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OverviewGovernment wrongdoing or negligence harms people worldwide, but not all victims are equally effective at obtaining redress. In Accidental Activists, Celeste L. Arrington examines the interactive dynamics of the politics of redress to understand why not. Relatively powerless groups like redress claimants depend on support from political elites, active groups in society, the media, experts, lawyers, and the interested public to capture democratic policymakers' attention and sway their decisions. Focusing on when and how such third-party support matters, Arrington finds that elite allies may raise awareness about the victims' cause or sponsor special legislation, but their activities also tend to deter the mobilization of fellow claimants and public sympathy. By contrast, claimants who gain elite allies only after the difficult and potentially risky process of mobilizing societal support tend to achieve more redress, which can include official inquiries, apologies, compensation, and structural reforms. Arrington draws on her extensive fieldwork to illustrate these dynamics through comparisons of the parallel Japanese and South Korean movements of victims of harsh leprosy control policies, blood products tainted by hepatitis C, and North Korean abductions. Her book thereby highlights how citizens in Northeast Asia-a region grappling with how to address Japan's past wrongs-are leveraging similar processes to hold their own governments accountable for more recent harms. Accidental Activists also reveals the growing power of litigation to promote policy change and greater accountability from decision makers. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Celeste L. ArringtonPublisher: Cornell University Press Imprint: Cornell University Press Dimensions: Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.30cm , Length: 22.90cm Weight: 0.907kg ISBN: 9780801453762ISBN 10: 0801453763 Pages: 248 Publication Date: 01 March 2016 Audience: General/trade , College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , General , Tertiary & Higher Education Format: Hardback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: In Print  This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us. Table of ContentsReviewsIn this innovative study of victim redress movements, Celeste L. Arrington skillfully pairs cases in South Korea and Japan to investigate what explains differences in outcomes-why some movements get more redress than others. To her credit, Arrington is never satisfied with the easy answers, and as a result her compelling analysis deserves wide attention. Scholars of South Korean and Japanese politics, social movements, and civil society will want to take note of this book. -Robert J. Pekkanen, University of Washington Accidental Activists is a fascinating study of the growing prominence of rights litigation in East Asia, a region long thought to be inhospitable toward rights-claiming and lawsuits. But it is more than that. Arrington shows that while movements can use litigation to right tragic wrongs, gaining allies in government too early can reduce activists' reliance on the contentious power of litigation, limiting their ability to extract concessions. This is a landmark book, carefully crafted and richly researched. -Charles Epp, University of Kansas, author of Making Rights Real: Activists, Bureaucrats and the Creation of the Legalistic State Author InformationCeleste L. Arrington is Korea Foundation Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at The George Washington University. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
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