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MEANING OF POLITICAL MOBILISATION

Political mobilisation is a process by which  a group goes from being a passive collection of individuals to an active participant in public life. Such groups may be based ob caste, class, religion , ethnicity or nationality , gender , specific issues like nuclear disarmament. A group may also arise questioning the legitimacy of the existing regime . political mobilisation is the study of how and to what extent groups are mobilised politically or electorally in a democratic political system to influence who govern or how they do so and where they become disenchanted with the normal democratic machinery or in the absence of opportunities for real political participation, groups of citizen are mobilised for political actions , like, strikes and demonstration or rebellion. The ruling class also tries to mobilise the people behind the regime to strengthen the authority of the government. Used in this way, the term political mobilisation has had a wide currency in sociology and political sociology.

It has been applied, in particular, to the studies social movements, national movements, rebellion, revolution and electoral politics. It is also applied to the study of ‘’populism’’ which refers to any political movements which seeks to mobilise people as individuals rather than as member of particular socio-economic groups , against a state which is considered to be controlled either by vested interest or too powerful in itself.

Political mobilisation is purposive; it has a goal. Effective political mobilisation depends on the range of resources that have to be mobilised by groups and the way in which such resources are deployed, and the actions of the state authority to limit such resources. Politically relevant resources are: education and the access it gives to information; a particular social outlook or ideology which defines a social or a political issue and problem in terms of right and wrong,  and offers a guide for action to redress the wrong; leadership; money and the ability it gives to afford time for political activity, communication networks, symbol; commitment of the participant to the cause. All the factors are seen crucial in the success or failure of political mobilisation to achieve its goal.

Political mobilisation is one of the basic elements of a living democracy and may be catalyst of democracy and change in authoritarian regime. It played crucial role in historic revolutions and anti- colonial national movement. It has been a crucial factor in various social movement in modern times. Mass mobilisation was also used by extreme right reactionaries. Fascism in Italy and Germany came to exist by mobilising the masses.  It belonged to an era of a democratic and popular politics which traditional reactionaries deplored. Fascism glorified in the mobilisation of masses , and maintained it symbolically in the form of public theatre.

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