Question

when are divisive tactics justified in a Social Movement? What divisive tacts are most effective?

Answer 1

• Social movement research suggests that protest is effective because it de-legitimizes existing policies and imposes costs on power holders.
• The selection of tactics to bring about or resist change may be the most divisive decision made by organizations and social movements, especially the choice of engaging in violent acts.Although violence is incidental in most social movements, it is made prominent in news coverage and historical record.
• Violence makes news, alerts institutions, and appeals to most people, who are simultaneously repelled by and attracted to it.
• Violence is most often threatened or committed by institutional agents and opposition groups attempting to stifle social movements.They define acts of violence against the state as illegitimate and their own violence as legitimate.
• They label activist violence as criminal acts and lawless behavior rather than political acts.
• Nonviolent advocates worry that violent acts in the name of the movement will adversely affect their movement's credibility and frighten off sympathizers.
• Eventhough violence as a divisive tactic does create attention and does becomes a driving force for social movements to gather people together but the disruption it causes to the people and the property is something which has a much larger cost than justifiying it.