Success and Failure of Reform Movements Essay
It is known that some movements succeeded, while others failed in their activities. Success and failure of movements depends on their stated goals and their strategies to achieve these goals. Some of the reform movements became widely appealing. For example, environmental movements are “composed of many groups and engaged in a large variety of issues” (Giugni et al., 1999, p.204). The major causes of success include significance of environmental problems as nobody can reject the goal of environmental protection. Even the largest industrial branches and corporations, which act as the opponents of environmental movements, pay special attention to environmentalism and implement the so-called “green and clean” policies (Giugni et al., 1999, p.206). Besides, environmental movements have an enormous impact on the individual attitudes.
However, some movements simply withered away in the dustbin of history because of wrongs attitudes and violent elements. Among them is Nativism reform movement. This movement did not expand democratic ideas. According to the principles of Nativism, only white Americans should be allowed suffrage and other rights, excluding new immigrants. The reformists of this movement did not want to compete with foreign immigrants for jobs. The other example of the failed movement is the Temperance Movement which had the major goal – to make the production and sale of alcoholic beverages illegal in the USA. The followers of this movement were sure that prohibiting alcohol would solve many social problems and make people healthier.
Green Peace movement is one of the movements that has become a stable enterprise with branches in many countries of the world, including Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Ireland, Canada, Brazil, Australia, etc. The T-shirts and other emblems help this movement to attract more and more people and to provide assistance in environment protection. For example, in 2008, this movement helped to stop cutting trees in Indonesia and banned toxic PVC in children’s toys, etc. Anti-AIDs movement, Disability Rights movement, Anti-nuclear movement have evolved into stable organizations.
