Deck 11: Mass Movement Politics the Great Equalizer

Question 1

Explain the theory of relative deprivation.

Answer 1

Students' answers may vary.
Relative deprivation is the theory that people mobilize politically not when they are worst off, but when they perceive that they are deprived unjustly, relative to other groups in the population.

Question 2

How do free spaces affect social movements?

A)They encourage the formation of a group identity to mobilize and sustain participation and leadership.
B)They create obstacles that are usually based on racial divisions.
C)They foster communication between the movement's leaders and their opponents to promote negotiation.
D)They permit supporters to air their grievances in designated public arenas, allowing citizens to assess the movement's arguments.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Who is Henry David Thoreau?

Answer 3

Students' answers may vary.
The American tradition of civil disobedience can be traced back to Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862).Passionately opposed to slavery and to the Mexican War, which he saw as a fight for the slave masters, Thoreau refused to pay his poll taxes.As a result, he was thrown in prison.In 1849 Thoreau wrote a powerful essay, later titled "Civil Disobedience," in which he maintained that unjust laws should not be obeyed.Thoreau acted as an individual; he was not part of a mass movement.However, his writings inspired many leaders to incorporate civil disobedience into their movements.

Question 4

What is the difference between a transactional leader and a transforming leader?

Question 5

Explain what civil disobedience is and its importance in American history.

Question 6

Explain the role Martin Luther King, Jr.played in the Civil Rights Movement.

Question 7

What are the tactical options of protest movements? Which are legal and which are illegal?

Question 8

What role did Rosa Parks play in the Montgomery bus boycott?

A)She was the chief spokesperson for the civil rights forces.
B)She led the white opposition to the bus boycott.
C)She argued the boycotters' case before the Supreme Court.
D)She was arrested for violating the segregated bus system, thereby touching off the protest.

Question 9

How do mass movements challenge the American belief in individualism?

A)They appeal to the goals of negotiation and compromise.
B)Mass movements cause people to participate in politics for the good for the group, rather than for their own individual well-being.
C)Mass movements invoke the core belief of preferential treatment for the most worthy members of society.
D)They appeal to the traits of hard work and personal initiative.

Question 10

Generally, mass movements have been popular democratic in character.How is this true? Explain how the language of rights has been a powerful tool for the disadvantaged.

Question 11

Civil disobedience, while an illegal tactical option of protest movements, has a long history in the United States. Trace the tradition of civil disobedience from its beginning.Generally what happens to civil disobedience in a movement?

Question 12

The theory of relative deprivation states that people rebel

A)only after generations of subjugation.
B)when they perceive that their initiative will not allow them to become better off than the generation before them.
C)because resources are distributed without adequate or fair citizen input.
D)after they begin to feel that their group is treated unfairly compared to other groups in a society.

Question 13

Explain protest politics.

Question 14

Explain the five necessary ingredients for an effective mass movement.Give examples of each as depicted in the text.

Question 15

When do protest politics become a mass movement?

Question 16

Which of the following is NOT true about protest politics?

A)They are political actions designed to broaden conflicts and activate third parties.
B)The pressure they bring to bargaining situations favors the protestors.
C)Popular democrats see them as a way to create a more level playing field in American politics.
D)They are favored by small groups that aim to lobby Congress directly.

Question 17

What is satyagraha ?

Question 18

Mass movements are different from interest groups because mass movements

A)target decision makers directly.
B)choose candidates to run for Congress.
C)do not employ insider lobbying.
D)All of the above are correct.

Question 19

Which of the following mass movements did not support popular democratic goals of inclusion and equality?

A)The women's movement
B)The civil rights movement
C)The student movement
D)The nativist movement

Question 20

Explain the general opinion of mass movements by elite democrats and popular democrats.How are they different? Have the many accomplishments of mass movements strengthened the popular democratic position?

Question 21

Which of the following is NOT true about what mass movements achieve?

