Popular Mobilization Research Articles

The Mix of Latin American Populist Constitutionalism

Abstract In this article, we study Latin American populist constitutions and their uses, seeking to analytically understand whether populist constitutionalism is, indeed, a thing. We posit that Latin American populist constitutionalism is a particular form of mixed constitutionalism in three senses: first, as a specific combination of substantive traits that includes both empowering and (some) constraining devices; second, as a peculiar politics of constitutional change that incorporates popular mobilization against pre-existing institutions as a key trait; and third, as a particular practice of constitutional enforcement that involves weak and selective implementation, often through institutional capture. By considering not only the texts of constitutions but also the ways in which they are changed and implemented, we hope to complement legal perspectives of mixed constitutions with a sociopolitical analysis of practices and contexts. By capturing the distinctive contribution of Latin American populism to the discussion of mixed constitutions, we seek to challenge both legal conceptions of constitutionalism that reduce it to negative or constraining features, and political conceptions of populism that simply equate it to authoritarian rule.

Patron-client state relations and the geopolitics of authoritarian survival and breakdown: evidence from the MENA countries

ABSTRACT In this paper, we explain how the international relations of authoritarian regimes shape their reaction to nonviolent popular mobilisation. We identify four main strategies of authoritarian survival and argue that – from the incumbents’ perspective – repression and democratic opening are riskier than informal and formal co-optation. Thus, we ask why some nondemocratic rulers select riskier rather than safer strategies. Although recent studies have devoted much attention to the relevance of international factors in shaping domestic politics, this proposition has not been thoroughly theorised nor scrutinised empirically. We focus on authoritarian regimes that have established patron–client relations with foreign powers and argue that patrons’ regimes influence the selection of specific survival strategies by threatened clients. We hypothesise that dictators with democratic patrons are induced to adopt riskier strategies of survival, whereas clients of autocracies are more likely to select safer strategies. We test our hypothesis on MENA countries.

Democracy in the Global South

Given the legacies of colonialism and the inequities of the global capitalist system, consolidated democracies in the Global South were the exception prior to the third wave of democratization in the 1970s. As democratization in the Global South grew, a first generation of work by sociologists challenged mainstream political science's preoccupation with electoral and liberal democracy and brought popular mobilization to the center of the analysis. This literature made key contributions to the debate on democratic transitions and consolidation. A more recent wave of work has focused on the democratization of democracy, examining civil society, movements, participatory democracy, transnational activism, and the wide range of political actors and forms of collective action that have emerged in a democratizing Global South. Variation across and within democracies remains high, but there have been clear cases of democratic deepening. Improving our understanding of the fabric of democratic institutions and practices, including recent cases of regression, calls for more research, especially in subnational and local contexts.

Mass Strikes and Social Movements in Brazil and India: Popular Mobilisation in the Long Depression

This review of Jörg Nowak’s Mass Strikes and Social Movements in Brazil and India highlights the book’s ambition and hopefulness. It ambitiously explores an area of labor- and social-movement theory in which powerful minds have offered insights but important leaps forward are necessary to make sense of the current moment. The book is additionally ambitious because it tackles recent phenomena in two disparate, enormously complex, and influential countries: Brazil and India. The book is hopeful in its identification of patterns and openings, seen through the lens of mass strikes in these countries, by which working classes might lead a transition from the current “long depression” into a more socially just and equitable socialist future.

Extreme-right, democracy and oligarchy

This article places the Brazilian Bolsonaro government in comparative perspective, particularly in what refers to the surge and strengthening of extreme-right globally. It discusses the emergence of a new sort of political regime (advanced liberal oligarchy) within a more general analysis of modern political regimes (in particular liberal democracy and its crisis, fascism and bureaucratic authoritarianism), the eruption of popular mobilization since 2013 in the country (as part of a global trend), the crisis of the left and how unexpectedly an extreme-right political movement came to power in Brazil. The article then analyses the Bolsonaro government in greater detail, its right-wing posture and its relation to liberal democracy and its largely oligarchic elements, as well as moves by the opposition.

