The Global Right Wing and the Clash of World Politics

Bibliographic Data

ID5707372
AuthorsDuane M Oldfield (Knox College, corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume57
Issue1
Pages166-168
Publication date2015-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Church and State (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0021-969X • E-ISSN: 2040-4867
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/jcs/csu109
OpenAlexW2315997158
LanguageEN
Citations received2

This book makes a major contribution to the study of global civil society and the place of conservative activist networks within it. Focusing on controversies over gay rights and gun control, Clifford Bob challenges naive views of global civil society. In place of visions of idealist, progressive activists working together to promote new global norms, Bob emphasizes the centrality of conflict. Transnational liberal networks confront well-funded conservative counterparts. Each side's attempts to frame issues are met by opponents determined to discredit those frames and promote alternatives framings of their own. Bob's study emphasizes several important themes. First, studies of global civil society too often ignore conservative activists or dismiss them as pawns of corporations or states. The National Rifle Association is just as much a part of global civil society as are Greenpeace and Amnesty International. Second, conflict is not pretty. Bob describes, in great detail, the efforts of rival networks to discredit, defund, and exclude their rivals. Third, conflict between rival policy networks is critical to understanding transnational policymaking. Rather than firmly establishing new international norms, clashes within global civil society often lead to provisional results, to statements of principle so watered down as to be nearly meaningless, to what Bob refers to as “zombie” policies.

Centrality · Civil society · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Vision · Labor Movements and Unions · Law

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub