Territorial boundaries and social conflicts: the transnationalization of protest

Judul Asli : Social Movement an Introduction second edition Penulis : Donatella Della Porta dan Mario Diani Tahun : 2006 Penerbit : BLACKWELL PUBLISHING 42 SOCIAL CHANGES AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS policies imposed by the major international economic organizations have forced developing countries to make substantial cuts in social spending, triggering fierce protests Walton and Seddon 1994; Eckstein 2001; Ayuero 2001. Again, already weak political regimes have often allowed the private exploitation of natural resources as well as development projects with major environmental impact. Native populations have mobilized against the destruction of their physical habitat – for instance, via the destruction of the Amazon forests or the construction of big dams, often sponsored by IGOs such as the World Bank or the IMF Passy 1999.

2.2 States, Markets, and Social Movements

Politics and the state have experienced equally relevant changes. State action is capable of producing collective actors in at least two ways: by fixing the territorial limits of political action i.e. setting borders; and by facilitating or blocking the development or the growth of certain social groups – depending on the priorities of public policy, and in particular on the destination of public spending.

2.2.1 Territorial boundaries and social conflicts: the transnationalization of protest

Traditionally, political action in the industrial society presupposed a specific concept of space and territory, which translated into the model of the nationstate. Having the monopoly of the legitimate use of force in a certain area, the state fixed its borders, and thus the “natural” limit of the complex of much wider relationships conventionally defined as society. Social relationships were, in the first place, relationships internal to a particular nation-state. 4 There were, admittedly, many communities within states that were endowed with specific institutions and forms of self-government, but they were considered to be largely residual phenomena, destined to disappear as modernization processes advanced Smith 1981. Relevant collective actors were, at that time, those social groups able to influence the formulation of national policy: for example, groups with central economic and professional roles, or organized labor. Political and class conflict tended to be seen as conflict between social groups defined on a national scale, and concerned with the control of national policymaking. The existence of conflicts between the center and the periphery that were not based on class issues did not belie this perception: minority nationalities, groups bearing a particular cultural, historical, andor linguistic identity, defined their strategies and their own images in reference to a central state and to the dominion which the state 42 S OCIAL C HANGES AND S OCIAL M OVEMENTS exercised on their territory, and they often aimed at building their own nationstates. In this case, the goal was not concerned with national policy but rather with the modification of the borders of the nation-state. However, actors did define themselves in terms of the state and its borders. The correspondence of nation-state and society is nowadays weaker than it was in the past. In this sense, economic globalization has called into question not only the role of the nation-state, less and less capable of governing within its own borders, but also, in more general terms, the capacity of politics to intervene in the economy and regulate social conflict. Global capitalism has in fact breached the longstanding historical alliance among capitalism, the welfare state, and democracy Crouch 2004. The shift from Keynesian-driven economics – with the state playing an important role in governing the market – to neoliberal capitalism implied a reduction of labor protection as well as workers ’ rights Brecher, Costello, and Smith 2000. To prevent hemorrhages of capital, even left-wing governments have espoused the liberal concepts of flexibilization of the workforce and cuts in social spending. Overall, the capacity of the state to regulate behavior within a certain territory has clearly lessened. First, the importance of territorial political structures within single states has grown. In most cases this has been intertwined with the consolidation of various forms of territorial decentralization Keating 1988; Sharpe 1988; Bukowski, Piattoni, and Smyrl 2003. In some cases, moves towards autonomy have led to the emergence of genuine subnational entities, often in places where historical traditions of autonomy were strong, but even where they were weak for instance, in Spain. At the same time, the growing interdependence among states and the strengthening of some IGOs have weakened the idea of the states as the only relevant units in the international system. The devolution of regulatory power to IGOs such as the EU has unsettled national boundaries Bartolini 2004. Globalization is not only a matter of new technologies but also of the political tools set in place to regulate and reproduce the mode of production through the proliferation of international governmental and nongovernmental organizations