Infrastructure, Development, and Displacement in Pakistan’s “Southern Punjab”

AbstractThis article explores the relationship between infrastructure, uneven development, and displacement in Pakistan’s “Southern Punjab”. It focuses on three historical episodes spanning the colonial era to the present: (1) agricultural colonisation during the colonial/early post‐colonial period; (2) the Great Indus Flood of 2010; and (3) contemporary initiatives to develop energy infrastructure in Southern Punjab within the framework of CPEC, the China‐Pakistan Economic Corridor. These three episodes correspond with colonial, post‐colonial, and contemporary phases of infrastructure‐led development respectively in a history of dispossession and displacement that problematises common sense understandings of infrastructure as enabling and connective. Popular mobilisation and resistance are examined through the phenomenon of Siraiki ethno‐nationalism, which infuses struggles for environmental justice in Southern Punjab. The article also considers the parallel and entwined role of state‐sponsored infrastructures of Islamist militancy in creating an increasingly hostile environment for Siraiki nationalists and other progressive social movements.

The genealogy of social and political mobilization in Lebanon under a neoliberal sectarian regime (2009–2019)

ABSTRACT This article adopts a structural, class-based and a political economy approach to the October 17 2019 Revolution in Lebanon inspired by David Harvey’s reading of neoliberalism, class struggles and class alliances. Starting from the re-emergence of a class-based discourse in the streets, and the widespread popular mobilization that crossed social classes, sectarian and regional divides, the article sets out to show that neoliberal sectarianism in Lebanon polarized society between those who control political power and rent seeking capital, and Lebanon’s discontented middle class, and a dispossessed working class. It sets out to argue that the structural effects of neoliberal sectarianism on social classes ushered in the wave of mobilization setting the stage for the 2019 protests. The article also offers preliminary reflections on post 2019 organizing and the challenges to cross-class alliance formation that are needed to shift the balance of class power away from the powerful elites.

“Poets, What Can We Do?”

The present paper investigates poetry written in China on the theme of the COVID-19 pandemic following the outbreak in January 2020, considered both as a social phenomenon and as literary texts. The analysis is primarily interested in considering the impact of the pandemic on poetry’s interaction with social reality. In order to do so, the essay follows two trajectories. Firstly, it explores the public role performed by poets in the nationwide popular mobilization that sustained the party-state’s effort to curb the epidemic, with a strong emphasis on poetry as a social practice, specifically in a time of crisis, as outlined by both the state and the authors themselves. Secondly, a close reading of selected texts shows the heterogeneity of standpoints adopted by poets in their individual understandings of their role during China’s anti-COVID mobilization effort, especially in relation with the “master narrative” advanced by the state. The paper demonstrates that the final configuration of China’s pandemic poetry was made possible by Chinese poetry’s longstanding tradition of social responsibility, and that the transgression of boundaries between the official and unofficial poetry scenes, and “amateur” and “professional” authors, was instrumental to promote poets’ public engagement.

Sponsor-proxy dynamics between decentered multipolarity and non-state actors: evidence from the MENA region

ABSTRACT Contemporary civil conflicts are increasingly inter- and trans-nationalized: distinctive conflict dynamics extend beyond the boundaries of the respective states and are exposed to foreign involvement, in different forms. Within this trend stands the often mentioned but yet to be fully grasped role of non-state actors, referred to as, among others, proxies, mercenaries, militias (pro-government or not), or insurgents. The article revises the debate on sponsor-proxy relations from a twofold standpoint. First, it connects sponsor-proxy dynamics with current systemic changes by treating the MENA region as an example of a decentered multipolar system. Second, it examines sponsor-proxy dynamics by engaging in a conversation with scholarship on (armed) non-state actors. To do so, the article applies the sponsor-proxy analytical framework to the case studies of the relationship between Iran and the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) in Iraq, and between Turkey and the Syrian National Army (SNA) in Syria. The main argument is that the two cases show a peculiar pattern of sponsor-proxy dynamics, one that is influenced by proxy plurality and competitiveness, on the one hand, and by the political relevance of proxies besides their military role.

