Kandidatnummer/ Candidate number: 247186

UNIVERSITETET I BERGEN/University of Bergen

Institutt for sammenliknende politikk/ Institutt for samanliknande
politikk/ Department of Comparative Politics

Emnekode/Course code: SAMPOL211

Antall ord/Word count: 2584

Tittel/Title (Oppgavetekst/Essay question)

There are various analytical approaches in studies on social movements and
contentious politics. Please discuss and compare the main elements of the Political Process
Approach and the Strategic Approach. Please also discuss the weaknesses and strengths of
both approaches. Following the Strategic Approach in studies on social movements, we can
identify various dilemmas that Islamist movements face when mobilizing. This is also true for
the Islamic State. Discuss the emergence of the Islamic State and explain one mobilization
dilemma that they faced and the strategic choices they made in response. Please also use
statements from the Islamic State to substantiate your answer.

Social movements were defined by Tarrow as "collective challenges by people with

common purposes and solidarity in sustained interaction with elites, opponents, and
authorities. Diani and della Porta defined it as well, but they emhpasized the definition as a
social process, in which actors engaged in collective actions are involved in conflictual
relations with clearly identified opponents; are linked by dense informal networks and share a
distinct collective identity." The third definition was presented by Touraine which says that
social movements are "collective actions of actors. Those actors at the highest level - fighting
for the social control of historicity: control of the great cultural orientations by which a
societys environmental relationships are normatively organized. All of those definition
have common elements such as collectivity, contentious mobilization and sustained
interaction with opponent.
Contentious politics is defined by Tarrow and Tilly in Contentious Politics and

Social Movements as episodic, public, collective interaction among makers of claims and
their objects when at least one government is claimant, an object of claims, or a party to the
claims and the claims would, if realized, affect the interests of at least one of the claimants.
Thus, Political Process Approach explains conditions, mindset, and actions that help a
social movement to reach a success in achieving its targets (Crossman. Political Process
Theory... 2014). The political process theories focus on relationship between protest and
institutional political actors. What is more, social movements interact with those actors who
have compact position in the polity (Diani, della Porta 2006, 16).
Political Process Approach is considering the basics of social movements theory and
emphasizes how it works to create a change (Crossman. Political Process Theory... 2014).
According to Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology PPA focuses on the interaction
between several movements attributes, such as organizational structures, political context,
and boarder economic. Political process theory emphasizes the role of political opportunities,
framing processes, mobilizing structures, and protest cycles (Caren 2007, 1).
Those mentioned key components determine social movements success or failure.
The first one, known as political opportunities, is described as the most relevant
component of PPA. Any success of a social movement depends on those aspects and without
them it is impossible to be achieved. These opportunities exist whenever the system faces
vulnerabilities. There are variety of reasons that can result in vulnerabilities arising in the
system.
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Nevertheless it depends on a crisis of legitimacy, where the people do not support the social
and economic conditions maintained by the system. There are some ways that political
opportunity may be driven: broadening of political release to those who were excluded before
like women or people of color, progressive diversity among political bodies and the
electorate, divisions among leaders, and loosening of repressive structures.
The second aspect involves mobilizing structures which are compared with existing
organizations such as political and others, that occur among the community that wants
changes (Crossman 2014). Mobilizing structures can be thought as a resource allowing
contentious acts to be permanent as social movements, and which, quoting the Tarrow in
Power in movement, bring people together in the field, shape coalitions, confront
opponents, and assure their own future after the exhilaration of the peak of mobilization has
passed (1998, 123). Organizations in this model are treated as mobilizing structures for a
social movement. They do it by providing leadership, membership, communication and
social networks to the budding movement.
The third element concerns framing processes which are carried out by leaders of an
organization. They allow the group or movement to clearly and convincingly describe the
existing problems, emphasized why changes are needed, what changes are desirable, and how is
it possible to go around achieving them. In Comparative Perspectives on Social Movements:

Political Opportunities, Mobilizing Structures, and Cultural Framing, McAdam describes

framing as conscious strategic efforts by groups of people to fashion shared understandings
of the world and of themselves that legitimate and motivate collective action.
The last aspect are protest cycles which are also important components of social
movements success. A protest cycle is a period when opposition to the political system and
acts of protest are in a heightened state. That perspective emphasizes the meaning of protests
as the important expressions of the views and demands according to mobilizing structures
connected to the movement. It is also compared to vehicles that expressing the ideological
frames connected to the framing process. Thus, solidarity within the movement is
strengthened and the recruitment of new members is helped by taking part in protests
(Crossman 2014).
One of the strengths of the Political Process Approach is that this is the first model, in
contrast to the Classical Model and the Resource Mobilization Model, that gives a social
movement credit for the ability of that movement to organize and focus on changes.

