Civil Society and Social Movements in Authoritarian Contexts
Day-2 Comps, October 2012
Instructions: Answer 2 out of 5 questions. Submit answers within 48 hours
1. Drawing on your reading list, discuss the theoretical and empirical implications of social
capital for:
a. 1) collective action OR
b. 2) civic engagement
Discuss how the implications may or may not vary across different institutional contexts.
2. Recent literature has paid growing attention on the network and technological dimensions
of social movements. Drawing on your reading list, explore the linkages of social
networks, information and communication technologies, and social movements in one
authoritarian society of your choice.
3. Western conceptualizations of “Civil Society”, whether neo-Tocquevillian or more
critical, view civil society as an arena for non-State action that either provides
opportunities for groups and communities to contest hegemonic ideologies and
institutions, or as sources of moral or communitarian revival and reaffirmation
necessarily independent of the State. Such approaches presume a powerful but
benevolent State, or at least a level of potential group solidarity that makes effective
collective action possible.
Discuss the utility of the concept of “Civil Society” in contexts that are characterized by
more parochial patterns of social organization in which tribal and other local identities
outweigh more geographically and culturally inclusive identities and in which the State
is neither benevolent nor necessarily powerful. In theoretical or practical terms, do any
of the components of civil society realistically promise to foster the rise of more general
(national?) political identities, or does such an expectation reflect the desire of Western
interests to project a pro-Western ideology and values onto others for whom they are
foreign? More simply put, is the concept of civil society of any real use in understanding
group interactions and political processes in other regions of the world with radically
different cultures and forms of local social organization?
4. In The Social Contract, Rousseau argues that civil religion should be used to generate
national solidarity. Elaborate the types of rituals that might be used in the practice of this
civil religion, and the tensions between civil and “real” religion. What would be some
signs that rituals associated with civil religion are becoming, in Randall Collins’ terms,
“forced” and unsuccessful? Are those signs different now than they were before the
recent transformation of communication networks? And how would you expect those
signs to differ when comparing a culturally homogenous and authoritarian society with an
multicultural democratic one?
5. Are “weak ties” more important for social mobility and social change in democratic
societies than authoritarian ones? If so, why? If not, why not?