...... SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND NATIONAL POLITICS

University of Michigan

May 1979 ......

CRSO Working Paper No. 197 Copies available through: Center for Research on Social Organization University of Michigan 330 Packard Street Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109 SOCIAL. MOVEMENTS ANI) NA'I'LONAI. POI.LT I CS

L.nnguedoc: 1682

ln~agineyourself strolli~rgin sunny Narbonne, France, during o

summer al~~~ostthree centuries ago. On the first of August. 1682,

according to the report wllich the Intendant of 1.anguedoc sent to Paris:

. . . tt~erewas a little movement in Nnrbonl~eon the occasion

of the collecrlon of tlre cosse tax, wlrich I~adbeen ordered by

an act of the royal council. Many women gatl~eredwiLh the

conlmon people, and threw stones LIL Lhe tax collectors, but

SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND NATIONAL POLITICS ~l~eCo~isuls and the lending citizens hurried over and put a

stop to the disorder . . . (A.N. [Arcl~ivesNationnles, Paris] 7 C 296; see also Archives Coas~unales. Narbonne, HU 29, folio

144).

Now a cosse was a local grain measure wl~icl~held sometlrlng like five ltters.

More important, it held one-fortietl~of a scticr of grain; to collect one Charles Tilly cosse per setier, whicl~was the ail11 of those tax col.l.cctortl, wus to tax University of Michigan grain at 2.5 percent. The royal domaill lrad long held the legal right to May 1979 collect the cosse on all grain sold by outsiders at Narbonne, but tlre six-

teenth-ce~~turywars of rellgion had i~icerruptedtl~c collccclon of the cox.

In 1682, tl~eroyal. council (guided by Colbert in its incessant senrcl~Foc .

revenue to pay for royal wars and regal display) trod ai~tl~orizedthe qoyal Tlris Is an exte~isivclyrevised version of "Studying Social Movements/Studying Collective Action", a paper presented property agent to begin anew the collcctio~~of the -e. The agent to the Conference on Organizing Women (Stockl~olm, February 1978) and circulated as CRSO Working Paper 168. ordered the construction of toll bootl~sat the city's gates, and directed

his clerks to collect the tax on all grain brought in by non-residents.

The city's Consuls did what they dared to opl~osetl~e cosse -- irnd,

especially, its collection at tl~cgates rotl~rrthan at the market -- on tl~e

ground that it would discourage trade and raise t11e price of food 111 tl~e -2- clty. But their daring did not go very far. Wl~ilethe Consuls filed time by Ll~eirrlgl~Lful titles instead of substituting the closest twentletll- ineffcctuol protests, the city's women gatl~eredand stoned the tax col- century equivalent. Yet the terminology of the tin~ebrings along its own lectors. Their "little movernen~" failed to haJt Ll~ecollecLlon of Ll~e an~biguities,variations and overtones, and makes it the more difELc111t to tax. Yet after years of conflict and negotiation, in 1691 the Intendant undertake the sort of co~npori.snnwe m.Lght want to try between the figl~tlng finally arranged the convers~onof the cosve into a general cash payment women of Narbc~nne in 1692 a!ld the fighting women of, say. 1,os Angelcs in from the Estates to the royal property agent (A.N. C' 298, 299, 300). the twentieth century.

For all their disapproval OF protest in the streets, the a~rtl~oriLles Since the aucl~oritiesof Narbonne thcn~selvesuscd Cl~eword alolrvcnlcnt. recognized that the reinstated tax was i~~convenlent,and perhaps unjust. would it be Iegitlo~ateto apply the venerable 1.abel "social ~novement"?