The rise of social movements was presented as a new framework by the Political
Process Model through the use of push and pull factors. Challengers in the Political Process
Theory are treated by this framework as rational beings making rational choices to launch a
social movement. It means that the mobilization of a social movement is caused by rational
factors. What is more, the PPA presents a framework to analyze the whole process of a social
movement. When there is a need to study the rise and fall of social movement it can be done
easily by studying, for example, the rise and fall of number of collective action events. It
works thanks to the fact that all collective action within a social movement is connected.
Considering the weaknesses within the PPA it is worth to notice that the last strength is
also its weakness - viewing a social movements as a whole - that is because each of collective
action is an individual phenomenon and it is not possible to explain it in regards to the movement
as a whole. In relation to social movements, the PPA focuses too much on the long-term process
and is unable to explain the struggles and outcomes of each of collective action events (Calle
2007).
Considering strategic choices it is noteworthy that they are made within a complex set of
cultural and institutional contexts. Those contexts shape the players themselves, the choices made
from among perceived options, and the outcomes. The main entities of these strategic fields are
worthy to mention: simple players and complex players, goals, arenas, resources and skills, and
audience. To make it more clearly there is a need to consider each of those entities.

There are simple players - individuals, and complex players such as groups,
organizations, and other aggregations of individuals. Each player can have allies. There will
always be a way in which alliances decide as unified actors.
Each player will have many goals, every of them more or less explicitly recognized.
Even simple players have goals/motivations that they are unaware of. Complex players have
especially unstable goals, because the most essential goals of individuals and factors can
cause friction in order to replace the goals of the team with them.
Moreover, protest groups and other players are treated symmetrically by a strategic
approach. Each player makes choices, confronts dilemmas, etc. All players are equal, there
isnt any environmental degradation.
J.M. Jasper characterized arenas as follows: arenas are sets of resources and rules that
channel contention into certain kinds of actions and offer rewards and outcomes. They may be
formal and legal at one extreme or informal at the other, relying on traditions and reputations.
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Protestors may launch action within a certain arena (the media or courts, for instance), but
they also think about other possible arenas for future contestation. They ask themselves what
new arenas their opponents can force them into, and what resources and skills they and other
players control for maneuvering in those arenas. Switching arenas is a common way to
surprise opponents, avoid defeats, and increase the value of the skills and resources
controlled. An outcome in one arena is sometimes only a starting point for action in another.
Resources and skills are brought by each player to every arena. Some of them are easy
to transfer across arenas, whereas others are not (specialized skills, for instance). Jasper
defines resources as physical capacities, especially technologies, and the money it takes to
acquire them.
The fifth and the least entity is the audience. For symbols, statements and actions of
the other player, every player is an audience. All players will want to cause various effects on
different audiences, announce and communicate different messages to the widest possible
extent (Jasper 2004, 5-6).
Strategic Approach may be considered as theory that helps to see a structure that
constrains protestors thanks to ability to examine what they are trying to do. In addition,
Strategic Approach allows for a better comparison of social movements in many different
contexts. We can also apply such approach to broader range of actors: the opponents of
movements, state agents, international or industrial relations, between teachers and students,
children and parents - everywhere, where there is a potential clash of wills and goals. Finally,
strategic dilemmas are not restricted to social movements. They are also a part of
international relations, politics, and even any social interaction, among organizations,
collectivities or individuals that have a potential clash of will.
The weakness is that vast analysis is needed for full researches on strategic choices
and historical cases would highly depend on records we have. We cannot say that strategic
choices are rational - all of intentions players have and actions they take - everything is
filtered through cultural and psychological lenses (Jasper 2004, 10-12).
Summarizing both political process and strategic approaches, we can notice that the main
difference between them is that PPA focuses especially on movements from broad range and
looks at them as a whole and does not care about individual players as Strategic Approach does.
SA also faces particular problems. What is more, in PPA the mobilization of a social movement
is caused by rational factors in opposition to SA in which every decision and
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choices are determined by culture and psychological factors. SA puts an emphasis on looking
more inside the movements and studying, how any success is achieved by looking at various
dilemmas. At the same time PPA focuses on the aspect emphasizing whether movements can
reach a success or not.
We can go back in time to 2003 to find roots of ISI. Then Abu Mosab Zarqawi
founded a group called Tawhid and Jihad which had to confront the US forces in Iraq. In
2004 Mosab Zarqawi pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden and the name of his group was
changed to Al Qaeda in Iraq. That was a particularly successful time for this group, because it
launched few attacks on the coalition forces which reached their goals and the US and Iraqs
forces were forced to retreat from a Sunni region (Laissouf 2014, 2). In January 2006,
Zarqawis group formed the
Mujahidin Shura Council, which united Al Qaeda in Iraq and five more organizations that
were operating in the area. In April Zaeqawi showed his face in a video message for the first
time and urged the Mujahidin Shura Council to make the first step in the way to establish an
Islamic State. On June 7, 2006 Zarqawi was killed by a US airstrike (Bunzel 2015, 16). After
his death Abu Omar al Baghdadi became a leader of the Mujahidin Shura Coucil. The Islamic
State in Iraq was declared in late 2006.
Forced by attacks on the US forces and escalating sectarian fights, the US followed a
new strategy to stop the uprising. The leaders of the Sunni were urged to lay down the
weapons and join the Council for the Awakening, created to stop ISI. The leaders agreed to
the US offer which resulted in the Council for the Awakening and the US forces fighting
together against ISI they were close to bring it to its knees in period from 2007 to 2009. In
2011 there were two relevant events which affected ISI: Arab Spring in Syria and the
withdrawal of the US forces from Iraq.
ISI has been using assassinations and bombing governmental buildings as a retaliation
against Iraqi security forces and the Awaking Councils members. What is more, the then
leader, al Baghdadi, formed a new branch to fight, which is called Nursa Front and led by Al
Jawlani. Al Baghdadi wanted to take over the Nursa Front, but the leader of that branch
refused to resign from his power and he stated that he is loyal to the Al Qaeda and Zawahiri
(the then leader), not to al Baghdadi and ISI. After that al Baghdadi went to Syria and
proclaimed the establishment of the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham or ISIS.
That development was a major problem for Al Qaeda, because from the beginning it was
emphasized that ISIS would stay in Iraq and Nursa Front in Syria. Meanwhile ISIS took
6

