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Culture and Conflict
No. 12, Winter 1993
Collective Action: Case Analyses
At the time race/ethnic conflicts around the World dominate the news headlines, the United States enjoys a relative calm. Yet a mere quarter of a century ago, at the height of the urban race riots and civil rights confrontations, few would have predicted today's tranquillity. In fact the Kerner Commission Report warned that, unless the economic gulf between Blacks and Whites was bridged, the nation might experience even greater racial violence. Recent studies indicate that the Afro-American community has, on average, lost economic ground since the 1960s. Yet one sees little evidence of full-scale racial violence, the kind that is wreaking havoc in many countries around the World. In fact it would seem that race relations in America have achieved a state of containment. This study proposes to sketch out some possible answers to this paradox and to raise a larger question, namely, whether the United States has something important to teach the rest of the World, or whether it should fear for internal reasons the unfortunate experience of violent ethnic conflict around the World.
The supposed tranquillity of Switzerland with regard to social upheavals and waves of violence - such as those experienced by its big neighbours - is fictitious. In 1970 and again in 1980 Switzerland knew mass movements of a vehemence comparable to similar events in Germany and France, such as the separatist movement of the Jura and the " autonomous " movement's revolt in Zurich. The relative stability of the Swiss political system thus cannot be ascribed to an absence of social movements, let alone to a specificity of the Swiss character. One notable characteristic is the modest strategy of Swiss social movements. While it would be erroneous to simply qualify the Swiss political system as being " open ", it is nonetheless distinguished by its recourse to direct democracy, its support for organised social movements and its exclusion of spontaneous movements. The federal system, rather than being " open ", acts as a filter admitting certain claims, excluding others.
The emergence in Nicaragua of the Contras (opponents of the Sandinistas) and subsequently of the Recontras (demobilised Contras who took up arms once again under the presidency of Violeta Chamorro) is in no way an expression of a fundamental political facet, but rather the sign of the upheaval in Nicaraguan society after the fall of the Somoza dynasty. The activities of various military factions correspond to a state of civil war characterised by a sharp friend-foe image (first created by propaganda, later confirmed by terrorist action). This image was not restricted to the Contras but gradually covered all the various factions of the anti-Sandinista front. The cease-fire agreement and the general elections of 1990 were an expression both of the exhaustion of the armed protagonists and of a softening of the harsh friend-foe image. The Recontra does not represent so much a return to terrorism as of a progressive loss of the values that gave meaning to the activities of the Contras. In fact, the Recontra violence reflects political disillusionment as well as the emergence of a spirit of democracy and the survival of archaic violence.
By what processes does a regime become " democratised " ? Classical analyses and approaches tend to identify causes and to establish a more or less exhaustive list of necessary preconditions making democracy possible. However, by going too far in the direction of causal research, one neglects the innate logic of democratic transitions - ambiguous periods of institutional meandering, uncertainty on where the democratic standard may find its first roots - and forgets the contextual aspects of the management of reforms, legalisation and consolidation of democracy, or the problems of mass mobilisation. Understanding such transitional phases thus calls on situational analyses in terms of political crises and political fluidity.
Truck drivers and road transport companies have not always used the technique of road-blocking to push their claims. The streets of major cities were used for demonstrations from the beginning of the 20th century to the end of the fifties'. By the end of the fifties', city streets were no longer the central stage, but remained part of the game. During the sixties' both truck drivers and transport companies discovered the technique of the road-block and, on three occasions, it has become a political issue. The particular form of this type of collective action is anchored in the grouping traditions of the occupation. It involves the selection of certain key individuals, relying on the basic forms of collective life in this social group.
Against the excesses of liberal individualism and the incapacity of social policies to resolve resulting problems, communitarians suggest rebuilding social relations on the basis of an intercommunitarian link. Criticising the liberal/universal model because it denies diversity for the sake of individualism (which claims to be neutral, but in fact represents the interests of the White heterosexual man), communitarians propose a model of recognition based on the " acknowledgement of equal value " of every culture. However when facing multicultural issues, their attitude tends to become ambiguous and involves risks of discrimination, and thus of confrontation and, ultimately, of violence.