CONF 730: STRUCTURAL SOURCES OF CONFLICT

Professor Ho-Won Jeong
George Mason University
Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution
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HANDOUT: Rose - Chapter 7 & 8

CHAPTER 7

Types and Steps of Forming Coalitions

A. Type of Coalitions
- Washington: political
- Maine: grassroots
- Minnesota: power shift

B. Step 1: Education
- Washington: Educate politicians and wider public about the magnitude of the regions dependence on military spending and to develop allies particularly in labor movement (p.118)

- Maine: Forums with industry and grassroots groups to develop diversification strategies (p. 123)

- Minnesota: Education campaign within union to build support among cautious leadership (p.127)

C. Step 2: Research options/avenues
- Washington: Introduced bill in state legislature to study the impacts of military spending on state economy (p.118)

- Maine: Baseline research about the impact of military dependence on the economy (p.124)

- Minnesota: Develop committee to identify alternative products with existing markets that could be produced at plant (p. 127)

D. Step 3: Political education/pressure
-Washington: Worked behind the scene with labor, changed working of legislation for state body, passed it in the house and senate (p.120)

- Maine: Educate candidates and advocate for national legislation to shift military spending on social needs (p.124)

- Minnesota: Build political pressure through pickets, support from politicians, public education, and stockholder resolutions (p.127)

Organizing Techniques

A. Step 1: Building Trust (Washington)
-Test integrity of 'other' side with regard to movement's primary issues
-Tests are symbolic indications of shared values and understanding that feed confidence (p. 129)

1. Labor: looks for visible indications of union support
2. Union: looks for respect of picket lines
3. Peace/Environmental: look for more personal things (against military intervention, redirection of budget priorities, recycle cans!)

-Deepening communication and understanding over time (p. 132)
- Coalitions built over cultural differences because sources of humor and unify groups
-Each side must adopt some of 'other' sides issues
-Organizational limitations and pressures must be taken account by coalition partners
-SUCCESSFUL coalitions must (p.135):

1. Feel that needs or pressures are understood
2. Feel listened and respected
3. Feel interests are being addressed
4. Agree with coalition strategies

B. Step 2: Agreeing to Disagree (Minnesota)
-Focus on agreements and mutually beneficial goals (p. 144)
-Complexity of issues evolves with depth of relationship (p. 144)

C. Step 3: Internal Tensions (Maine)
-Coalitions cause organizations to move away from customary practices and raise conflict within own movements (p. 145)

Summary (p. 145)

- Appropriate strategies between peace and labor, that is, between middle- and working-class organizations, depend upon the strategies pursued by management
- Coalitions organizing across class lines is ultimately challenge of making outsides and strangers into insiders and political allies
-Issue matter fundamentally--but process is SOCIAL PROCESS of integrating groups that don't ordinarily agree
- Coalitions bring together people of different interests, customs, and ideas
- Coalition builders need to leave behind prejudice and stereotypes, find common cultural reference points, become familiar with 'others' goals, interests, and limitation to take action together!

CHAPTER 8

- Movements teach people to articulate their ideas and present them in public; to engage in dialogue about values, interests, and strategies; and to research problems and develop strategies for change (p. 149)
- Movements teach alternative way of interpreting problems and events--this provides framework for collective action (p. 150)
- Movements teach about ways that power works in society (p.150)
- Movement participation provides lessons in self-respect and a sense of worth--liberating--those who feel disempowered thrive (p. 150)
- Collective action teaches participants about their abilities to effect change--dispels illusion about inevitability of present arrangement and omnipotence of those in power (p. 151)
- PASSIVE MEMBERSHIP FORFIETS TRANSFORMATIVE DIMENSION! (p. 153)
- Movements and social change organizations run risk of becoming dictatorial as they pursue their own interests/goals (p. 155)
- Organizing must confront danger of political expediency, which can determine agenda in the name of practical politics (p. 155)
- Movements are rewarded for maintaining narrow agenda that avoids differences (p. 155)

1. Build Trust
2. Build coalition
3. Appreciate 'other' perspective
4. Re-evaluation own perspective and broaden views

- Rose has utilized the concept of 'lesson-drawing' to describe the process by which policy makers learn from both the positive and negative experiences of others
- Rose's lesson drawing approach is concerned with explaining under what circumstances and to what extent a program that is effective in one place can be transferred to another, and he suggests that members of transnational epistemic communities are responsible for any learning can takes place in this process
- Rose points out that learning involves scanning programs existing elsewhere, producing a conceptual model of a program of interest, and comparing the example with the problems of the existing program, which have occasioned dissatisfaction
- Rose discusses the effects of learning in instrumental and program terms, where program change takes place