Chapter 8
SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
Women Win the Right to Vote
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The actions of Angelina Grimké are used in the
opening vignette of Chapter 8 to illustrate the
struggle for women’s rights.
– The first woman to speak before an American
legislative body
– Addressed the Massachusetts legislature in February
1838 and presented a petition against slavery from an
estimated 20,000 women
– Helped to inspire women who had entered political life
through participation in the abolitionist movement also
to press for women’s rights
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The Seneca Falls Declaration (1848)
– Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s declaration stated that “all
men and women are created equal” and presented a
long list of violations of rights
– It failed to have an immediate impact because most
politically active people in the abolitionist movement
believed that the first priority was to end slavery.
– Following the abolition of slavery, women’s rights
leaders pressed for equal citizenship rights for all
persons, regardless of race or gender.
– They were bitterly disappointed when the Fourteenth
Amendment failed to include women.
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Formation of women’s rights organizations soon
after the Civil War
– For more than two decades, the National Woman
Suffrage Association (NWSA) and the American
Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) feuded over how
to pressure male politicians.
– In 1890, the two main organizations joined together to
form the National American Woman Suffrage
Association (NAWSA).
– The movement was now focused, mostly united, and
growing more powerful every year.
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The main instrument for winning the struggle to
amend the Constitution admitting women to full
citizenship was a powerful social movement that...
– Dared to challenge the status quo
– Used unconventional tactics to gain attention and
sympathy
– Demanded bravery and commitment from many
women
What Are Social Movements?
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Social movements are loosely organized
collections of people and institutions who act
outside established institutions to promote or resist
social change.
Many social movements have influenced what
government does and continue to play a
significant role in the struggle for democracy
Each of the most important social movements has
tried to achieve social change, acting outside the
normal channels of government and politics.
Tactics of Social Movements
– They use collective action to bring about social
change.
– They are usually the political instruments of
excluded or political outsiders.
– They attempt to gain a hearing from the public
and from political decision makers.
– They have a strong shared sense of grievance
against the status quo and a desire to bring
about social change.
What Do Social Movements Do?
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Social movements are mass grassroots
phenomena that often use unconventional and
even disruptive tactics such as demonstrations and
sit-ins.
Many social movements have influenced what
government does.
They often protect fundamental rights and
encourage public awareness and participation in
public affairs.
Participation in movement activity can be risky.
Social movements tend to occur
when ...
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A significant number of people come to
define their own troubles and problems in
general social terms...
And when they believe that the government
can be moved to action on their behalf
Major Social Movements
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Abolitionist movement
Anti-Vietnam War movement
Civil rights movement
Environmental movement
Gay and lesbian movement
Labor movement
Peace movement
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Populist movement
Religious fundamentalist movements
Prolife (anti-abortion) movement
Women’s suffrage movement
Women’s movement.
The Place of Social Movements
in a Majoritarian Democracy
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At first glance, social movements do not
seem to fit very well with democratic
theory.
– They usually start out as minority phenomena.
– They often use disruptive tactics.
How Can Social Movements
Help Make American Politics
More Democratic?
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They can increase the degree of popular involvement that
is essential to a democracy.
They encourage popular participation by dramatizing and
bringing to public attention of a wide range of issues.
They often allow those without substantial resources to
enter the game of politics.
The collective-action aspects of social movements and the
disruptive tactics associated with such mass mobilizations
can serve as a substitute for political and economic
resources.
Overcoming Political Inequality
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Social movements sometimes allow those
without substantial resources to enter the
game of politics.
Social movements can convince the
majority that new policies are needed.
Fashioning New Majorities
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Social movements are the province of minorities.
In a democracy, minorities win social and policy
changes only if they can convince enough of their
fellow citizens that what they want is reasonable.
Many of the social reforms that most Americans
today support were the result of social movements
started by minorities.
Social movements can help to fashion new
majorities in society.
Factors That Encourage the
Creation of Social Movements
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A certain combination of factors (mostly
structural in nature) seems to be necessary
for a social movement to develop.
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Social distress
Resources for mobilization
Supportive environment
Sense of efficacy among the participants
Catalyst
Collective-action,
Nonconventional Tactics
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Such tactics depend on dramatic gestures and are
often disruptive.
The women’s suffrage movement effectively used
mass demonstrations and hunger strikes.
The labor movement invented the sit-down strike
and plant takeover as its most effective weapons in
the 1930s.
Nonviolent civil disobedience was the most
effective tool of the civil rights movement.
Why Social Movements Decline
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Social movements are difficult to organize
and maintain.
Social movements tend either to disappear
after a time or become transformed into
interest groups.
Social movements decline when popular
support for their goals begins to erode.
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Success can undermine a social movement as
surely as failure — achieving its central goal
destroys a social movement’s reason for existing.
– The abolitionist movement became irrelevant after the
Thirteenth Amendment was ratified.
– The women’s suffrage movement disappeared after
passage of the Nineteenth Amendment.
– Passage of the major civil rights bills in 1964 and 1965
that met the main goals of the civil rights movement
caused significant declines in grassroots activity.
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Social movements tend to fragment into warring
factions.
– A social movement must meet several objectives:
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Maintain the enthusiasm of activists
Attract more activists and support from the aggrieved group
Gain sympathy from the general public
Force a positive response from public officials.
– These often contradictory objectives tend to generate
internal division over tactics and strategies.
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Declining commitment among movement activists
– It is difficult to sustain high levels of active
involvement for very long because social movements
ask so much of their followers.
– Bureaucratization
– A successful social movement sometimes generates a
countermovement opposed to its main goals and
aspirations.
– The reaction groups are often more powerful than the
protest movement itself.
Why Some Social Movements
Succeed And Others Do Not
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Low-impact social movements
– A social movement will have little impact if it
has few followers and activists, little support
among the general public, and is unable to
significantly affect everyday life or the election
prospects of politicians.
– A social movement is unlikely to have an
impact on policy when it stimulates the
formation of a powerful countermovement.
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Social movements that were repressed
– Social movements committed to radical changes in
society and the economy tend to threaten widely shared
values and the interests of the powerful.
– Such movements rarely gain widespread popular
support and often face repression of some sort.
• Early labor movement
• Pullman strike
• Radical branch of the student antiwar movement
Partially Successful Social
Movements
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Some social movements have enough power and
public support to generate a favorable response
from public officials but not enough to force them
to go very far.
Government may respond in a partial or halfhearted way.
– President Franklin D. Roosevelt responded to
pressures for strong antipoverty measures by
proposing the passage of the Social Security
Act, which fell short of movement
expectations.
– President Ronald Reagan used prolife
movement rhetoric and appointed sympathetic
judges but was unwilling to submit antiabortion
legislation to Congress.
Successful Social Movements
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Social movements that have many supporters, wide public
sympathy, do not challenge the basics of the economic and
social order, and wield some electoral clout are likely to
achieve a substantial number of their goals.
– Women’s suffrage movement
– Civil rights movement
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Legislation and constitutional amendments are indicators
that a social movement has made a major impact on
politics and policy.
Reaction includes increased respect for members of the
movement, changes in fundamental underlying values, and
increased representation in decision-making bodies.