Let us neglect tl~ccomplexities of seve~~teet~tl~-centuryfinances, That would probab1.y cause more confuslon than Insigl~t. So~~~el~owa social. and focus on that "little movement" of Narbonne's women. It resembled moveloent sl~ouldbe more durable t han tl~atfleet1 ng encounter between Nar- nuny otl~erlocal French conflicts of the seventeentl~century 111 that it bonne's wolnen and the tax coI.1e~tors;it sl~ouldpursue I~roaderai.ms tl~an involved direct oction iigainst the royal attempt to levy new taxes. It the blocking of a particular toll. If, on tl~cother I~and,we were convinced rcsen~bledmarly other troubles following the mid-century Fronde (hut dif- that the little affz~irof 1682 was only onc incldent in a long serl.cs, tl~at fered from many before and during the Fronde) in that the iluthoritles, the wolnen of Narbonne were aware of their com~non interests and distinct despite tlleic opposition to the royal measure, i~~~~nedlatelystepped in to identlty, and that they were self-consciously seeking a set of cl~a~~gescon- repress the popular resistai~ce. It rcsen~bledmany other struggles of the siderably li~ryerChun tlre suspensloo oE one tax or another, then we IIIL~II~ tin~cIn wl~ichwomen played an especially promillent role in that the imme- comfortably begin to think in terms of a social aovelne~~c. diate issues concerned food, marketing and the cost of 'living. In these The Cam.isards regards, the August confrontation in Narbonne stands for thousands of 111 the Languedoc of tl~atti~ne there was at least one set of people other seventeentll-century conflicts. (See Bercd 1974, Pillorget 1975 who can~ec1.osc to cl~osedemanding standards. They werr not tl~cwomen of and Porcl~nev1963 for numerous cxas~ples.) Narbonne, but the Protestants -- women, men and chlldren alike -- of the

What sl~ouldwe call it? 'I'l~c local autl~orll:ies called it not only a n~ountains. For about four decades, beginning in tl~e1670s. the samc corre- petit mouvcaent, but also an emotion yopulaire and a ddsordre. All tllese spondence of the Intendant wl~lcl~reported the Narbonne affair was packed terms belonged to the period's standard vocabulary; they designated a wittr discussions of the "fauatics". Uurlnl: the 1670s. the Intendant fol- localized collective action by ordinary people wl~lcl~the autlrorlties con- lowed royal policy by squeezing out of public offlce those Protestot~tvwho sidered necessary and proper to end by force. But what should call it? refused to abjure tl~eirfaitl~. The measures ugainst tl~i"l(.P.K." (Kel.lglon

Tl~atis a conceptual question. Using the terminology of the tinle is one Pr6tendue R6formee -- So-Called Kefonned He1igion)broadencdaod intensified possible answer to the question; perhaps we shou1.d settle for dmot.ion or during tl~eearly 1680s. ddsordre, much as we usually insist on calll.ng the royal officers of the Tl~eProtestants prepared to defend themselves. "Tl~e Il~tguenotsof tl~rn~Ll~at L I~aven'tbeen able to Elnd yet" (A.N. c7 297, Octol,ee 1686).

the Vivarals." reported the LutendanL in August 1683, Vain I~opc. Tl~e"~ssemblles lo Lhe desert" mulLiplled, Protest;~ntmilltnry

forces sprang up in the backlands, and the royal troops found Ll~emselves . . . continue not only to preach in forbidden places, but al.so beginning d guerrilla operaLion wllicl~las~ed 1nLereitLenLly for 25 years. to prepare for war. It is true that they have no cl~lefs,not

even halfway-qualified gentry, in tl~eirparty; we took care of and, especially, glrls -- were prcacl~lllgin Ll~eViv;~rals. By Lhe end of tl~utby selzlng a11 the leaders that appeared, or that we the century, poor men and woeen posseesed IJ~ccstntlc trances and Ll~egif~ suspected, right at the start. All tl~esame, they have man- 'of prophecy were conm~unlcatlngdivine 1nsLructio11s to the people of the aged to set up a sort of n~ilitarybase. 'rl~eyhave organized Cevennes. There io the Cevennes the ProtestanL rebels took on the nclnle con~paolesunder speclfic conunanders. They l~avecapt~rred some of Camlsards. In 1703, the salnc 'Inte~idantwlko Itad I~oped,seventeen years castles. They are digglng in, they have anm~unltionand arms. earlier, to break Protesca~rtrcsistancc through spectacular but limited In a word, wl~lppedup by ministers who preach nothing but pimisl~n~entresorted to ordering the entire Protestant count ryslde of tl~c sedition and rebellion, they give every appearance of plannlng 1)iocese of Mende evacuated, and dozens of villages burned to tl~eground. to resist the king's troops . . . (A.N. c7 296) 'I'lre strategy of scorched earth did not begin in the twentieth century.

