Other Forms
A revolutionary movement seeks to overthrow existing institutions and class systems while replacing them with new ones.
The United States, French, Mexican and other national revolutions fall under the revolutionary movement category. In each case, the existing political and social structure was overthrown and replaced with a new structure.
A reformist movement seeks partial changes in only a few institutions on behalf of interest groups.
In the U.S., the women’s movement, the modern Civil Rights movement, the gun rights movements, and the green movement are a few examples of reformist movements. Most efforts work within existing political channels, but want to change attitudes about an issue and change very specific laws or policies that relate to that issue.
What did the women's movement seek to change?
It began with gaining the right to vote for women, but later expanded to include sex discrimination in society.
What about the Civil Rights movement?
It began as a primarily African-American movement attempting to end segregation and to expand voting rights. This movement was so successful that it has inspired many other minority movements, like the Hispanic civil rights movement and the gay rights movement.
The gun rights movement?
This movement seeks to protect the rights of gun owners from gun-control legislation. It grew tremendously following the the 2013 school shooting in Newtown, CT. Gun owners began to fear that more gun control laws would be passed and joined the movement, led by the National Rifle Association.
The green movement?
Also known as the environmental movement, this began originally to protect land and wildlife from development, but has expanded to encourage the control of the use of chemicals and pesticides, and to encourage resource preservation and recycling. They also study global issues like climate change and population growth.
A conservative movement seeks to uphold the values and institutions of society and generally resist attempts to alter them.
The Tea Party movement in the U.S. is a Conservative Movement. This movement began in 2009 opposing excessive taxation and government intervention in the private sector while supporting stronger immigration controls. Because of the lack of a central organizing structure, the movement’s goals and beliefs have been highly localized. Despite this, the Tea Party has experienced some success at the polls, on the local and national level.
A reactionary movement seeks to return the institutions and values of the past by doing away with existing ones.
The racist movement, Ku Klux Klan, is an example of a reactionary movement. They want to return to a time period where minority groups were subjugated.
An expressive movement seeks to allow for expression of personal concerns and beliefs.
The hippies of the 1960s began as an expressive movement. Punk, Goths, and Emos are more modern examples of this type.
While most of the movements discussed in this lesson have been nonviolent and have worked through legal political channels to achieve their goals, some groups do not. These groups practice terrorism to try to bring about social change.
Terrorism is the use of murder and mayhem to create a state of fear which can be used to gain political, religious, or ideological advantage.
Terrorists can be classified as political, religious, and or cultural (many overlap in terms of functions and goals).
At its core, terrorism follows a basic strategy:
1. Scare average people and force their compliance with desired goals of the terrorist group
2. Force organized governments to overreact to terrorists in trying to prevent future violence and thereby create sympathy among average people
3. Direct the attention of people and government to the terrorists’ issues
4. Obtain the organizational goals of the terrorist group
Terrorism works, and there appears to be an unending supply of people willing to support terrorism for a "noble cause," because they are criminal minded to begin with or are somewhat insane enough to forfeit their lives.
