Comparative Politics

B01 - Social Movements and Political Parties in Democracies: Contemporary Developments in Global Perspective

Date: Jun 3 | Time: 08:30am to 10:00am | Location:

Many contemporary democracies that adopted neoliberal policies have experienced political crises after the global financial crisis. But a growing trend under neoliberalism, even before the financial meltdown (since 2000), has been the presence of social movements and other forms of collective action led by players positioned on the left and the right side of the political spectrum, blurring the lines between conventional and non-conventional forms of political participation. In this context, populists often stir up politics that triggers resentment against political elites. The voter basis of mainstream parties seemed to collapse, party landscapes became more fragmented, and governments harder to form. This development is leading to distinct political outcomes in different countries globally that asks for adjustments to the analytical frameworks that we use to understand the relationship between social movements and political parties. In the scholarship developed in the Global North, political parties and social movements have traditionally been analyzed separately. Although they are both forms of political mobilization, interest articulation, and possible agents of change, disciplinary boundaries have often prevented effective analyses of their intersection. Recent research has analyzed the topic more systematically (Della Porta et al. 2017, Hutter et al. 2018, Tarrow 2021), and scholars from the global south made important contributions to the topic (Mendonça and Gurza Lavalle, 2019; Abers et al. 2018). These studies offer a stimulating backdrop to explore the relationship, theoretically and comparatively, between political parties and social movements further. Examples on the panel will be from Brazil, the US and Germany.

Social movement and political party responses to neoliberal despotism: the US, UK and Germany: Terry Maley (York University)
Abstract: This paper, building on W. Brown and J. Keane, explores how dis-integrating, centrifugal forces of global neoliberalism have created an extreme reactionary cultural and state form I call ‘neoliberal despotism’. It is characterized by the creation of new forms of cultural, economic and political domination as neoliberal capitalism careens into a brutal period of uneven disintegration. I outline four interrelated dimensions of the neoliberal counterrevolutionary project to which progressive global movements continue to react in this new authoritarian phase: political-economy; culture; social-psychology and the state/politics. Pushback against this has come from progressive global movements, and even within mainstream centre-left parties in the US and UK, as the authoritarian counterrevolution continues to advance into and take over what used to be mainstream conservative parties in the global north. Progressive movements are finding ways of engaging both against, outside and even within the neoliberal state and parties. Their protests against neoliberal despotism have re-asserted progressive, anti-capitalist/counter-hegemonic values against state-and party-capture by reactionary movements and now parties on the far-right. Within this contested terrain openings can be created for creating ecological, anti-racist, anti-imperialist alternatives. But reasserting progressive possibilities will need long-range planning/strategy and counter-institutions - a long game over decades. I look at three comparative examples - Die Linke in Germany, the Democratic party in the US, and the Corbyn Labour party in the UK - to show the difficulty, in the current context, when progressive movements try to influence and transform liberal and social democratic parties in the global north.

Climate Justice Activism and the Green Party in Germany: A Community of Conflictual Relationships?: Micha Fiedlschuster (York University)
Abstract: The Green Party in Germany gave an institutionalized political voice to the New Social Movements and a sense of belonging to many activists in the political party landscape. Over time, the Greens developed into an almost normal party that is nevertheless still rooted in a social movement milieu. The connection between movements and party came under increased scrutiny when the Greens entered the federal government in 2021. Climate activists had hopes about a social and ecological transformation driven by the Greens but they were disappointed. In particular, the handling of the exit from coal mining and the renewed investment in fossil fuel infrastructure as a result of the energy crisis in 2022 made the division between climate activists (outside and inside the Greens) and office holders of the Greens visible. This paper sets out to explore from a social movement studies perspective the dynamics between the Greens in government and climate justice activism. The analysis focuses on discourses and events between the start of the government in December 2021 until the elections to the European Parliament in June 2024. The paper argues that the social movements and the party maintain a supportive but conflictual relationship that can be described as a reluctant division of labour. However, some climate activist groups also envision a different relationship between social movements and parties by proposing citizen councils to tackle policy issues and to give citizens a new sense of belonging in a political system characterized by an increased estrangement of citizens from politics.

Collective Candidacies and Mandates in Brazil: Re-casting Political Representation: André Luis Leite de Figueiredo Sales (Sao Paulo Catholic University)
Abstract: While global dissatisfaction with democracy has reached its highest levels since 1995, there is no consensus on the causes of widespread democratic backsliding. In Brazil, scholarly discussions on how to revitalize citizens' sense of belonging to democratic processes have emphasized the need for a broader understanding of political representation. This includes focusing on issues such as recognition, inclusion, and the institutional and structural affordances provided by the current instruments available for interest mediation (Political Parties, interest groups, social movements etc). Brazilian grassroots activists are exploring the boundaries between civil society and the state to reshape the fiduciary mode of political representation and rebuild citizen trust in democratic representation. Two notable innovations have gained momentum in the country over the past eight years: collective candidacies and collective mandates. Collective candidacies refer to organized groups of four or more grassroots activists campaigning together for a single seat in government office. Collective mandates, on the other hand, involve legislative seats run collaboratively by a group committed to sharing its representative power with its constituents during their term in office This paper presents these democratic innovations, emphasizing their continuity with the participatory democratic culture present in Brazil. I argue that these innovations encompass a blend of fiduciary and delegated modes of political representation. Drawing from interviews with 29 successfully elected groups affiliated with the Brazilian National Coalition of Collective Mandates, I maintain that the activists driving these initiatives are working towards an idea of political representation through participation.

Shuffled and Shortchanged? The Gender Gap in Cabinet Shuffles in Africa: Saaka Sulemana Saaka (University of Calgary)
Abstract: This paper examines the gendered dynamics of ministerial appointments and dismissals in 25 African countries between 1990 and 2022 using a novel dataset of 3,829 cabinet ministers. The main findings are that women are less likely to replace men during cabinet shuffles and often serve shorter durations in ministerial office compared to their male counterparts. Specifically, the average duration in office for male ministers is 152 weeks, while for female ministers, it is 146 weeks. Logistic regression analysis further reveals that being a woman significantly reduces the likelihood of replacing a man during a cabinet shuffle by 14 percentage points. These findings challenge existing arguments that women generally serve longer in ministerial office than men and highlight the significant role gender plays in shaping cabinet shuffles in Africa. By providing a systematic cross-country and longitudinal analysis of cabinet shuffles within the African context, this study fills a gap in the extant literature and contributes to a broader understanding of gender differences in cabinet dismissals and replacements.