U. Beck 1999; Boli and Thomas 1999. While the national political context still filters the impact of international shifts on national politics, growing economic interdependence went hand in hand with “a significant internationalization of public authority associated with a corresponding globalization of political activity ” Held and McGrew 2000: 27. From this perspective, the international system based on the nation-state seems to be mutating into a political system composed of overlapping multilevel authorities with low functional differentiation and scant democratic legitimacy. In the political system, globalization has brought a transnationalization of political relationships. In fact, recent research into international relations has highlighted a pluralization of relevant actors Nicholson 1998: 131 ff.. Since the second world war, and increasingly in recent S OCIAL C HANGES AND S OCIAL M OVEMENTS 43 years, we have seen growth in the number of international governmental organizations with both a worldwide scope of action like the United Nations and a regional one like the European Union, but also Mercosur in Latin America and NAFTA in North America; with military objectives NATO or the now defunct Warsaw Pact or with the declared aim of fostering economic development the IMF, World Bank, or WTO Princen and Finger 1994: 1. International organizations have contributed to the spread of international regulations and norms, which in some cases supersede national sovereignty. As has often been pointed out, “no official authority controls states in the contemporary world system, but many are subject to powerful unofficial forces, pressures and influences that penetrate the supposed hard shell of the state ” Russett and Starr 1996: 62. Furthermore, while the majority of intergovernmental organizations function as a meeting place and discussion forum where decisions are taken unanimously and then ratified by national organs, a growing number of international organizations make decisions on a majority basis that bind all member states ibid.. International governmental organizations have been both tools for economic globalization, through policies liberalizing trade and the movement of capital, and a way to govern processes that can no longer be handled at the national level. This does not mean that the state has lost its centrality. Analysts of the recent impressive growth of Far East economies point, for example, to the role of the state as a facilitator of development Castells 1996: 89. But undoubtedly the presence of simultaneous moves toward the constitution of supranational and subnational authorities has brought about significant changes in the construction of collective actors. For example, in the case of minority nationalities within multicultural states, the presence of supranational entities tends to change the criteria according to which actors define themselves, as well as their strategies. European integration has certainly contributed to the remobilization of ethnic minorities in western European states, providing them with a new interlocutor and new goals: from the construction of new states following the breakup of those already in existence, there has been, increasingly, a move towards the renegotiation of relationships between central and peripheral regions of a state, within a “regional Europe.” At the same time, we have seen a shift from nationalist identities with a strong ethnic component, to identities that combine reference to the nation with greater attention to multiculturalism and the cohabitation of diverse cultural groups Johnston 1991b; Melucci 1996. The struggle for self-government of indigenous peoples addresses not only specific rights, but also the very political rights of nonterritorially bounded communities Brysk 2000; Yashar 1996. Moreover, not only has globalization weakened the power of politics over economics, it has generated transnational conflicts on the policies of international institutions, producing different results depending on the organization and field 44 S OCIAL C HANGES AND S OCIAL M OVEMENTS of intervention involved. In particular, opposition has arisen to the neoliberalist policies of the so-called international financial institutions such as the IMF or the WB, which wield strong coercive power through the threat of economic sanctions and conditionalities on international credit. More generally, in addition to the acquisition of power by these largely nonrepresentative, nontransparent bodies, criticism has centered on their manifest democratic deficit. Similar considerations may hold for other international organs, for example, in the sphere of the United Nations, or for other types of policy enacted by the European Union itself, from environmental issues to human rights. In all of these cases, new opportunities have emerged for mobilization and campaigns conducted on a transnational scale Tarrow 1995; Chatfield et al. 1996; Marks and McAdam 1998. As governance began to involve multiple territorial levels, protestors also started to develop multilevel strategies Imig and Tarrow 2001a and 2001b; della Porta and Tarrow 2004; della Porta 2004b; della Porta and Caiani 2006; see also chapter 8 below.

2.2.2 State and classes: the conflicts around the welfare state