The n~osL serlous was yet to come. In 1685, with the revocatio~~of thc Even wit11 that ferocious treatment, LL took anolher year to check Ll~emajor

Edlct oE Nantes, began the o~ajordrive Lo convert, or at leas^ to sup- Caulisard rebellion, another six years to snlasl~the last Can~lsardn~llitnry

press, the many ProtestanLs of the C(ivennes, the Vivarais, and otl~er Eorce, another ten or twenty years to fragmcnt and tame the reglon.'~Prot-

regions of Languedoc. Prom that time on, relations between the province's estants to the point that they no longer posed a serlous cl~allengeto royal

royal offlcials and its ProLestants swung between open war and troublcd authority. As late as 1710, a royal patrol fell upon "an assen~l~lyin the

peace. parlsl~of Saumane, of five armed men and twcnty women", killlng two wen

1111111edlatelyafter the revocation, a new InLendant of Languedoc, and four women 111 the process (A.N. c7 314, July 171.0).

Nlcolas de Lnn~oignonde Hasville, declared 111s hope of mastering the enemy Wl~o were tl~esezealots? The question is a nettle, difficult to

l~ynleans of severe and ostentatious repression; an cdrly effort wds his grasp witt~outbeing s~ung;the answer varics according to our cholce of

hanging seven and decapltacing one of Lhe lllegal asse~~~blyof "new converts Lime point, region and (most importantly) criterion of membcrsl~lp. At one

which had killed two of the soldiers sent to break it up." ("New' co~~verts" extreme, wc n~igl~tbe Lhinking of nil the I'rotestrnLs in I.unguedoc: 202,794

I were people who had nominally subscribed to Cacholicisn~,but had actually of the province's 1,561,541 inl~abltunts,occordl~~g LO the ludicrously pre- I 26 I reLalned their ProtestnnL ties .) "Tl~ereare no ministers preacl~ing," he cise statistics reported by the Intendant I11 1698 (A.N. 11 1588 ). At the

. wrote contempcuously. "tllere are nothing but mt6eral~lepreaching carders oLher extreme, we 11lig11L take only the few tl~ousandwl~o at one tlnle or on- I '1 and peasants who luck even common sense; I hope LO arrest two or three of I I

'Cl~e phy1.loxera blight had wiped out a large part of I.a~~guedoc'svines I'erpigndn on the 16th of June. At Ll~atpoln~, Perroul [aced an acute political in the 1880s. but the replanting and expansion of the 1890s soon made up the problem: the most vislble organizer of Ll~eagitation was the innkeeper Marcellin deficit. At tl~esanie time, the growing l~portatlonof cheap Algerian wine and AlberL. head of Ll~ewi~legrower's con~mlttee in the village of Argelllers; but IL the es~ploymentof beet-sugar in the n~nnufnctureof potab1.e wine frt~n~l~~ferior was L~III~,Ll~ougllL Ferroul, Lo sl~ifLLl~e agitation Cram its village base and grapes flooded the market and provlded the Midi's winegrowers wit11 unprece- . loose orga~~izatio~~to an urban base and a larger scale -- led, perl~nps,by tl~e dented competition. Their markets co~~tractcdand the lr prlces Eel 1 . From soclalisL nldyors of ~ruclalcities. 18 the Argellleru conm~itLee, said Perroul, shortly after 1.900, various leaders of the region's wi~~egrowersbegan to agi- . . . has prepared n~agoificent, unprecedenLed n~arches. wi L~IULIL tate for the prol~lbitionof the new sugar-wines, for the right to distill part I~istoricalparallel; if it bas organized the great wlnegrowers' of their vii~tageand, sometln~es, for the suspens.lon of taxes. Tl~eday-.laborers demoustratio~~syou know, which are cl~aracterlzcdby a ~narvelous of the winefields began to organize unlons and to 'demand better wages. caln~ness,solidarity and agreenlcnL, it Is now imposylble for the After a rovlng parliamentary comn~lssionhad come to hear the com~~lztints con~n~itteeto direct from its ow11 hon~esuch a grand movement, of the producers in March 1907, a great can~pnignof organizing, meeting and spread across four departments. federating took place tl~rougl~outthe vlneyard areas. By the 5th of May, some

