How do social movements affect the politics of a country?

Introduction

Human societies are dynamic; they continuously evolve, just like living organisms. There are
many factors which help in the evolution of societies. These include education, economy, media,
culture etc. These factors are broadly termed as agents of social change (Bayat, 2020). Social
change is inevitable. Societies grow or retard because of social and cultural change. Change is
not only social, but it also covers all realms of statecraft such as technological, political,
environmental, legal, economic etc. This change is not essentially positive, it can be positive or
negative or even dual edged (Hallin, 2008).

There have been, over the course of time, ample social movements globally, and till date they’re
consistently taking place, yet there remains a gap in literature for studying them with other
aspects such as economy, politics, technology etc.,. the assessment that how social movements
and its relationship with other significant arenas is carried on a very less extent. If such research
studies are not done, there would be a theoretical void which will also impact the practical
significance of social movements. So, this study aims to assess how social movements affect the
politics of a state.

A broad definition of social movements is as “rational attempts by excluded groups to mobilize

sufficient political leverage to advance collective interests through noninstitutionalized means.”
(McAdam, 2010, p.37). Politics in contrast, has a more contested definition, some have contested
views on it, while others take a broad scope of it. However, in this study, politics has been
defined as a field of government, and a process of compromise and majority for the dynamics of
power and resources (Macmillenihe). This study intends to analyze literature on social
movements and politics and find that in what ways politics is affected by social movements. This
study might help in in-depth understanding of social movements and aid in policy and decision
making. Also, it might help in bridging the gap between the literature of the two phenomena.

Significance of the study

This study is unique in a few aspects. First, it intends to study how social movements affect the
statecraft, since it is a macro concept of political sciences, most research scholars do not opt it.
Second, in this research, a qualitative assessment (document analysis) of present literature is to
be made which aids in in-depth understanding of a phenomena. Third is that it is done in context
of Pakistan, and it is well known that there is a dearth of research in political sciences.

Research questions

1. In what ways do social movements affect the government of Pakistan?

2. How do social movements have resulted in redistribution of power and resources of
Pakistan?

Literature review

Social movements and types

There are different categories of social movements, based on the social alliance, for example,
student social movements, civil society social movements, women social movements, religious
social movements, and ethnic social movements.

The demarcation of social movements can also be made based on the channel through which
they’re promulgated. Most movements in the past were promulgated through print media ,but
now increasingly, there are social media movements (Little & Ron McGivern).

World social movements

Social movements have been historically known to initiate when government organizations or
other regulating groups over pressurize people. They have been used to influence policy decision
allocation of resources, protests power etc. some social movements have been so much strong
that they changed the world order, while others have just rendered useless. Some major global
movements include Arab Springs, Islamism, War on Terror etc. (Fominaya, 2014).  These
movements also include the wave of democracy feminism etc. social movements have been
trickling down or spreading from develop context to developing contexts in the world. they are
significant transnationally an international (Tilly & Wood, 2015)

Research methodology

This research has intended to go for an in-depth analysis of two social sciences constructs i.e., 1)
social movements 2) Politics. It has intended to find “how” both are related in the context of
Pakistan. This is the very hallmark of qualitative research. It is based on the philosophy of
constructivism. The design of this research is based on qualitative paradigm (Bryman, 2006).
Then, the methodology used for this study is document analysis. Which includes the systematic
assessment of printed or electronic documents for gaining understanding and developing
empirical knowledge through content analysis (Bowen, 2009).

Critical Analysis

1. In what ways does the social movements affect the government of Pakistan?

Scrutiny of certain published articles and books has enabled the researcher to define the
following categories:

I. Macro level changes

There are two broad arrays of change in politics caused by social movements, i.e., macro, and
micro level changes. Based on the scope, macro changes involve regime change, policy change
and legislation change.

 Regime change

Munir (2011) has elaborated that, as a result of social movements there have been
changes in the government in Pakistan . military takeovers have taken place in Pakistan,
yet they had been overturned by the locals after successful social movements. This can be
witnessed throughout the history of Pakistan. Since its inception it has seen four military
coups. Hussain (2021) have comprehensively reiterated the same idea in his dissertation.
In his words:

“…I sought to explore the role of social movements against authoritarian

regimes in Pakistan. Delving into the decades-long struggles in different periods of the
country’s history, I examined the successes and failures of the social movements in
Pakistan against the nondemocratic dispensations. My main argument was that the
movements turn into popular mobilizations with bigger success when they occur in the
consolidated phase of authoritarian regimes, thus providing more opportunities for
social movements to succeed.”

 Policy changes
There is a direct impact of social movements on national policies. Government is bound
to act when people assemble for promulgating legislations and policies. Recent example
includes the change in national education policy with respect to curriculum I'm teaching
methodology and language after the much-resonated issue of social economic disparities
in education sector. Also, it was decried that elitist schools have language as the mode of
instruction and the curriculum is also in English you do which most of the undo medium
students cannot compete with private sector students at any level. the new policy
mandates the use language which is preferred by the student and warrants effective and
efficient education to be studying in government institutes.

