Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

The repression of social movements refers to attempts by groups, individuals, or state actors (e.g., militaries, national police, and local police) to increase the costs associated with social movement participation or otherwise limit social movement activity. Commonly studied forms of repression include police action at public protest events, such as arrests and police violence, military suppression of protest events, “disappearances” of activists, arrests and/or imprisonment of social movement participants, infiltration of social movements by government informants, covert counterintelligence programs against social movement organizations and participants, restrictions of free speech and assembly, assaults on human rights, and murders of social movement activists, among other tactics. Recognizing that the above examples represent a wide variety of ways to suppress or control protest and social movements, scholars have sought to distinguish between different types of repressive actions. Two common distinctions that have been made are between overt and covert repression and between coercive repression and channeling. Researchers make these kinds of distinctions because they suspect that the dynamics and consequences of repression may differ depending on the kind of repressive tactic deployed. The distinction between overt and covert is based on visibility of the repressive acts (or, ... log in or subscribe to read full text