60 to 80 tl~ousundpeople were meeting in Narbonne, and being addressed by the And later he declared: socialist mayor Ferroul. 111 succeeding weeks, to take the minin~umestl~aates. This movelncnL is not political. It is deep and I~umon. It is not there were 120 tho~~sandat BQzlers, 170 thousand at Yerpignan, 220 tl~ousandat the agiLaLion of a party, buL the uprising of men wl~ownnL to llve, Curcnssonne. 250 thousand at NPmes, 600 tl~ousandat Montpellier. Soon a tax- dnd who dre protesting against Ll~eir11u11gcr. payers' strike and a series of ostentatious resignati.ons by muni.clpa1 officers were under way. By mid-June, the government was sending troops into the reglon, l'l~cword "moven~cnt" recurs in a different co~~tcxtand wit11 a different tone demonstrutors were fighting gendarmes and, back in Narbo~~nc,militants were from the petit III~~IVCILof 1682. Narbonnc's nluyor wants to stress the wine- attacking the sub-prefecture. Fron~June througl~September, tl~egovertlment growers' nunhers, conlmitn~entand internal dlscipl.i~~e,tl~clr oricotatio~~ to replied wltl~a few concessions and a good deal of repression. There were I~un- deeply serious matters, the fact tl~atthey stand above and beyond rouq111c dreds of arrests, and a half-dozen deaths. The formation of il General Confed- party polltlcs. Somel~ow that series of actions at tl~cI,eg.ln~~ing of our century eration of Wlnegrouera, at another meeting in Narbonoe the 22d of Septe~nber, exemplifies what Wilki~lsonand other scl~olarsI~ave in mind ul~entlwy disct~ss nurked the encl of the year's turbulence. Then began the negotiations, the and define social nlovenlents. So do a nun~berof otl~erpl~c:~~on~e~~a -- luhor move- trials, the acqulttal~,the amnesties and the de~nobilizationof the Mldi's ments, political nlovements, even Protestant religious n~ovcments -- wl~lch1.angue- wlnegrowers. doc has produced since the later nineteenth century. The c~~mparisooof the

Was that a social movement? It is interesting to scan the text of the twentieth-century winegrowers with the sevcntcent11-centut.y l'rotest~~ntsrulses speech that Ernest Ferroul, physician, socialist and mayor of Narbonne gave at tl~esuspicion that the notion of the social nlovcment is more closely tied to the social organization of onr own tlme than the abstract phrasing and uni- The rise of the soclal nlovement belongs to the same complex of cllanges versal sweep of the usual definitions suggest. whlcll Included two oLher profound transformallons in the character of popular