A)Elite democrats charge that mass movements stir people up but don't accomplish much.
B)Popular democrats claim that the movements are the driving force behind social reform.
C)Popular democrats acknowledge that the results of mass movements are usually disappointing.
D)Popular democrats suggest that the effects of mass movements extend beyond their initial splash.

Question 22

What advantage do defenders of the status quo have when they choose the strategy of making concessions to mass movements?

A)They gain greater public backing for repressive measures.
B)They gain the weapon of delay.
C)Their apparent weakness encourages the movement to make tactical mistakes.
D)Actually there are no advantages to this strategy.

Question 23

Which of the following is an example of a free space?

A)Black churches during the civil rights movement
B)Farmers' groups that press the national government for tax advantages
C)Inner-city neighborhoods isolated from federal and state aid
D)City council meetings during the mid-1970s at which experts explained the policies regarding nuclear energy plants

Question 24

For popular democrats, the tactics of protest politics allow

A)government the ability to assess its checks and balances.
B)people to participate directly in politics to overcome the government's inherent inertia and conservatism.
C)elite democrats the time to debate and control political change.
D)people to unite and form strong interest groups to channel their energies to the relevant sources of power.

Question 25

Which change has the environmental movement produced?

A)Companies must submit environmental impact statements and allow the public to respond.
B)Federal legislation now sets limits on the amount of waste each community can produce.
C)Environmental groups exert enough power today to be able to ban all commercial fishing activity.
D)The government and public have responded to environmental issues with such total support that the movement has little relevance today.

Question 26

Which of the following resulted from the women's movement?

A)A narrowing of the definition of politics to only cultural issues
B)The politicization of male-female relations
C)The passage of the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution
D)Equal numbers of women and men serving in Congress

Question 27

The authors argue that protestors should not be given complete freedom to disrupt people's lives because

A)protest politics can exist only when the majority are already predisposed to the cause.
B)this allows minorities undue power to dictate terms to society.
C)protests are not a healthy component of American democracy.
D)citizens always side with elite democrats and the status quo.

Question 28

Symbolic reassurance is a method

A)used by elite democrats to avoid making any concessions to popular movements.
B)employed by the leaders of mass movements to smooth over any divisions within their ranks.
C)of compromise between social movements, such as those of the 1960s, that are pressing government for attention and action.
D)that attempts to quiet social movements but offers few tangible rewards.

Question 29

The American tradition of civil disobedience can be traced back to _____.

A)Saul Alinsky
B)Samuel Huntington
C)Henry David Thoreau
D)Martin Luther King, Jr.

Question 30

Why do mass movements require transforming leaders?

A)The benefits transactional leaders offer produce fewer material goods and services.
B)Transforming leaders foster a more committed form of political action by encouraging people to go beyond their individual self-interest.
C)Transactional leaders are usually corrupt.
D)Transforming leaders make better candidates for elected office.

Question 31

______ leaders broker mutually beneficial exchanges between followers and elites, whereas ______ leaders teach followers to go beyond self interest.

A)Transactional; transformational
B)Transformational; transactional
C)Liberal; libertarian
D)Communitarian; Republican

Question 32

Elite democrats criticize protest politics as

A)lacking concrete, practical solutions.
B)lacking ideological principles.
C)too oriented to political realism.
D)encouraging conformity.

Question 33

Popular democrats believe that conflict

A)is important only when elite democrats run the government.
B)should not be necessary at all in a democracy.
C)should be part of the democratic process but limited to those groups that have roughly equal resources.
D)is a necessary component of a robust democracy.

Question 34

Civil disobedience

A)breaks no laws but raises consciousness about a specific issue.
B)often produces violence by the protesters.
C)raises awareness about an issue by accepting the law's punishment.
D)is usually ignored by the media.

Question 35

Co-optation leads mass movements to

A)become more radical as leaders become elected representatives.
B)become revolutionary because now they have more mass support.
C)deflate because offers of reforms and jobs divide the movement.
D)explode because the membership feels manipulated.