Week 1: Introduction

Question 1

Contentious Politics

Answer 1

(Tilly) The variety of ways in which ordinary people engage in collective action to further collective claims
(Tarrow) A type of politics in which “ordinary people, often in league with more influential citizens, join forces in confrontations with elites, authorities, and opponents”

Question 2

Mobilization

Answer 2

the process of assembling, marshaling, or coordinating for a purpose

Question 3

Social Movements

Answer 3

(Tarrow) Collective challenges, based on common purpose and social solidarities, in sustained interaction with elites, opponents, and authorities. Based in significant part in society, defined in part by what they do: they challenge (or uphold) systems of authority. They do this lately through their capacity to disrupt. They are also sustained challenges – engage in chains of actions.

Question 4

Revolution

Answer 4

A mass siege of an established government by its own population with the goals of bringing about regime-change and effecting substantive political or social change.
Siege: the surrounding and blockading of city, town, or fortress by an army attempting to capture it. In revolution, a government is not besieged by a foreign army, but its own population.
They involve competing claims to sovereignty – rival claims for control over the same state