Collective action and participation

I- Type of collective action and participation.

II- Why individuals gather in order to act together?

-they are vital in order to understand a democratic regime, in order to understand politics today, when
we live under the rule of universal participation in politics. A democratic regime without
participation is not a democratic regime.
I
SYDNEY VERBA – American political sociologist dedicated his entire research to political
participation. He makes a connection POL PARTICIPATION-DEMOCRACY. (“Pol participation
allows citizens in a dem regime to communicate info to gov officials about their concerns, priorities,
preferences and moreover through participation citizens may even put pressure on gov in order to have
a response”).

MYRON WEINER(also specialist in pol parties) – Dealt with Pol Participation.

Features of pol participation in a dem regime:
1. It is a voluntary action-successful or not, continuous or episodic;
2. A voluntary action that uses legitimate or illegitimate means in order to
INFLUENCE the choice for certain policies, the different aspects of the
decision-making process, elections of leaders.

Distinctions 1.(SYDNEY VERBA) between political participation and voluntary activity. This can be
done directly (by affecting of making of, or implementation of policy) or indirectly (through the
selection process of the persons entitled to make decisions, to reform an institution).
A voluntary activity may deal with politics but not necessarily. A voluntary activity does not involve
financial compensation.
2. (Max Weber) Politics as a vocations - To live for politics or off politics. To make a
living from politics as a job (as a vocation) and to be involved in politics occasionally (ex:vote,
protest) (avocation).
3. The boundaries between pol and non-pol activities. Ex: listening to radio, reading
newspapers, discussing politics with friends are not political activities; If discussions concern electoral
choice it might cross the line to a political activity; Sometimes voluntary work may cross with politics,
when initiatives cause policy change;

2 CATEGORIES OF POL PARTICIPATION:

1. CONVENTIONAL (CLASSICAL)
– To vote;
– To be involved in a political campaign;
– Membership in a political party;
– Participate in a protest;
– Singning a petition;
– Sign a bill(proiect de lege);
– Donating money;
– Political reunions, DEBATES;
– Contacting gov officials at all levels.

1. NONCONVENTIONAL(PROTESTING)
– Violent political manifestations – street violence etc;
– Strikes;
– Terrorism;
REVOLUTIONS - a mass protest, a regime change; an ideological planification and a degree of
organisation; element of spontaneity; usually are violent; the professional revolutionaries; a degree of
unpredictability; COUP D’ETAT – changing one group with another, not a regime change. EX:
French Revolution-end of monarchy and abolition of priviledges and equality(first one); 1848
Revolutions; the Russian Revolution 1917 october; Revolutions of 1989;
 • Measured by success.

Three analitical dimensions of political activities (elemental parts):

1. Related to what is required from that activity, from the person involved-time,money,skills;
2. The extent to which an activity conveys information about the circumstances and the
prefferences of the participants; (vote-communicate a political choice).
3. The amount of pressure, of influence exerted. Some require a significant volume.

II - WHY DO INDIVIDUALS JOIN A COLLECTIVE PARTICIPATION:

1. The psichological and sociological perspective(dates from the last decades of the
19th century - because of universal suffrage and the development of scientific
methods in anology with natural sciences applied to societies and individuals)
Two Thinkers: TAINE, Hyppolitte(1841-1893); GUSTAVE LE BON(1845-
1931);
TAINE: - Crowds. In a crowd, the individual abbandons his nature and becomes one with the
crowd. Collective activity begins the moment reason is abandoned.
– Influence of leaders on the masses. He hypnotised them.
– Collective dispositions.
Gustave Le Bon – 1895 the “Psychology of Crowds”. He wrote about the collective soul of
the crowd. Within a crowd he lets free his instincts, no reason. The collective participation is
explained through hypnosys of the masses.

In the UNITED STATES thinkers explain these issues through the

consequences of social transformations( inter-war period); enormous migration from rural to
industrial areas=> new types of political activities; strikes; The big depression also one of
these social transformations.

