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16378 results in Political theory

Page 150 of 819

  • 5 - Strategies of Violence

  • Isabelle Ollitrault, Graeme Hayes, Isabelle Sommier
  • Book:
    Breaking Laws
    Published by:
    Amsterdam University Press
    Published online:
    21 November 2020
    Print publication:
    23 April 2019, pp 85-104

  • Summary

    As noted by Gurr (1970), the shift from social violence to political violence is facilitated by the diffusion of normative and instrumental justifications of violence, which vary depending on the country and the singularity of their historical development. From this point of view, the experiences common to the three countries most affected by armed rebellion (Italy, Germany, and Japan), i.e. where the construction of the state was both late and painful, and where there is a history of fascism, are most certainly connected. Beyond these similarities, it is important to stress that the shared reference to Marxism of these groups harboured a wide variety of discourses, even if the factional differences amongst Communist credos specific to each group should not be taken too seriously. Indeed, the credos were often confused, a rough mixture of Maoism, Guevarism, and Third Worldism, grafted onto the specific revolutionary traditions of the particular countries, such as Trotskyism and anarchism. In September 1971, the BR portrayed themselves as follows:

    Our points of reference are Marxism-Leninism, the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and the actual experience of metropolitan guerrilla movements; in a word, the scientific tradition of the international labour and revolutionary movement. (Soccorso, 1976)

    In addition, though covered by an artificial ideological veneer, they were really based on group dynamics, the mainsprings of which were of a very different kind, and were emotional and geographical in particular. Their main function was therefore to rationalize, using a valued ideological discourse of the time, the emotional bonds that make up the flesh and blood of social movements, and to mask the rivalries driven by the logics of group distinction and self-assertion. Consequently, the groups’ violent strategies stemmed less from an ideological current than from the political environment specific to each country, which as it were, had wrought the general tone of the protest movement (hence the importance of not separating the study of the 1968 protest from that of ‘terrorism’). They were also directly related to the status of the organizations’ militant forces, as well as to their origins. One last reservation needs to be made over attempts to link violent strategies to ideology, given that these strategies evolved over time as the protest cycle ran its course.

The Politics of Thai Buddhism under the NCPO Junta
  • Katewadee Kulabkaew
  • Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    04 February 2020
    Print publication:
    23 April 2019
  • The past two decades have been a time of turmoil in Thailand's religious affairs. Disputes, debates and controversies concerning the administration of Buddhism, Thailand's national religion by tradition, have erupted more and more frequently. This chronic and unresolvable conflict originates from Thai Buddhists' inability to achieve a broad consensus on religious reform. Under the governance of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) junta that came to power in 2014, the fierce struggle concerning Buddhist reform seemed to subside. Upholding and protecting Buddhism might be a duty of traditional Thai rulers who desire for a source of political legitimacy, but the NCPO's decisive actions concerning Buddhist institutional reform were not merely reflected respect for this tradition, but were closely intertwined with the dynamic of contending forces in Thailand's long-troubled religious politics. Conflicts between the influential religious nationalists and the Thai Sangha convinced the military government of the need to act, for the sake of national security and political stability.

  • The Politics of Thai Buddhism under the NCPO Junta

  • Katewadee Kulabkaew
  • Book:
    The Politics of Thai Buddhism under the NCPO Junta
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    04 February 2020
    Print publication:
    23 April 2019, pp vii-viii

  • Summary

    EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

  • • The past two decades have been a time of turmoil in Thailand's religious affairs. Disputes, debates and controversies concerning the administration of Buddhism, Thailand's national religion by tradition, have erupted more and more frequently.

  • • This chronic and unresolvable conflict originates from Thai Buddhists’ inability to achieve a broad consensus on religious reform.

  • • Under the governance of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) junta that came to power in 2014, the fierce struggle concerning Buddhist reform seemed to subside.

  • • Upholding and protecting Buddhism might be a duty of traditional Thai rulers who desire for a source of political legitimacy, but the NCPO's decisive actions concerning Buddhist institutional reform were not merely reflected respect for this tradition, but were closely intertwined with the dynamic of contending forces in Thailand's long-troubled religious politics.

  • • Conflicts between the influential religious nationalists and the Thai Sangha convinced the military government of the need to act, for the sake of national security and political stability.

