Social Mobilisation

Abstract

The transition to organised politics presupposes the existence of many social changes conducive to its initial growth. The individual influence of these social changes may not be large, but collectively they may well have a considerable effect on political activity. Thus the population begins to be socially mobilised through changes in various areas of social life which ‘singly, and even more in their cumulative impact … tend to influence and sometimes to transform political behaviour.’¹ The immediate result is a higher level of political awareness, which is increased by improved transportation and communications. This in turn serves to emphasise political and social inequalities. The sense of injustice aroused by inequality translates itself into pressures for political reform which the existing system is likely to find impossible to meet. The eventual outcome is an extension of political participation by all sections of the population and a need for organised groups to structure and exploit this growing mass involvement.