ABSTRACT
The demonstrators at Tiananmen Square were part of a social movement, that is, a movement that was uninstitutionalized or outside the mainstream. Reformist movements generally seek passage of particular laws, better enforcement of particular laws, replacement of corrupt and so on. Revolutionary movements go even further by seeking to replace guiding ideologies, institutions, and sometimes entire regimes, on the basis of new governing principles. Resistance movements seek to hold it back and keep the status quo. Expressivist movements try to change individuals, rather than directly trying to change institutions. To advance their cause, movements have characteristically relied on confrontational tactics, still the method of choice for street protests. The basic functional requirements of a social movement are an ability to acquire and mobilize human and material resources, to exert external influence, and to mount resistance to counter-pressures. This chapter examines the rhetoric of social movements, such as the movement for democratization of China centered on Tiananmen Square in 1989.