1. The Marxist Perception. Class struggles lead to revolution and change. Collective
participation is required of a particular class against the others. There is need for a
group consciousness(he has in mind the proletariats) in order to take action.
Neomarxists draw on Marx and try to explain. Develop after WW2 with the
same logic. Groups should develop collective awareness of being dominated
and then the next step is collective action in order to get rid of the class
struggle. Proletariats dissapear in favor of White-Collars (Functionary). =>
Feminist Movements; Gay Liberation Movements; Immigrants.
2. Economic Perspective – OLSON (1932-1998) 1965- “Logic of Collective Action,
Public Goods and The Theory of Groups”. Says it is not the common good or the
common interest that mobilises individuals and makes them join a collective
action, but it is an economic reasoning; in terms of costs and advantages. A
succesful Collective Action should have minimal costs and maximum benefits.
Thus individuals should be persuaded by putting emphasis on benefits. Collective
Participation is not spontaneous, individuals need to be convinced.
The weak point: “The Free Rider Effect”. Everyone thinks everyone else will
take action.

POLITICAL CULTURE:

VERBA & ALMOND – “Civic Culture” 1963

– For them any regime develops political culture that varies and may change.
– Attempt to discover the different political cultures in relation to diff reg.
– Pol culture for them refers to the way a Political System enters the knowledge, the
feelings and the evaluations of the population.
– 3 Elements of pol sys.
○ Roles of the Institutions – legislative, executive, judiciary
○ The INCUMBANTS – people who hold office
 ○ Public Policies and Decisions
– Try to see how these elements enter the evaluation etc, thus measure the value of a
pol culture.
– Try to measure the effective orientation of the citizens to the 3 el.
– Follow the judgements of individuals on the 3 el.
 Types OF POLITCAL CULTURES BETWEEN THE 2 EXTREMES ( The best – civic
cultures, dem regimes; The worst: parohial political culture)

CIVIC CULTURE: Informed citizens on the 3. They evaluate the pol system rather positively. Input
from individuals, receive a satisfactory output from gov.

PAROHIAL CULTURE: Passive citizens. Not informed about inst, incumbents do not receive input
and do not give out. Evaluation, if there is one, is negative.

Critique: 1. Verba and Almond considered political culture to be autonomous compared to other
phenomena in political society, as if they were separated from other processes in a political society.
They do not take into consideration political tradition, cultural tradition.
Max Weber 1904 – “The protestant ethics and the spirit of capitalism” – Pol culture of a
nation is the result of a history, of a collective memory, of a history of conflicts between the different
groups, between the individuals and the groups.
2 Institutions (School, Church) influence political behavior as well as interactions
between the individuals and influence their political behavior. Influence of political
traditions, of ideology.
3 Even democracy has different types of political behaviors.

READING: BOBBIO – LEFT AND RIGHT

French REV origins of therm: against or for the monarchy: Those in favor sat on the RIGHT and
those against on the LEFT of the king.

1.Why shoud the dualism survive? Why is there need of this division of the political spectrum.
2.He analizes the reason for this separation.

1.Because all alternatives imply a form of this. There is antagonism, oppositions. SCHMITT writes on
antagonism. In politics there is minimally a dichotomy, one cannot be without the other. This dualism
serves the antagonism.
The temporal metaphor- Past and Future.

2 . Why there is no need for this distinction.

Ideology plays a lesser and lesser role. Crisys of Ideology.
Appeareance of the Center.
There is also a Third Way. Green mov – not included in one of the 2, cannot be cathegorised.

Traditional Ideas of the LEFT:

– State intervention
– Social cohesion
– Wellfare system
– Progress; Change, Improove
– Importance of equality, political, social, economic
– Internationalism
– SECULARISM
– Republican( against monarchy)
– Individualist

Traditional Values of RIGHT:

- minimalist stare, free initiative in economy
 - social inequality
- oposition to wellfare state
- morally conservative, socially conservative
- freedom
- nationalism

Abortion – against: moral arguments, solidarity arguments

for: civic rights, individual choice
Which reference point: the mother or the baby. Mother – left, baby- right conservative

Green Movements: preserve nature: right value, protect nature

Progressive: left value
 Left Right keep their discriptive role.