S Security and Public Policy in Turkey Ali Can National Police Academy, Ankara, Turkey Synonyms Collective action; State actions; Terrorism Introduction: Social Movements Social movements are generally defined as forms of collective activities, protests, and campaigns practiced by groups of people in order to affect public policies. They are collective challenges to elites, authorities, other groups, or cultural codes aiming at changing political and economic insti- tutions in order to produce a better society (Tilly 1978; Tarrow 1994). These forms of collective actions emerge as informal networks, based on shared beliefs and solidarity, which mobilize around controversial issues, through the frequent use of various forms of protest. Social movements indicate social demands, supports, or oppositions meaning that the exis- tence of a social group is questioned and deni- grated in terms of its worthiness. Once this sensibility exists, political rights and obligations lose their meaning for that discontented social group. Then, they organize social movements to affect social policies which they perceived as the sources of injustice and inequalities. These reac- tions must be directed and managed in a correct manner; otherwise, collective violence and terror- ism may serve as a means to reach perceived goals and interests. This situation is described by Habermas (1973) as legitimation crisis, the inabil- ity of the state in persuading its citizens to obey its rules and obligations. Studies on social movements clearly indicate that social movements are closely linked to public policies determined by governmental authorities. From the late 1960s onward, most countries in the world have experienced a surge of protests and demonstrations against government policies and social changes affecting quality of life (Can 2014). This link between institutional factors pro- ducing public policies and social movement development is formed according to state-civil society relationships. If the state is weak and civil society strong, there would be a constant but peaceful flux of protest from below. If the state is strong and civil society is weak, on the other hand, protests would turn into collective violence. This argument on the influence of the strength or weakness of states on social movement development is generally accepted by many social movement theorists. Public Policies and Social Movements The scope of social movements allows us to ana- lyze the extent to which people living in a specific # Springer International Publishing AG 2016 A. Farazmand (ed.), Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_2813-1