  • 12 - Negotiating the Boundaries of Violence and Non-Violence

  • Isabelle Ollitrault, Graeme Hayes, Isabelle Sommier
  • Book:
    Breaking Laws
    Published by:
    Amsterdam University Press
    Published online:
    21 November 2020
    Print publication:
    23 April 2019, pp 215-240

  • Summary

    Civil disobedience is, as we have seen, strongly associated with non-violence in both its conceptual framework and its activist practice. This is axiomatic where civil disobedience is enacted as a refusal to cooperate, where resistant agency lies in non-compliance: most obviously where the disobedient withholds a payment, or their acquiescence in a specified, compulsory action or order. Yet where non-compliance takes place in a public space (such as, for instance, as a sit-in, or other type of occupation), it becomes embodied, and draws the enactment of civil disobedience into a relational interdependence with a public authority, who must solve two interrelated problems. These are the logistical problem of the management of the action, so that the public space is cleared for the resumption of activities designated as legitimate, and the problem presented by the threat to the legitimacy of public authority by the open refusal of the activists to uphold the social contract, and maintain norms of acceptable public conduct. These problems are interrelated for the state agent, because an ill-judged response to the first problem may exacerbate the second, through the production of backfire, as we have already discussed. In this sense, the construction of the opposition between the ‘non-violent’ activists and the ‘violent’ agents of law enforcement can be said to be constitutive of the problem of civil disobedience.

    However, if disobedient actions of physical intervention (claiming of space) and actions of non-cooperation (refusal to withdraw from space) are intimately linked through temporal sequencing, actions of intervention characteristically raise different problems from those of non-cooperation. This is especially the case where the former are proactive actions designed to stop an opponent from accomplishing something which is formally authorized in law but considered politically or morally illegitimate by the activist or group. Here, disobedient actions may typically involve the use of physical constraint on an adversary, and/or the destruction of property. Indeed, it is common that groups claiming to commit acts of civil disobedience undertake actions where the destruction of a specific item is the central goal of the action, such as when 3500 members of the Catholic anti-war movement burnt their draft cards, or covered conscription offices in blood, in opposition to the US invasion of Vietnam.

  • 11 - Repertoires of Civil Disobedience

  • Isabelle Ollitrault, Graeme Hayes, Isabelle Sommier
  • Book:
    Breaking Laws
    Published by:
    Amsterdam University Press
    Published online:
    21 November 2020
    Print publication:
    23 April 2019, pp 185-214

  • Summary

    Since the mid-1990s, and following the movements of the squares in 2011 in particular, collective actions of civil disobedience appear to be increasingly normal aspects of political life within Western liberal democracies. For many activists, the decision to commit acts of civil disobedience comes not (or not just) from conscience, but from their understanding of their duties as citizens (and in some cases as professionals). In such cases, disobedience is felt as less a choice than an obligation: to act otherwise is an impossibility. If the range of types of action undertaken are now familiar from numerous movements, disobedient actions remain particular because of the specific set of techniques and risks that they require and entail for activists, and because of the way that they frequently mobilize media and judicial arenas in order to demonstrate commitment, influence public opinion, and beyond that, convert institutional centres of power. Accordingly, disobedient action also frequently entails the development of specific forms of organization, such as affinity groups. In this chapter, we discuss the multiple different ways that disobedience actions are carried out (the ‘repertoire’ of civil disobedience action), how they are deployed to create specific effects and to form and reflect group identities, and how they become communicative vehicles, both within movement networks and in order to connect with publics and influence opponents and allies. We then discuss the judicial consequences of these actions, focusing in particular on the case of antinuclear campaigners in northern France.

    The Constraints of Illegal Action

    What, in the terms defined by Tilly (2003), we can call the repertoire of disobedient action is overwhelmingly drawn from theories of non-violent action, with the specific distinction that it is designed to challenge or disrupt the prevailing legal framework. Different groups can be expected to use different types of action, and these actions can be expected to be broadly influenced by the identities and goals of the groups, the resources they command, the cultural contexts in which they operate, and the responses and counter-strategies of public authorities and political opponents. As discussed above, at the most basic level, we can categorize disobedient actions as either actions of non-cooperation (especially though not exclusively associated with the private sphere of action, such as the refusal to pay tax), or of active interventions in public space (occupations, physical obstructions, property destructions, resistances to the actions of state agents, and so on).

  • 13 - Conclusion to Part 2

  • Isabelle Ollitrault, Graeme Hayes, Isabelle Sommier
  • Book:
    Breaking Laws
    Published by:
    Amsterdam University Press
    Published online:
    21 November 2020
    Print publication:
    23 April 2019, pp 241-246

  • Summary

    Acts of civil disobedience seemingly destabilize the social order through their avowed and deliberate transgression of the law. Yet civil disobedience has, in Western liberal democracies, also become an increasingly widespread and normalized form of political protest, drawing on celebrated (and seemingly consensual) figures of struggle, such as Gandhi, or King. At the trial of the GANVA anti-nuclear activists in Rennes in January 2011 for their occupation of a high-tension electricity pylon four years earlier, for example, a Green MEP appearing as expert witness told the court that:

    These activists are worthy of Gandhi. Yet you are prosecuting them! They should be receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. They are defending the common good. They have of put themselves in danger, personally and physically, in order to protect their fellow citizens.