over all financial and military sources of Nursa Front and encouraged the other fighting
groups in Syria to join it, which happened soon after (Laissouf 2014, 2-3).
The ISIS can be considered as a dilemma between being naughty or nice. That
dilemma answers the questions such as: Do others do what you want them to because they
love you or because they fear you? Do you ask politely for what you want, or do you disrupt
things? It might depend on which audiences you are trying to please: bystanders usually
dislike disruption, and agents of the state almost always do. Can you get what you want
directly from your targets, before these other players become engaged? Sometimes there are
advantages to hide you real goals. There is also an issue of segregating audiences, useful
especially when you want to sent different messages to different players (Jasper 2004, 9).
In a statement we can read: "I have been appointed to rule over you, though I am not
the best among youIf you see that I do right, help me, and if you see that I do wrong, set
me right. And obey me so long as I obey God touching you. If I disobey Him, no
obedience is owed me from you (Bunzel 2015, 31). The proposition includes a mild and
gentle language to convince potential players and inspire confidence, because radical and
sharp language could deter and discourage potential future members. They are hiding their
real intensions from the public, before whom they try to appear moderate.
Summarizing, there are various analytical approaches in a social movement theory
and contentious politics. The essay considered the issues of the Political Process Approach
and the Strategic Approach, showing their main factors and elements, and comparing them to
each other. It also shows the weaknesses and strengths of both the Political Process and
Strategic approaches. The main elements of the PPA are: political opportunities, mobilizing
structures, framing process, and protest cycles. The main aspects of SA are: both individual
and complex players, goals, arenas, resources and skills, and audience. The PPA is more
focused on organizations, groups and other aggregate community. The SA faces either the
particular or complex players. Another part of the essay focuses on the emergence of the
Islamic State and emphasizes the most relevant events and changes. The last two paragraphs
concern the "naughty or nice" dilemma of Islamic State during their process of formation and
explain what kind of strategic choices were used.

Bibliography:
1. al-Maqdisi Bayan hal al-Dawla al-Islamiya fi al-Iraq wa al-Sham wa al-Muwaqif
alWajib tijaha. 2014. Statement regarding the situation of the Islamic State in Iraq
and Sham.
2. Caren Neal. 2007. Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology. Political Process Theory.
http://nealcaren.web.unc.edu/files/2012/05/Political-Process-Theory-_-BlackwellEncyclopedia-of-Sociology-_-Blackwell-Reference-Online.pdf;
3. Crossman Ashley. 2014. Political Process Theory. An Overview of the Core Theory of
Social

Movement.

http://sociology.about.com/od/P_Index/g/Political-Process-

Theory.htm;
4. Jasper, James M. 2004. A Strategic Approach to Collective Action: Looking for
Agency in Social-Movement Choices. Mobilization: An International Quarterly 9 (1);
5. Laissouf Ayoub. 2014. The Emergence of the Islamic State (ISIS) in Iraq and Syria.
https://www.academia.edu/9879796/The_Emergence_of_the_Islamic_State_ISIS_in_
Iraq_and_Syria
6. Porta, Donatella Della, and Mario Diani. 2006. Social Movements: An Introduction.
Blackwell Publishing;