RBSE Class 10 Social Science Notes Civics Chapter 5 Popular Struggles and Movements

These comprehensive RBSE Class 10 Social Science Notes Civics Chapter 5 Popular Struggles and Movements will give a brief overview of all the concepts.

RBSE Class 10 Social Science Civics Chapter 5 Popular Struggles and Movements

Summary

• Who exercise power are constrained by the influence and pressure exerted on them. Democracy almost invariably involves conflict of interests and view points.

• Those who are in power are required to balance these conflicting of demands and pressures.

• The movement in Nepal was to establish democracy, while the struggle in Bolivia involved claims on an elected, democratic government. Both these are instances of political conflict that led to popular struggles.
Mobilisation and Organisations

We can therefore draw a few conclusions from these examples –

• Democracy evolves through popular struggles.
• Democratic conflict is resovled through mass mobilisation.
• These conflicts and mobilisations are based on new political organisations.
• These include political parties, pressure groups and movement groups.

These organisations play their role in two ways –

• Direct participation in competitive politics.
• Indirect ways in which people can set governments to listen to their demands or their point of views.

Pressure Groups –
Pressure groups arc organisations that attempt to influence government policies.
(i) These organisations are formed when people with common occupation, interest, aspirations or opinions cofne together in order to achieve a common objective.

(ii) Usually interest groups seek to promote the interest of a particular section or group of society. They are called sectional interest groups, e g. trade unions, business associations and professional bodies are some examples of this type.

(iii) Sometimes these organisations are not about representing the interest of one section of society. They represent some common or general interest that needs to be defended. The Bolivian organisation FEDECOR is an example of that kind of an organisation.

(iv) Promotional groups or public interest groups promote collective rather than selective groups. For example a groups fighting against bonded labour fights not for itself but for those who are suffering under such bondage, for example BAMCEF.

Movement Groups – Most of the movements are issue specific movements that seek to achieve a single objective within a limited time frame. For example the Nepalese movement for democracy and Narmada Bachao Andolan are this kind of movement.

These single issue movements can be contrasted with movements that are long term and involve more than one issue. For example, the environmental movement and women’s movement.

Pressure groups and movements exert influence on politics in a variety of ways. They try to gain public support and sympathy for their goals and their activity by carrying out information campaigns, organising meetings, file petitions, etc.

Positive Effect of Pressure Groups and Movement Groups –

• Pressure groups and movements have deepened democracy.
• Where different groups function actively, no one single group can achieve dominance over society.
  The government has to establish harmony with different sections of the population. This leads to a rough balance of power and accommodation of conflicting interests.