'The suspicion 1s we1.l founded. Dot11 the concept and the ~~l~cnon~enonit collective acLlon: tile growth ot naLional electoral politi~s,and the prolitera- represents are largely nlneteentlr-century creations. The concept "n~oves~ent," Lion of credLed assoLiaLLons as Llle vehicles of acLion. Notice the difficulty in the sense of sustained collective action, drew some of its lnitlal appeal faced by Rudolf Ileberle, in a standard Arnerican textbook on social ntovernents, from its n~echanicalanal.ogy, and tlren there was tile Social Movement -- die when he seeks to dissociate the move~nent from the pollLica1 party. After soziale Bewegung -- the l~istoricaltrend which most observers identified with adopting Scl~ompeter'sdescription of a politlcal parLy as a group of people who the rise of the working classes. That idea of a dominant historical trend tied "propose Lo act in LoncerL in the competiL1ve struggle for polltical power ." , to the changing povltion of a particular class of people was one of the cl~ief lleberle goes on to say: tools of social analysis bequeathed by the nineteentl~century to the twentieth. A genuine soci;rl n~ovement, OII the other I~and,Is always integrated The idea of many such movements, not all of them beneficent or even connected by a set of cu~~stltutiveideas, or i111 ideology, altllough bonds of wltl~one anotl~er, is a simple adaptatlon of the baslc concept in the face of other nature may not be al~senl. Further~nore,a party is by definl- a stul~bornlydiverse reality. tion related to a Larger group, witl1i.11 wl~icl~it operates against 'The Rise of Social. Movc~~~ents at least one partial group of sin~ilarchnracter. Parties can appear The reality itself was largely a nineteenth-century creation. People in all kinds of corporate groups, but a polltlci~lparLy by defini- have, co be sure, banded together more or less selc-consclously for the pursuit tion can occur only witl~ina body politic, that is, only witl1111a of conanon ends since the beginning of history. The nineteenth century saw the state. A socla.1 n~oveaent,on the other I~ancl, nee? not ;~erestricted rise of the social movement in the sense of a set of people who volu~itarilyand to a particular state or to a national society. In fix';, :ill n~ajor deliberately commit themselves to a shared identity, a unifying belief, a social moven~ents have extended over the entire sphere of Western conmoll program and a collect1.ve struggle to realize that progrant. The great civilization and even beyond (Ileberle 1951: 11). bulk of the earlier uprisings and popular fervors to which we are tempted to apply the term were fundamentally defer~siveactions by groups whict~had long The net result of all this maneuvering is, ironically. to sLress the rese~nblo~lce exi.sted; durlng the aggressive expansion of states in the seventeentlr centtlry, between soclal nluvelncnts and political parties. 'I'hey are fr2res en~~en~is,eocl~ A social, move- the standard case was the concerted resistance by the people of long-established taking part of its identlty from the contrast wltl~tl~c other. comm~~oitiesto the lmposition of new forms of taxation wl~ichinfringed tl~eir ment is essentially a party with broad uspi.rations and a unlfyl~~gbcl.ief That i.s rlgl~tsand jeopardized thelr survival. Although plenty of nineteenth-century system. A political party Is a tamed, natio~~nlizedsocial movement. movements had defensive origins, the remarkable feature of that century was the wliy Ileberle can step easily into the analysis of Naeisnl and Commu~llsm, and why shlft to tl~cdeliberate constitution of new groups for the offensive pursuit of we sense a vague unease when atte~npting to t rent the seven teer~tll-century new rigl~tsand advantages. Camisards as a social movement. -12-

Let me spare you a review of the various, ambiguous and sometimes Like all such definitions, this one poses practical choices: setting 1 sloppy uses to which the concept "social movement" l~asheen put. My C, i aim here is neither to castigate other conceptualizers, nor to plead some minimum number of interactions, arrivlng at tests of the "success" I of claims to speak for a constituency, deciding how little focmal for more precise, adequate and comprehensive definitions, nor yet to argue I representation is a lack of it, that "social movement" is a poor concept because it is historically defining thrcsl~oldsfor the vlsibility of demands and the demonstrations of support for tlien~, and so on. Hut specific. Par from it. I went to argue that the recognition of the

historical specificity of the forms of collective r.-tion is the beginning the definition excludes a variety of phenomcn:~ -- rellgloua innovations,

of wisdom. I hope to situate the concept of social movement in its crusndes, local rebellions and others -- to wl~icl~the term socinl movement

historical setting, and to suggest how its strengths and weaknesses reflect has often been looscly applied. In this narrower sense, both the concept

the realities of that historical sett111g. of social movement and the sort of lnteractio~~the concept fits best

To be specific. I want to argue the following points: lt is a mlsLake are products of the nlneteenth-century growLh of pop~~lacolectornl

to conceive of a social movement as a group, somel~ow parallel to (but also politics on a national scale. In any case, the deflni~iondoes not

opposed to) a party. Indeed, it is s mistake to think of a social movement single out groups, but interactions. No groups? Let me be clear on that point. as a group of any kind. Instead, the term "sociel movement" applies Croups ilre cnlcilrl to social movements, as nnnies are crucial to wars ond partles to electoral most usefully to a sustained interaction between a specific set of autl~orlties

and various spokespersons for a given challenge to those authorities. campaigns. At one point or another in the history of every social movement, the organizers of The interaction is a col~erent,bounded unit in roughly the same sense that the challenge ln question claim to spet~kfor n~ Least

a war or a political campaign is a unit. Such interactions have occurred one important group which has an interest in he challenge's outcome.

from time to time ever since there were authorities of any kind. Tl~e (I11 the French wlnegrowers' movement of 1907, one of the points nt lssue

broadest sense of the term "social movement" includes all such cl~allenges. between Marcellin Albert and Ernest Ferroul was wl~ohad the right LO speak