 Legislative changes

Legislations are very important for regulating the affairs of the state. they set limits and
define regulations for society at large. it has been witnessed that people come to social
platforms to suggest new legislations or for the amendment of existing ones. This has
been especially evident in Pakistan’s scenario where many laws are formulated after
public protests and social moments. the feminist and women in Pakistan have resulted in
Election Act 2017 which sets a minimum criterion of giving at least five percent of
tickets to women in the party (The Express Tribune, 2020). Then, there have been have
nationwide protests for sexual assault and rape. social media platforms have been used to
raise census for giving strict punishment to the harasser. Finally, the Anti-rape ordinance
was approved which allows for the chemical castration of habitual offenders. (Anaolu
Agency, 2020). another example of legislative change because of social moments
includes passing the anti-harassment law in Pakistan after a video went viral in which a
bank manager assaulted an employee there has been other similar incidences leading to
activism for such laws. This has been described by Ahmad (2019) as

“The Government of Pakistan passed two pieces of anti-sexual harassment

legislation in early 2010. These laws were the culmination of 10 years’
activism by the Alliance Against Sexual Harassment (AASHA)—an
organization comprising like-minded individuals affiliated with different
organizations, who came together to work on the development, legislation
and implementation of these laws.”
II. Micro level changes

 More institutional power

Social movements equip institutions of the state with public power. judiciary for
example was empowered after its support by Muslim league (N) in 2000s’. Moreover,
the lawyer’s movement also provided a strong foothold to judiciary which had
otherwise become a weak institute. Shah, Waris, & Muhammad, (2018) have
explained similar phenomena in their studies. Ahmad (n.d.), has asserted the same
notion.

 Power to women

As a result of the efforts of many nongovernmental organizations, woman action

forum and other initiatives taken for women in the form of moments have resulted in
mobilizing power to the women in Pakistan. for three decades these organizations
have been working for collective rights of women. the rights which are constitutional,
legal, political and social in nature. they have also helped in preventing certain
ordinances that are against woman rights, to be passed. such as the Hudood
Ordinance, Shahadah ordinance etc. As Saigol (2016) describes in her country study:

“The relationship between the women’s movement and the Pakistani state has
undergone significant shifts, from mutual accommodation and a
complementary ethos to confrontation and conflict, followed by collaboration,
co-optation and, finally, collusion depending upon transformations in the
nature of the state at particular moments in history.”
 Positives and negatives outcomes in politics caused by social movements:

There are always positive and negative consequences o of everything and the same holds
for social moments social movements are not inherently positive or negative rather it is
the consequences which made it either fruitful or harmful.

The positive outcomes of social movements are quite evident the first one is that they
have been much successful in attaining social and legal rights, legislative changes, in
coalescing public support for changes, for rendering certain institutes of this state
powerful than others. An important positive outcome of social movements is that if they
had not been successful in implementing a change, they had been successful in resisting
certain changes in their politics, this resistance also makes it difficult for political elite to
implement changes, so that those issues become debatable.

Then there are some negative sides to social movements the most prominent is that there
is an immense damage to national property upon public protests and outrage. Also, the
confrontational approach he invites the wrath of authorities resulting in violence by
forces. this can be witnessed in the famous model town incident during the Nawaz reign.
Another downside to social movements includes the misuse of power by state
institutions. when they achieve power through social movements, they engage in
activism. for example, judicial activism has been witnessed in Pakistan and the debate of
yellow journalism which means the aggravation of news by social media for increase
ratings. Another important problem associated with social movements is that the meaning
of the social movement gets lost and it serves to fulfill the interests of particular groups
for instance, the feminist movement is believed to promulgate the interest of elitist
women and not the marginalized women of Pakistan they tend to shift the public attention
to male female superiority and comparison instead of raising the prominent issues like
honor killings, acid attack etc.
A summary of positive and negative outcomes has been given in

Table 1

Positive outcomes Negative outcomes

New laws for women Resource wastage, damage to national property

Public power Promulgation of Elitist interests

More powerful judiciary and media Judicial activism, yellow journalism

Conclusion

The study attempted to gain an in-depth understanding of how social movements affect the
political structure of a country. it has been carried out in the context of Pakistan. the questions of
‘How’ are dealt with qualitative paradigm of research. this study has used a qualitative research
design end document analysis in particular for deriving categories. discretionary articles from
2011 to 2021 were analyzed. it has been found that social movements affect the government
structure of a country at macro and micro levels. macro level includes the policy, legislation and
regime change and the micro level changes include adding more power to state institutions such
as judiciary, bureaucracy etc., and empowering certain segments of society such as woman
empowerment. it has been studied that there are positive and negative outcomes of social
movements for the society at large; where they provide more power to certain segments of
society, they also provide a ground for misuse of power judicial activism, yellow journalism ,and
promulgation of elitist interests. this study is constrained by time and resources. it may help in
decision makers in understanding the importance of social movements in policymaking. it may
also provide future directions to research scholars since social movements are nascent in
Pakistan. This study is not generalizable.
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