Pressure Group Politics

Overview

1. the logic of pressure group politics
2. a debate over leadership priorities
3. readings on pressure politics

Part 1

The logic of pressure group politics

1. The logic of pressure group politics

Connecting last week to this week

• Racial threat = based on Blacks potentially coordinating (working together) to rebalance power
• Pressure groups = based on Blacks actually coordinating
• Blacks can apply mass-level and/or elite-targeted pressure

1. The logic of pressure group politics

Connecting last week to this week

• No matter how pressure looks, it can trigger backlash from racially-conservative Whites
• The challenge (part 1): make pro-Black coordination beneficial and anti-Black backlash costly

Part 2

Black leadership priorities

2. Black leadership priorities

• An enduring debate: How should Black people push for racial equality?

2. Black leadership priorities

• Remember: Whites tend to not (fully) support–and sometimes resist–efforts towards racial equality

2. Black leadership priorities

• The challenge (part 2): persuade reluctant/resistant Whites to be supportive w/out incurring “blacklash”

2. Black leadership priorities

• Persuasion can entail carrots (e.g., compromise, acquiescence) and/or sticks (e.g., peaceful/violent protest)

2. Black leadership priorities

Huddle up: consider the leaders in the “background” readings (Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Angela Davis, members of the Black Panther Party and Black Lives Matter movement)

• Where would you place these leaders on the radical vs. mainstream continuum?
• How do these leaders differ in their leadership approaches? How are they similar?

Let’ ponder these and related ideas in the break-out rooms

Part 3

Readings on pressure group politics

3. Readings on Pressure Group Politics

McAdam (1982)

• Research question: why are some social movements successful while others aren’t?

3. Readings on Pressure Group Politics

McAdam (1982)

• Most pre-civil rights movement (CRM) research focused on the role of social movements and insurgency tactics for connecting race and political participation

3. Readings on Pressure Group Politics

McAdam (1982)

• By studying the generation of insurgency leading up to the CRM, McAdam discusses the importance of context, resources, opportunities, etc. for effective participation.

3. Readings on Pressure Group Politics

McAdam (1982)

• Agitation “outside of the system” helped elevate race to a prominent position on the national agenda.
• Insurgency forced attention to racial disparities in America.

3. Readings on Pressure Group Politics

King (1968)

The story of Rip Van Winkle…

3. Readings on Pressure Group Politics

King (1968)

Applied to “freedom struggles”…

3. Readings on Pressure Group Politics

Malcolm X

From Civil Rights to Black Liberation… (Sales 1994)

• The war against racism is a war of ideas, actions, and institutions
• While often pitted against each other, both King and X evolved, “moving closer” to each other’s views (p. 172)

3. Readings on Pressure Group Politics

Malcolm X

“Not Just An American Problem…” (1965)

• since White Supremacy is a global problem, efforts to fight it must be global too
• emphasizes the need to shift from the language of civil rights to that of human rights

3. Readings on Pressure Group Politics

Walton, Smith, and Wallace (2020)

• Chapter 6: applying pressure sometimes requires cultivating inter-group rights- (e.g., citizenship) and/or material- (e.g., favorable legislation) based coalitions

3. Readings on Pressure Group Politics

Walton, Smith, and Wallace (2020)

• Chapter 7: the influence of Black special interest groups (e.g., Joint Center, NAACP, etc.) on US politics—particulally the advancement of the Black agenda)