In a narrower sense, however, the social movement draws its form and for the winegrowers as a whole.) The organizers mny well recruit ~nrticipsnLs

meaning from an interaction with the authorities who stuff a national state. and supporters frou~the group wl~oseinterest Lhcy cli11111to represent. (Albert's

To improve on Wilkinaon, Heberle, and other group-oriented theorists. genius was his nbillty to draw local comn~u~~ltiasof winegrowers into the i we need a definition on this order: common regional effort.) The actlvlsts with respect to any pnrticulor A sociel movement is a sustained series of interactions between national challenge commonly originate in well-dcflned groups. and often Form new groups in the process of making the challenge. (The creation of the powerholders and persons successfully claiming to speak on behalf General Federation of Winegrowers marked a mjor transition in the movement of a constituency lacking €om1 representation, i.n the course

of wl~ichthose persons make public1.y-visible demands for changes of 1907: the start of sustained negotiations between group and government.)

in tile distribution or exercise of power, and back tltose demands At the very center of the nineteenth-cenLury tra~~aformntionwhich made the

with public demonstrations of support. social rnove~nent a standard way of doing political business, indeed, came I ' Ilowever, have at heir disposal the creation of an assoclntion, the a great broadening of the conditions under which new groups could form and li C* launcl~lngof a strike, the organizatib~~of a demonsLrotion, or any ~~umbcr mount challenges to the authorities, and old groups could bring challenges It/I into the public arena. of other means which are com~~~o~>placein our own tlnle. Let us think of Lhe set of lllealls wllicl~is effectively nvailable to u given In order to see the nineteenth-century transition more clearly, set of people as tt~eirrepertoire of collective acLi0n.l 'The analogy wit11 the we should reflect on the specific means that ordinary people use to

repertoire of Lhe~terand IIIUS~C is helpful hcc:luse it e~nplrosizesthe learned ace together on their interests, and on how those means changed in the

chdractcr of ~l~eperformances and the limits LO that learning, yc~allows for nineteenth century. Over the last few hundred years, ordi~~arypeople variation and even continuous change from one perforu~anceLo Ll~enexL. Tltc have used a remarkable variety oE means to act together. If we run repertoire of collecLive action typically leaves plcnty of rooin for improvisa- forward in time from the era of the Camisnrds to our own day, tion, Innovation and unexpected endi~lgs. Cha~rgein repertoires occur througl~ we encounter inter-village fights, mocking and retaliatory ceremonies I three nwiu processes: aucl~as Riding the Stang and Katzenmusik, attacks on tax collectors, I petitions, mutinies, solemn assemblies and many other forms of action, most I. Ll~einvcntlo~~ or adoption of new means, e.g. the deliberate of them now long abandoned, in the early period. As we approach our own time 1, creation of LIle "sit-in" by American civil rights workers of we notice electoral mllies, demonstrations, strikes, attempted revolutions. i the 1950s; 1, muss meetings and a great variety of other means, most of them unknown 111 the 2. the evo1uLio11 and addpLatlon of means whicl~are already available, time of the Camisards. e.g. Lhe way 1,ondon Kadicals expanded the long-cstahlished custom Now, there are two important tlriogs to notice about these forms of of sending a delegatloll to accompany a peLltion into ~oasso~arches action. First, tlrcy are forms: learned, understood, son~etis~esplanned and with thousands of supporters fur a petition to I'arliamenL; rehearsed by the participants. They are not the "outbursts" and "riots" 3. the abandonment of means wl~icl~have' proved i~~nppropriate,ineffec- dear to authorities and crowd psychologists. Second, at a given point in tive, impracLlca1 or di~ngerous,e.g. the Parisian crowd's abandon- time a particular group of people who shared an interest had only a few of ment of ritual executio~~,with the display of traitors' I~codson chcse means at their disposal. At their disposal? The group knew, more or pikes, after the initial years of the HevoluLion. less, how to execute them, had some sense of the likely consequences of

employing them, and was capable of identifying some collditions in wl~ichit This last exampl;! identifies one of Ll~edlfflc~~ltics 111 the serlous study of would be both possible and legitimnte to use those means. Our women of repertoires: how LO distinguish a form of action wl~ichis in some sense kuowo

