Political movement facts for kids
A political movement is a social movement working in the area of politics.
A political movement may be organized around a single issue or set of issues, or around a set of shared concerns of a social group. In contrast with a political party, a political movement is not organized to elect members of the movement to government office; instead, a political movement aims to convince citizens and/or government officers to take action on the issues and concerns which are the focus of the movement.
Political movements are an expression of the struggle for the political space and benefits. These are an expression of the contentions in a polity. The political movements are by non-state groups who are led by their elite. The elite of the group lead the movement. In fact the process of the construction of identities and reinforcing them is also a part of political movements. Charles Tilly in his Politics of Collective Violence has given a comprehensive framework for study of the political movements which turn coercive.
A political movement may be local, regional, national, or international in scope. Some have aimed to change government policy, such as the the anti-war movement, the Ecology movement, and the Anti-globalization movement. Many have aimed to establish or broaden the rights of subordinate groups, such as abolitionism, the women's suffrage movement, the Civil rights movement, feminism, Gay rights movement, the Disability rights movement, or the inclusive human rights movement. Some have represented class interests, such as the Labour movement, Socialism, and Communism, others have expressed national aspirations, such as anticolonialist movements, Ratana, Zionism, and Sinn Féin. Political movements can also involve struggles to decentralize or centralize state control, as in Anarchism, Fascism, and Nazism.
Some activists and scholars claim that along with globalization is the emergence of a new type of political movement that is global and systemic -- not merely international or single-issue focused. This has been termed a global citizens movement and debate continues over whether it has manifested or is still a latent potential.
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The mid-19th century Scandinavism political movement led to the modern use of the term Scandinavia.
See also
In Spanish: Movimiento político para niños
