When Do National Movements Adopt or Reject International Agendas? A Comparative Analysis of the Chinese and Indian Women's Movements
Abstract
When do national movements adopt or reject international agendas? This question regarding the relationship between global and local thinking goes to the heart of the current globalization debates. This study examines the contrasting responses from the Chinese and Indian women's movements to the agenda adopted by the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women. The contrast challenges the dominant assumption that global thinking can substitute for local thinking. The article shows how national movements decided for or against international agendas through context-dependent meaning-making processes. The Chinese and Indian movements drew on the international agenda to pursue similar national policy goals. Each reached its decision on the international agenda through a similar sequence of interactions with the government. However, due to mediation by nationally unique combinations of political rules and policy-related timing, the two movements attached opposite meanings to the international agenda. The Chinese movement embraced the international agenda and reinterpreted it by emphasizing its difference from the government position; the Indian movement used the international agenda as a surrogate target and rejected it by emphasizing its similarities to the government position. The article also proposes an alternative conceptualization of authoritarianism and democracy that understands better international influences on social movement dynamics.
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Information exchange at the societal level helps raise public awareness, as seen in the case of both domestic violence and sexual harassment.
“Not only do domestic actors use international practice to justify their lobbying (Liu 2006), information exchange at the societal level also helps raise public awareness, as seen in the case of both domestic violence and sexual harassment.”
From Coalition-Based Gender Lobbying: Revisiting Women's Substantive Representation in China's Authoritarian Governance (2022) · cites this paper as Liu 2006
Domestic actors use international practice to justify their lobbying.
“Not only do domestic actors use international practice to justify their lobbying (Liu 2006), information exchange at the societal level also helps raise public awareness, as seen in the case of both domestic violence and sexual harassment.”
From Coalition-Based Gender Lobbying: Revisiting Women's Substantive Representation in China's Authoritarian Governance (2022) · cites this paper as Liu 2006
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- Authors
- Liu, D.
- Affiliations
- Harvard University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Liu, Dongxiao
- Venue
- American Sociological Review
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2006-12
- Volume
- 71
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 921-942
- ISSN
- 0003-1224 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-8271
- OpenAlex
- W2089018617
- Cited by
- 50
- References
- 42
- Citations by year
- 2024: 2 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 6 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 1 · 2012: 4
- FWCI
- 9.29
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- American Sociological Review (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Historical Gender and Feminism Studies
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender Politics and Representation
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Feminist Theory and Gender Studies
- Keywords
- women's movement, international agenda, Fourth World Conference on Women, Chinese women's movement, Indian women's movement, globalization, global-local relations, meaning-making, authoritarianism, democracy
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