The Impact of Feminist Activism on the UK Government's Policy Proposal on Domestic Violence- Actions Speak Louder than Words

Abstract: Social movements have been argued to be important political actors because of their ability to apply pressure and mobilizing governments to take policy action on societal problems. In light of this, it is the aim of this thesis to investigate if a feminist movement in the UK, called the IC Change campaign, can serve as the explanation as to why the UK government put forward a new policy proposal on domestic violence. In turn, this legislative proposal was an important step towards the UK ratifying the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence- a groundbreaking legal framework aiming to eradicate gender-based violence that the government was stalling on to implement. By using theory-testing process tracing as a methodological tool and conducting interviews with actors who were present throughout the process, this case study uses social movement theory as a means of investigating if the IC Change Campaign and their strategic actions had an impact on the UK government’s decision to put forward a proposal of a more substantial legislation in the domestic violence area. As a result of my process tracing analysis, one of the main findings in this case study is that the IC Change Campaign managed to leverage the government to put forward the policy proposal by strategically making allies with supportive members of parliament (MP’s) from the Scottish National Party (SNP) within the UK parliament. At an overall level, this interaction neatly showcases how civil society mobilization combined with a strategic alliance with political actors inside democratic institutions, can have conducive effects in terms of making the government take action in a certain policy field where action is stalling.