direct action

Examples of direct action in the following topics:

• Forms of Disagreement

  • Civil disobedience can often take the form of direct action, which occurs when a group of people take an action which is intended to reveal an existing problem, highlight an alternative, or demonstrate a possible solution to a social issue.
  • This can include nonviolent and less often violent activities which target persons, groups, or property deemed offensive to the direct action participants.
  • Direct action stands in opposition to a number of other forms of disagreement, like electoral politics, diplomacy, negotiation, and arbitration, which are not usually described as direct action, as they are politically mediated.
  • This was an act of non-violent direct action.
  • Analyze the role that civil disobedience and direct action play as political tactics representing dissent

• Jim Crow and the Civil Rights Movement

  • Board of Education decision in 1954, civil rights organization broadened their strategy to emphasize "direct action"—primarily boycotts, sit-ins, Freedom Rides, marches and similar tactics that relied on mass mobilization, nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience.
  • This mass action approach typified the movement from 1960 to 1968.
  • Churches, local grassroots organizations, fraternal societies, and black-owned businesses mobilized volunteers to participate in broad-based actions.
  • This was a more direct and potentially more rapid means of orchestrating change than the traditional approach of mounting court challenges.
  • Differentiate between the legal strategies and "direct action" approaches used to challenge racial discrimination

• Environmental Interest Groups

  • Environmental groups are also known for their use of *direct action* techniques.
  • These actions range from the work of Greenpeace in disrupting nuclear tests, or whaling to removing genetically modified crops to groups such as the Earth Liberation Front who take a more radical approach and regularly conduct destructive actions as a part of their work.
  • There are criticisms of environmental interest group including the concern that not all of their claims are scientifically sound, and the complaint that environmental actions or regulations will disrupt business.

• The Act of Creating a Rule: Principled Decisions

  • When there is a rule R that has thus been arrived at, by evaluating the benefits and side effects that observing it is expected to produce, action A in a specific case is not determined by considering goals and side effects as it is in the case of ad hoc action.
  • Instead, the specific action is deduced from, or at least limited by, the rule.
  • Under circumstances C rule R implies or requires us to take action A.
  • Rule-making forces us to consider the broader picture and ramifications of our individual actions.
  • One further characteristic of arriving a specified actions via rules rather than from direct evaluation of their expected consequences is that the roles of rule-maker and rule-applier can be separated.

• Referenda on Affirmative Action

  • Affirmative action measures, particularly those pertaining to higher education, have been politically controversial in the United States.
  • Affirmative action measures, particularly those pertaining to higher education, have been politically controversial in the United States.
  • A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate (citizens of particular states, in these cases) is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal.
  • Prior to the passage of the proposition, the University of California system had used mechanisms of affirmative action.
  • The measure, in effect, banned affirmative action at the state level.

• Controversies Surrounding Affirmative Action

  • However, supporters of affirmative action have encountered opposition.
  • This argument supports the idea of solely-class based affirmative action or the idea that affirmative action programs should be instituted based on social class rather than race .
  • Opponents of affirmative action have tried to disassemble affirmative action programs.
  • States such as California, Michigan, Washington, and Nebraska have held a referendums, turning the issue over to voters on a direct ballot measure.
  • Affirmative action programs have engendered lawsuits disputing their constitutionality.

• Federal Mandates

  • An intergovernmental mandate refers to the responsibilities or activities that one level of government imposes on another by constitutional, legislative, executive, or judicial action.
  • An enforceable duty refers to any type of legislation, statute, or regulation that requires or proscribes an action of state or local governments, excluding actions imposed as conditions of receiving federal aid.
  • Vertically applied mandates refer to mandates directed by a level of government at a single department or program.
  • In the United States, unfunded federal mandates are orders that induce responsibility, action, procedure, or anything else that is imposed by constitutional, administrative, executive, or judicial action for state governments, local governments, and the private sector.
  • An unfunded mandate is a statute or regulation that requires a state or local government to perform certain actions, with no money provided for fulfilling the requirements.

• State Initiatives Against Affirmative Action

  • States and the federal government have argued about the appropriate implementation of affirmative action policies.
  • Duke Power Company, the first court case to assess affirmative action in employment that made it to the Supreme Court in 1971, states took action to limit the application of affirmative action programs in their jurisdictions.
  • Opponents to affirmative action have been even more vociferous about the use of affirmative action in higher education than when affirmative action pertains to employment policies.
  • Since the implementation of state policies resisting affirmative action programs, the federal government has pushed back to ensure that affirmative action policies are implemented.
  • State referenda have been the most successful way for opponents of affirmative action to limit its reach.

• Constitutional Limits

  • A constitutionally limited government is a system of government that is bound to certain principles of action by a state constitution.
  • This system of government is dialectically opposed to pragmatism, on the basis that no state action can be made that conflicts with its constitution, regardless of the action's possible consequences.
  • It includes sections such as "No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or Enumeration herein before directed to be taken" and "No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State. "
  • Third, the Court requires a "personal interest," not one generally held, and a legally protected right must be immediately threatened by government action.
  • Having the money to sue or being injured by government action alone are not enough.

• Government in the English Colonies

  • While it did have virtual representation over the entire empire, the colonists believed Parliament had no such right as the colonists had no direct representation in Parliament .
  • Thus, Americans viewed their legislative branch as a guardian of liberty, while the executive branches was deemed tyrannical.There were several examples of royal actions that upset the Americans.
  • Americans especially feared British actions in Canada, where civil law was once suspended in favor of British military rule.