SOCIAL MOVEMENTS COURTS AND GLOBAL POLITICS SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

SOCIAL MOVEMENTS, COURTS, AND GLOBAL POLITICS

SOCIAL MOVEMENTS Spawned by contentious politics Informal collective movement of people, loosely coordinated in their actions and using flexible tactics, with some sort of leadership group to give its actions coherence Why have the blossomed in 20 th and 21 st century? Rapid and easy communication Rise of post-material issues General decline in centrality of parties to politics Or is it: Opportunity structures Mobilizing structures Framing

PARTIES, INTEREST GROUPS, SOCIAL MOVEMENTS Degree of organization v. goals Disadvantages of being an informal, loose organization: No staff structure makes it difficult to amass resources Ephemeral (months, not years) so policy makers know that they can outlast them Advantages: Can be very nimble in defining and framing issues Can change tactics quickly and be very opportunistic Can form networks beyond the boundary of their state

BASIC DEFINITIONS Law-collection of rules laid down by the government binding all members of the state, including the government itself Sets society’s norms and rules for behavior Sets rules by which individuals and the state must relate to each other Courts-responsibility for interpreting all parts of the law and adjudicating which part takes precedence Legal system-general, organized sets of legal principles

ANGLO-SAXON CASE LAW Courts are seen as largely independent of the state’s government Law is something that exists partially independent of government Task of judges is to find proper law and it evolves over time with degrees of flexibility Training occurs in special schools Role of the judge is to be a neutral arbiter Law protects individual against the disproportionate power of the government Role of precedent

CONTINENTAL EUROPE CODE LAW Variants of Roman system of law Detailed code of law produced and interpreted by government Law is an expression of government policy Not based as much on precedent Training is more general Judge enters into arguments in criminal cases No presumption of innocence Task of the court is to decide what is most probably true in a case

RELIGIOUS LAW: THE SHARIA Makes up part of the legal system in Morocco, Tunisia, Indonesia, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Mauritania, Yemen, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan Amputations for thievery, stoning for sexual transgressions Shia v. Sunni Shia-Iran and eastern Iraq-true Sharia only comes from the Qu’ran and tradition and sayings of Mohammed Sunni-dominant in rest of Moslem world sees it as broader and more flexible Includes ijma and Qiyas (analogies) Hard to adapt since it is based on divine inspiration

THE INTERNATIONAL REALM After Europe is destroyed following WWI and WWII: The Soviet Union and the United States rise to fill power vacuum European States’ empires threw off European rule, because Europeans could no longer hold them in subjugation What happens after the Cold War? Set of actors expanded and became more varies IGOs and NGOs Interdependence grew enormously Bipolar system of rivalry between Soviet Union and U. S. disappeared Many countries move economies toward open market Body of international law begins to develop

ABSENCE OF CENTRAL AUTHORITY The UN Cannot begin to function even close to how a government does ICJ Same problems Voluntarily abide

POWER AND INTERNATIONAL POLITICS Military power Population Economic power Geography Leadership

PROCESS OF INTERNATIONAL POLITICS Diplomacy Consulates and ambassadors Economic sanctions War Nationalism Transitions Misperceptions by leaders Rich, powerful states rarely go to war with each other Democratic peace (Golden Arches Theory) Terrorism Better, alternative tactics not available Object of attack can be portrayed as “the other” Object of attack is seen as lacking legitimacy Government institutes harsh counterterrorism measures after attack Democracies are easier to attack than autocracies