Discuss the role of social movements in strengthening the democratic processes in developing societies. (UPSC CSE Mains 2022 - Political Science and International Relations, Paper 2)
The International Encyclopedia of Social Sciences (1972) defines a social movement as a variety of collective attempts to bring about change. The attempts may be to bring about change in certain social institutions and to create an entirely new social order. Or the attempts may represent a socially shared demand for change in some aspects of the social order. Turner and Kilhan define a social movement as “a loosely organized effort by a large group of people to achieve a particular goal within the limit of constitution.”
Strengthening the democratic processes in developing societies:
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- Contemporary times refl ect the rise of Social Movements and its increased institutionalization, so much so that David Meyer and Sidney Tarrow herald the rise of Social Movement Society.
- New issues of ecology, feminism, ecofeminism, human rights shaped by postmodernism and post industrial aspirations are on the rise. The third world/ developing countries experience both old and new movements while the developed world is primarily the site of the new ones.
- The social movements are led by activists from the middle or upper class and are narrow, local, transient and sectarian. They claim autonomy from political parties and are led by NGOs. Movements such as Yellow Vests Movement (France), Occupy Wall Street highlight the growing frustration with representative politics
- Alan Rosenthal notes that across the world, there is increased participation but a decline of representative democracy. Commentators such as Keane, Pierre Rosanvallon, Brito Viera and Runciman have remarked that the present moment is “post-representative”.
- Empirically, voter turnout, party membership, trust in politicians, and interest in politics is reducing. Such assertions mean traditional channels of representative democracy are falling short to address issues and social movements are methods to express such problems. At the same time the increased usage of the internet, rise of career activists point to the independent rise of new movements.
- In developing societies old and new social movements coexist. E.g Environmental movement in India reflects coexistence, like the Chipko movement was less for protection of forests and more for the bread and butter matter (livelihood).
- The Arab Spring can be treated as a new social movement shaped with aspirations for democracy and good governance led by educated middle classes in the Arab world.
- However, there appears to be a widening gap between the policy preferences of voters and the electoral manifestos of parties, indicating the decline of political parties. As a consequence, we also witness the rise of social movements in the past few decades and the rise of anti-politics movements. These movements are seen as an alternative for the constituencies whose collective interests are not being represented by established parties. They focus on social change through both community actions and shaping the formal political process.
- Even now, parties continue as vital sinews connecting the organs of government; as E. E. Schattschneider has famously said, “Political parties created modern democracy, and modern democracy is unthinkable save in terms of the parties.” To Jurgen Habermas, social movements in western countries were related to achievements of individual rights whereas in non-western countries it is more concerned with collective rights. Hence it has played a constructive role in strengthening democratic processes in developing societies.
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