The Key Features of the Sadrist Movement (“At-Tayyar As-Sadri”) as a Player in the Political Process in Present-Day Iraq

The Sadrist Movement (“at-Tayyār as-Sadri”) broke into Iraqi politics in the immediate aftermath of the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's government as a result of the US invasion in 2003. The previously clandestine movement emerged from the shadows and proved to be a powerful force that dramatically adjusted Washington's plans for Iraq. Muqtada as-Sadr who positions himself as an anticorruption fighter and champion of equality and social justice, united under his umbrella people of sundry political views: from graduates of Shia religious schools to secular-minded left-wingers. As-Sadr’s personality, shaded by the haloed figure of his father-martyr, Ayatollah Muhammad Sadiq as-Sadr, plays an essential role in consolidating such a vast variety of beliefs. Meanwhile, the absence of strict hierarchy and organizational structure inside the movement prevents Muqtada as-Sadr from effectively managing the “sadrist current”, which at the same time is strongly influenced by his own instable and unpredictable character. An old ally of Iran with the history of effective cooperation dating back to the times of anti-American resistance, as-Sadr maintains substantial independence from Tehran, despite his uttered support for the “Wilāyat al-Faqīh” theory understood in large part identically with the ideological doctrine of the Islamic Republic, as it seems from as-Sadr’s declarations. This makes him a hard but indispensable partner of Iranians in Iraq. In general, as-Sadr prefers to avoid taking serious political responsibilities, feeling comfortable in a specific métier of gadfly and dissenter. However, he provided vital support for the government in crucial moments, as his supporters actively participated in the operations of popular mobilization forces against ISIS, as well as in actions aimed to moderate and curb the mass protests in 2019–2020. As-Sadr also repeatedly advocated the idea of the popular mobilization forces integration into the structures of the federal army, thus contributing to the latent government-led campaign of re-establishing the state’s monopoly on armed operations.

The Labour Situation in Colombia and Human Rights

The Labour Situation in Colombia and Human Rights Omar Romero Díaz (bio) Colombia, a country where for more than two hundred years it has been added to absolute poverty, since independence, a historical process that ended the colonial stage by the Spanish Empire, since the appearance of unions in Colombia that the Colombian State broad sectors of the political, economic and business class have been unable to recognise the role of the trade union movement in the defence of labour rights and union freedoms and its leading role in the different scenarios of a democratic state. This is what explains the wave of systematic violence since its appearance at the beginning of the last century, referenced in the “Masacre de las Bananeras” (English: “Massacre of the Banana Workers”) in 1928, with the murder in the central park of Ciénaga, of more than 3000 workers of the American United Fruit Company by the machine guns of the national army, for demanding better wages and job guarantees. Similar behaviour has occurred at various times of confrontation with trade unionism as some cases worth mentioning: on 23 February 1963, 11 workers and an 11-year-old girl died in the Municipality of Santa Bárbara, Antioquia, when there was a strike by the workers of Cementos el Cairo, the military attacked the camp of the strikers; in 1969, in the National Patriotic Strike against the administrative reform of Lleras Restrepo; the same in 1977 in the realisation of the National Civic Strike recorded as one of the largest mobilisations in national history; the strikes of the USO Workers’ Union in defence of Ecopetrol; of the Telecom Workers, led by SITELECOM, to prevent its sale; the innumerable teacher strikes under the direction of FECODE in defence of public education and the rights of teachers; the public sector strike in 1998; and many more battles of Colombian workers, many of them recorded in national history; such as the recent National Strikes of 21 November 2019, and 28 April 2021, which led to a social rebellion, which others call a social explosion. This violence against the trade union and social movements, of expressions of protest and popular uprisings is consigned, indisputably, in the first place, by the struggle in defence of life, land, workers’ rights, food sovereignty, peace with social justice, health, and defence of the environment and natural resources and, secondly, for the submission of the country’s rulers to the United States and its strategies of confrontation in the cold war with the former Soviet Union. Violence and anti-communism In the Treaty of Versailles, the triumphant imperialist powers to counteract the triumph of the Russian revolution and its influence in the labour sectors founded the ILO in 1919 and recognised workers’ rights through fundamental agreements, several of them ratified in 1933 in Colombia. In the vision of combating communism, we will mention that the violence of the late 1940s was engineered and directed by the United States against democratic movements. It is worth remembering that, in December 1952, through Legislative Act 01 of 9 December, the Congress of the Republic convened a National Constituent Assembly of fascist orientation and by legislative act 06 of 14 September 1954, decreed: “The activity politics of international communism. The law will regulate the way to make this prohibition effective”. Likewise, the partisan violence that worsened around 1948, with the assassination of Jorge Eliecer Gaitán, a dissident political leader of the Liberal Party who sponsored the debate on the Banana Massacre, is based on Truman’s crusade since March 1947 against international communism and all forms of popular mobilisation to maintain US domination and contain the Soviet Union, which intensifies with the triumph of the Cuban revolution. The struggles from the workers were stigmatised in this anti-communist strategy by the Washington doctrine. In the context of the peace processes of Belisario Betancur, successful with some insurgent forces and unsuccessful with the FARC, there is the appearance of the Patriotic Union and the exacerbation of the most conservative sectors of the national scene with the creation of paramilitary armies, which sharpens the violence against the democratic and leftist sectors from the mid-1980s onwards. This...

