higher.

In The Logic of Social Change, it is suggested that the specific combination of disruption and concession costs determines how targets respond to movement demands. Which combination is regarded as least likely to produce a favorable movement outcome?

High concession costs and low disruption costs

Target vacillation is predicted for which cost configuration?

High disruption costs and high concession costs.

Radical feminists were particularly known for conducting which sort of movement action?

Meeting in consciousness raising groups.

Although it is commonplace to the refer to "the civil rights movement" in the singular. According to The Logic of Social Change, doing so is problematic for which of the following reasons?

Movements have multiple distinct demands or goals that each produce different cost configurations for targets (and therefore differing probabilities for success).

As discussed in class, social movements may seek to maintain commitment among participants by... (choose one or more option)

Promoting strong affective ties among activists Increasing social penalties for exiting from the social movement (e.g., ostracism or accusations of "selling out"). Offering social benefits in the form of enjoyable collective practices and rituals.

Choose one or more. According to The Logic of Social Change, the main elements of the costs calculations for political targets (elected officials) are which of the following:

Public opinion on the relevant issue Public attentive/issue salience (who much the public cares about the relevant issue) The relative electoral leverage (money and votes) of the movement compared to its political opponents.

In her most recent research (which she discussed in the lecture we watched in class), Erica Chenoweth described the pattern of civil resistance in historical perspective. Which of the following statements are accurate based on this research.

Since 2010, civil resistance is less likely to bring about successful social change compared to the 2000-2010 period.

In the interview of Chenoweth on civil resistance, she suggested that successful struggles boil down to four different factors. Briefly describe these four factors. (Four detailed bullet points or sentences.)

Social movements need to be able to ensure that the movement will not spiral out of control and turn to violent forms of protests. Social movements also need participation that is diverse and will remain throughout the movement. Social movements also require the means to dismantle the pillars that support the regime. For example elites. Social movements also need to ensure that they are protesting in a variety of different ways, not only marching down the streets.

Choose one or more. Which of the following should be regarded as a political opportunity conducive to the emergence of the civil rights movement?

Supreme Court decisions that supported the general position of racial equality and the abandonment of "separate but equal." The growing electoral influence of the black vote, particularly in northern states and districts. Pressure on the federal government to speak in favor of racial equality, due to geopolitical competition with the Soviet Union for influence among the newly independent countries in Africa and Asia.

Kurzman contrasts the modernity of contemporary Islamists with the traditionalism of which Islamist entity/organization?

The Taliban

Based on the lecture, in thinking about generalizations that might be applied to Muslims around the world, which of the following generalizations are valid?

There is considerable diversity in public opinion among Muslims.

In addition to predicting the behavior of movement targets, a cost assessment perspective also predicts for the behavior of:

Third parties (that is, actors not directly targeted by the movement)

According to Chenoweth and Stephan, civil resistance can be effective because it may cause the social pillars of regime support (such as security forces) to withdraw their support for the regime.

True

Considering only mobilizing structures, which explanation might plausibly account for the preponderance of collective under religious (Islamic) auspices in Arab countries?

Under these authoritarian regimes, much of civil society (social groups, such as labor unions) is severely repressed, except for religious (Islamic) institutions, such as mosques. Thus, Islamic institutions are the principal mobilizing structures in these countries.

Although mobilizing structures may be crucial to initial movement emergence, McAdam suggests that these organizations:

are typically replaced by a social movement organization (or SMO), which organizes and routinizes the activities of the movement (e.g., SCLC).

As described in Whittier, movements (particularly those that are intensely demanding) are likely to produce which of the following:

collective identities

Robert Pape argues that the main targets of suicide terrorism have been:

democracies

According to proponent of the political process approach, movement emergence is more likely to occur when political opportunities are:

expanding

For Pape, the main motivation for terrorism is:

nationalism (self-determination for a local community)

Although the mainstream reform faction of the feminist movement, embodied in 1968 NOW Bill of Rights, concentrated upon multiple specific issues, most of the these might be regarded as mainly concentrating on:

providing women with equal access to economic opportunities outside the home.

The "classical" explanation for movement emergence concentrates on which causal factor?

psychological distress or structural strain

According to Pape, the use of suicide terrorism is:

rational and strategic in that it can produce territorial concessions from the target country.

According to Pape, half of all suicide attacks from the 1980s to 2003 were carried out by:

secular organizations

The "conflict dynamic" refers to:

the ability of the civil rights movement to provoke southern whites (either private citizens or law enforcement) to overreact with violence to the movement, such that the federal government needed to intervene.

In the Whittier reading on radical feminism, a central task of the feminist movement was:

the development of feminist consciousness.

Over the semester, we have discussed the tendency of individuals to prefer a specific form of social change, but, at the same time, be unwilling to participate in collection action to bring about this change. Social scientists generally refer to this phenomenon as:

the free rider problem

The mechanization of plantation agriculture refers to:

the substitution of human labor with machines (such that machines are doing the bulk of crop harvesting).

The women's movement of the 1960s and 1970s is often divided into older and younger factions (sometimes regarded as the reformist and radical factions respectively). Which of the following is commonly identified as a main social network (meeting place) associated with the emergence for the older, reformist faction?

the various Commissions on the Status of Women, both state and federal.

Pape suggests that the suicide terrorists select or target the regimes that they do because:

these targets are vulnerable to the sort of public pressures that terrorism unleashes.