Power in movement: social movements, collective action and politics

Abstract

There are three major puzzles in the relations between power and movement. First, although ordinary people possess the resources for collective action during many periods of history, they mainly accept their fate and rise up timidly, only to be repressed. Under what conditions does the power in movements arise? A second question relates to the dynamics of movement. Popular power arises quickly, reaches a peak and soone evaporates or gives way to repression and routine. Is there a common dynamic in the careers of social movements, linking their enthusiastic births to peaks of contention to their disillusioned ends? The third question relates to movement outcomes. Do movements have an impact beyond the short lived mobilizations that fill the evening news? The deterrents are considerable: participants tire and defect; early protests that succeed create opportunities for others and for countermovements; elites control dissidence through reform or repression, while counterelites lead discontent off in new directions. If the impact of movements is so mediated and short lived, is the power in movement real? These are the questions that I will address in this study.