Success and Challenges: China’s State Capacity of Popular Mobilization in the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the world into chaos and disturbed almost all normality in people’s daily lives. Furthermore, this global pandemic of health crises has also put governments at tests; whether or not COVID can be prevented, contained, and controlled has become a pressing issue for governments of different countries worldwide. As the situation develops, different counties have also demonstrated distinctively different practices and methods on how to handle the health crisis, ranging from strict elimination controls to the attempt of herd immunity. Surprising to many, China, being the first country that experienced the hit of COVID, has turned out to be one of the few that successfully contained the spread of the virus within its large population. Although some of China’s practice during the pandemic has been criticized for violating human rights and privacies, it is undeniable that the country did perform well in containing the spread of COVID, especially in 2020 (Serikbayeva et al., 2021). However, global health governance and pandemic management cannot rely on only a few countries for problem-solving. As we gradually enter what is known as the post-pandemic world, a series of new issues and challenges also began to emerge, even for countries with fewer COVID cases, like China. Under a qualitative design, this paper aims to examine and analyze China’s success in the early stages of the pandemic, in terms of state capacity and the use of popular mobilization. Then, this paper would like to discuss and predict some of the challenges that China is facing or likely to face with its zero-tolerance policies in the post-pandemic world.

Carlos Giménez, España, Una, Grande y Libre (1976-1977), and Comics of the Transition

I reexamine the Spanish Transition in terms of the interventions that cartoonists in the 1970s used to lay bare the machinations of the old regime still in power. Specifically, I analyze Carlos Giménez’s España, Una, Grande y Libre series, an exemplary counter-narrative against the dominant discourse produced by post-Franco government officials and economic power brokers. This collection—which denounces state-sanctioned violence and champions popular mobilizations in the name of a more just society—is also a pioneering work that makes visible the victims of the long-silenced crimes of Francoism.

Real or Imagined Consolidation? The Case of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces

Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF or Hashd al-Shaabi in Arabic) presents an intriguing case study of rebel consolidation, in which pro-regime militias opportunistically seized the reins of a new and rapidly expanding government security institution. The organizational wrapper of the PMF Commission gave an illusory sense of instant consolidation, whereas the formation of the PMF was just the beginning of one of many cycles of armed actor consolidation that came close to overtaking the Iraqi state in 2018–2019. The partial consolidation achieved by the militias within the PMF was largely an organizational, competitive and coercive phenomenon, masquerading as an ideational, cooperative merger. The effort to further consolidate PMF’s control over the Iraqi state became harder as it came close to achieving a near-hegemonic outcome, resulting in a factional field presently characterized as a multipolar distribution of power across militia factions.

