ABSTRACT
A Steven Poe and his colleagues (1997a; see also Poe et al. 1999) have noted, shifting internal political tensions are important factors to consider when attempting to explain patterns of human rights abuse. Insofar as social movements bring these broader political tensions to the fore of public engagement, they are an important social phenomenon to address in human rights research. An analysis of different kinds of social movements also illuminates the question of internal pressure by highlighting the severity of the social fault lines and conflicts that exist within societies and states. Because internal pressure is often a critical factor within situations of human rights abuse, a more careful and complete consideration of social and revolutionary movements is necessary. Doing so helps not only to explain different forms of internal pressures and their potential effects on the state, but also helps scholars and advocates understand how and why “internal pressures,” in the form of movements, come to exist in the first place. This chapter begins with a review of the social movements literature in order to help enrich emerging theories on the links between internal pressure and state repression. The second half of this chapter looks at the state and its relationship to the international system, so as to similarly address the question of external pressure and its affect on the nation-state.