    Civil disobedience draws on a heroic tradition of action, valorizing and legitimizing it as an ideal of democratic engagement, particularly where prosecution is used by activists to create a space for political challenge and democratic deliberation. Indeed, because civil disobedience characteristically is followed by prosecution and appearance in court, the individual activist subjects themself to two forms of vulnerability: the physical vulnerability of action, as they place responsibility for the physical governance of their body directly in the hands of their adversary; and the symbolic vulnerability of subsequent prosecution, as they subject their motives and actions to public examination and potential sanction.

    In the repertoire approach to understanding social movement tactics (Tilly, 2003), major transformations in the types of action used by social movements develop as a result of major social transformations. Thus the development of the types of democratic participation familiar to Western democratic states – voting, demonstrations, political campaigns, industrial action, petitions, rallies – are the product of large-scale shifts in the organization of society: industrialization, urbanization, the development of national suffrage, markets, and communication systems. These forms of participation are inherently indirect, as they aim to secure a favourable outcome by persuading publics, political parties, and public authorities of the validity of their particular cause. Equally, these forms of action constitute a pacification of social conflict: strikes, demonstrations, elections promote negotiation rather than force as the mechanism of social arbitration (Deloye, 2007).

  • The Politics of Thai Buddhism under the NCPO Junta

  • Katewadee Kulabkaew
  • Book:
    The Politics of Thai Buddhism under the NCPO Junta
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    04 February 2020
    Print publication:
    23 April 2019, pp 1-18

  • Summary

    INTRODUCTION

    The past two decades have been tumultuous in Thailand's religious affairs. Disputes, debates and controversies concerning the administration of Buddhism, the country's national religion by tradition, have erupted more and more frequently. This chronic and unresolvable conflict originates from Thai Buddhists’ inability to achieve a broad consensus on religious reform.

    Tensions have escalated as the Sangha—the Buddhist monastic order—has found itself at odds with government authorities over the process of negotiating reform. Monks’ growing inclination to concern themselves with politics and activities that aim to protect monastic interests have displeased sections of the Thai establishment. As a result, the Thai state has recently sought to assert more control over Buddhist affairs in general and the Sangha in particular.

    However, under the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) junta that came to power in 2014, the fierce struggle concerning Buddhist reform had seemed to subside. The military junta put an end to some of the prolonged religious controversies and even enforced the Sangha reform measures that former military and democratic governments had failed to uphold.

    Upholding and protecting Buddhism might be a duty of traditional Thai rulers, in their desire for political legitimacy, but the NCPO's decisive actions concerning the institutional reform of Buddhism are rooted not merely in respect for this tradition. Thai society today might not find the legitimation of political power through the defence of Buddhism to be as persuasive as in the past.

    Indeed, what the NCPO did in the area of Buddhist reform during its almost half-decade-long rule reflected a political decision. That decision had been closely intertwined with the dynamic of contending forces in Thailand's long-troubled religious politics. The background of long-term contentions between lay religious nationalists and the Sangha convinced the military government to act, for the sake of national security and the stability of its regime.

    PERPETUAL CRISIS: THE PROBLEMATIC STATE OF THAI BUDDHISM

    Why do Thai Buddhists and the notionally secular state have to concern themselves with the issue of religious reform? The answer lies in the long-running discourse of “Buddhism in crisis” that has been propagated and continually revived in Thai society since at least the late 1970s.

  • Foreword

  • Katewadee Kulabkaew
  • Book:
    The Politics of Thai Buddhism under the NCPO Junta
    Published by:
    ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
    Published online:
    04 February 2020
    Print publication:
    23 April 2019, pp v-vi

  • Summary

    The economic, political, strategic and cultural dynamism in Southeast Asia has gained added relevance in recent years with the spectacular rise of giant economies in East and South Asia. This has drawn greater attention to the region and to the enhanced role it now plays in international relations and global economics.