New Media and Revolution: Resistance and Dissent in Pre-Uprising Syria

New Media and Revolution: Resistance and Dissent in Pre-Uprising Syria

Gender and Public Space: Mapping Palimpsests of Art, Design, and Agency in Shahbag, Dhaka

Public space is an essential social infrastructure for the continuous negotiation of city life and democracy because it offers (ideally) an interactive platform for people from diverse social and cultural backgrounds and the forms of public life they cherish. This contribution inquires how public space’s design and materiality play a fundamental role in popular struggles for social justice. By focusing on the differentiated access of women to public space, the role of gender in its design, and appropriation through a feminist intersectionality lens, this article aims to understand better the complex interplay between urban space and its non‐human material agency vis‐à‐vis citizen mobilizations, movements, and socially engaged art interventions. Drawing from extensive participant observation and spatial analysis, the exemplary public space of Shahbag Chattwar (a public square/plaza) will shed light on the “gendered spatiality” of pivotal popular mobilizations and reclamations from the historical momentum of the 1952 language movement, over the 2013 contemporary Shahbag protests, and to the 2020 anti‐metro rail protests at the Dhaka University campus. Analyzing urban space as a “palimpsest,” this research reflects on both historic and ongoing scenarios of popular protests as they repeatedly occupy public space and leave spatial traces through spatial design and art. In sum, the article seeks to gain insight into public space as a principal site of contestation and negotiation of juxtaposed layers of gendered dynamics, civil rights, secularism, and fundamentalism.

The islamic republic of Iran's hegemony in Iraq, the cause, effect, and consequences

Iran's influence on the Iraqi government is very significant since the fall of the baath regime in 2003, with Iran trying to impose its aims and bring a voluntary government to power throughout the new Iraqi government. In contrast, the United States and its Arab allies oppose Iran's interference in Iraq's internal affairs. Their concerns are that Iran's influence has extended to support armed groups in Iraq, US officials say, Shia militants in Iraq receive weapons and the necessities from Iran to attack US forces in Iraq. This Iranian policy against the United States is welcomed by the enemies of the United States, such Russia and China. On the other hand, the rise of the ISIS terrorist group gave Iran a golden opportunity to impose it’s hegemony through the creation of the Popular Mobilization Forces (Hashd al Shaabi). Iran paid the price for its interference in Iraq. they lost their commander (Qassem Soleimani) who has been killed by the US forces in Baghdadز

Community Resilience in Belarus and the EU response

Community Resilience in Belarus and the EU response

Defying Exception: Gaza after the “Unity Uprising”

Over the past three decades, a series of regimes invoked by Israel have gradually constructed the Gaza Strip into a site of exception to commonly recognized rules and conventions, legitimizing and perpetuating the territory’s separation and confinement. The organizing principle behind Gaza’s state of exception is the separation, isolation, and confinement of a surplus Palestinian population into designated spatial zones, a fact that has been either ignored, absented, or obfuscated in Western normative discourse, which follows the Israeli narrative in exceptionalizing Gaza’s difference. With the recent wave of widespread popular Palestinian mobilization, however, the dominant narrative about Gaza has started to shift. The ongoing mobilization has reaffirmed the shared struggle of Palestinians across differentiated geographies of Israeli rule against a broader policy of territorial dismemberment and fragmentation.

From Civil Conflict to Crusade: Mobilisation and National Identity in the Spanish Civil War

Abstract For decades after its conclusion, the Spanish Civil War (1936–39) was officially described by the newly imposed dictatorship as a Crusade. However, the appropriation of a mythologised medieval past was not just the product of post-war legitimisation. This article explores how, using “crusade” as a placeholder for Reconquista, the rebel army and its supporters responded to three distinct developments: a reaction to Republican anticlericalism; the imposition of a national identity in which Catholicism was understood as an essential element of Spanishness and the basis for its greatness; and a very practical need for popular mobilisation both at home and abroad. However, as this study demonstrates, the adoption of a crusading rhetoric and medieval mythology was a transnational development, in which distinct anti-Bolshevik campaigns, with origins in Rome and Spain, fed off each other and intersected, sometimes in intricate and hidden ways, within the increasingly polarised international context of the 1930s.