    The sustained effort made by Southeast Asian nations since 1967 towards a peaceful and gradual integration of their economies has had indubitable success, and perhaps as a consequence of this, most of these countries are undergoing deep political and social changes domestically and are constructing innovative solutions to meet new international challenges. Big Power tensions continue to be played out in the neighbourhood despite the tradition of neutrality exercised by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

    The Trends in Southeast Asia series acts as a platform for serious analyses by selected authors who are experts in their fields. It is aimed at encouraging policymakers and scholars to contemplate the diversity and dynamism of this exciting region.

    THE EDITORS

    Series Chairman:

    Choi Shing Kwok

    Series Editor:

    Ooi Kee Beng

    Editorial Committee:

    Su-Ann Oh

    Daljit Singh

    Francis E. Hutchinson

    Benjamin Loh

  • 9 - Definitions, Dynamics, Developments

  • Isabelle Ollitrault, Graeme Hayes, Isabelle Sommier
  • Book:
    Breaking Laws
    Published by:
    Amsterdam University Press
    Published online:
    21 November 2020
    Print publication:
    23 April 2019, pp 131-154

  • Summary

    Conceptual approaches to civil disobedience in law, political theory, and philosophy typically depend on the determination of a stable and universal set of categories against which collective action can be evaluated; in this way, an action which meets the requirements of a predetermined number of categories can be said to be an act of civil disobedience. Civil disobedience is thus constructed normatively, as an exclusive regime of classification, enabling it to be understood as a particular form of social and political action; this correspondingly enables civil disobedients to be recognized in specific practical ways (such as, for example, by the criminal courts), and to place their action within a historical canon of similar actions. In this chapter, we discuss the implications of approaching civil disobedience in this way, tracing its development as a form of action, and considering the relationship between normative and performative understandings of what civil disobedience is. Whilst normative approaches seek abstract, stable, and universal understandings of civil disobedience, a performative approach pays attention to the ways actors develop and legitimize their own action, to the claims they make about it, and to the interactions that shape and surround it. In this sense, civil disobedience is an unfixed and malleable form of action, whose historical and theoretical referents are available to actors for re-signification within the context of their own action.

    In order to make this argument, we start by discussing the major theoretical approaches to civil disobedience, focusing on the arguments of John Rawls and Hannah Arendt in particular, before placing their arising conceptual understandings and distinctions in the context of key moments in the genealogy of civil disobedience as an activist practice, discussing the importance and contributions of Quakerism, Thoreau, Gandhi, and the US civil rights movement.

    Theorizing Civil Disobedience

    In one of the earliest formulations of civil disobedience in political theory, Bedau (1961, p. 661) defines an act of civil disobedience to be committed if, and only if, a given person

    acts illegally, publicly, nonviolently and conscientiously with the intent to frustrate (one of) the laws, policies, or decisions of his government.

  • 10 - Genealogies and Justifications in Contemporary Movements

  • Isabelle Ollitrault, Graeme Hayes, Isabelle Sommier
  • Book:
    Breaking Laws
    Published by:
    Amsterdam University Press
    Published online:
    21 November 2020
    Print publication:
    23 April 2019, pp 155-184

  • Summary

    As highlighted in Chapter 9, civil disobedience actions are currently especially prolific in the liberal democracies of North American and Western Europe. Here, we discuss the genealogies and justifications of the contemporary practice of civil disobedience, focusing on the elements that have contributed to its adoption by multiple movements. We do so by placing it within two time frames. First, we look at the relatively long history of the development of disobedience in France. Focus on civil disobedience within a political culture which has, historically, not been propitious for the development of this kind of action enables us to trace the contours of the movements which commit acts of civil disobedience, their integration of new modes of action within political struggle, and the reasons that they put forward to justify acts of non-violent lawbreaking; it also allows us to see continuities in movement networks (the genealogies of civil disobedience) and shifts in the basis of adoption and enactment, as disobedience moves from a marginal to more central element of social movement action. Second, we look at a much shorter history of civil disobedience, focusing on the importance of climate justice and global justice problematics to the increased adoption and importance of civil disobedience as a mode of action, which also allows us to place the cultural particularity of the French case within a wider transnational context of movement activism. As we shall see, the question of urgency, of humanitarian or environmental action undertaken within a condition of emergency, is – in common with similar movements outside France – a key argument advanced by campaign groups to explain and legitimize this course of action, though it is articulated in contrasting ways. We observe how the practice of civil disobedience has spread beyond its predominantly religious and pacifist movement roots to be adopted by ‘citizen’ movements across both continents, and has, beyond the emphasis on the securing of formal rights, been integral to recent global waves of protest against neo-liberalism, most notably the global justice movement, Occupy, and the ‘movements of the squares’. We start by discussing the development of disobedience in France.

Page 150 of 819