seventeenth-century Narbonne knew how to attack the tax collector, but they and available, but is in fi~ctnever used bccausc a likely opportunlly for Its ulso knew how to assemble and deliberate, how to seize the goods of a baker 'par a mt~cl~morc detailed dlscu::sioo, see a conlpnnion paper, "l(eperto1res who overcharged for bread, how to conduct a charivari. They did not, of Contention in A~uericaand Hritain, 1750-1830.'' effective use never comes along. The answer must agaln draw on the analogy situation wllicl~ li1111tsthe optioos, entails some llkcly costs and consequences with music and theater: if the performer never performs the piece in public or for each option, a~~dprovides us wit11 enough inforn~atio~~to begln the rccon-

in private we eventually conclude that the performer has forgotten it, or struction of the decision rules the purticlpants followed.

never knew it. 'Chat commonsense rule of thumb 118s the advantage of confining If the preval.ling repertoire of collective action cllanyes significnntly

the study of repertoires co forms of action which real actors have performed, at solne point in tln~e,the change is prin~nfacie evJ.dence of a substantial rehearsed, or at least discussed. alteration in rile structure of power. In France, to take the case I know best, Why Study Repertoires? the largest repcrtolre changes of the 1.ast four ce~~turiesappear to have The study of repertoires provides a splendid opportunity for joining occi~rredaround the mlddlc of the seve~~teenthcentury and aga111 around the the general analysis of collective accion to the concrete realities of day- lniddlc of the nineteentl~century. The lironde and the Revolutl.on of 1848 are to-day contention. For any particular set of people who share an interest, convenient markers for the sl~iftsin rcpertoi.re. AL the earlier point, the we may undertake to describe the means of action realistically available to most visible change was the rapid decline of cl~ccl.:~ssic form of rehell.ion of tben~. In che context of their time, what forms of action did the Protestants sonbe conscl~utedbudy (a village, a 111i1.itnryunit, a trade or son~etl~ingelsc) of the seventeenth-century CBvennes have at their disposal. What forn~sdid wl~icl~corlsisted of asse~ohling,dell berating, stating grl.eva~~ccs,forma1.l y they know, and what forms were feasible? Wl~atwere the likely costs suspending allegiance to the governi~laautl~ocity, choosl~~g a temporary irlLer- and consequences of the alternative opcn to tl~en~?Asse~nbling in vlllage nate leader, then setting con~licionsfor a return to obcdlence. In contemporary councils to petition the Intendant, for example, was a standard procedure English, only the word "n~utiny" co~ncsclose to capturing the cllaracter of tl~ac of the time, but it was a dangerous and ineffectual way to resist a royal old form of rebel.llon. policy as vlgorously pursued as the drive against Protestantism. 'I'he collec- During the Wars of Religion and tlre many rebellions of the early seven- tlve appeal to a powerful patron had worked well in an earlier age, but be- teenth century, groups of peasants and artisans who rebelled had frequently came less and less feasible as the seventeenth-century Pre~lchstate expanded elected a local noble as their capltalne. That is one reason why, at tl~eend

its range and power. And so on. Tl~ei~lvelltory of avollable means of collec- of the seve~lteentl~century. the Intendant of Languedoc scanned tl~cCan~isards

tive action draws us at once into a specification of opportunities, threats, a~lxiouslyto see if they had access to Protestant nobles; a link hetween Prot-

repression, facilitatiou, powcr and -- most io~portant-- the relative costs estant countrynleu and the regional nobility was sucl~to be feared. By then,

and likcly benefits of the array of clroices actually confro~ltingthe group in Irowever, tl~atllnk and that Cor~nof rebellion had almost dlsappci~red. 3'11c

question. It is not necessary LO nssunle that the Cao~isards, or any other set defeat of, the Fronde and the seventeentl~-century cooptat1011 of the ~~obillty, of collective actors that concerns us, were cool calculators in their own 1 believe, played a major part In destroying it. The seventeentl~-century rise

ri.ght. In fact, the Camisnrds had an extraordinary capacity for hysteria. of royal power and expansion of the state was one of the two or three nlost rage, delusion and blind devotion. A11 that is necessary is a logic of rhe important alterations in the structure of power over the lnst four ce~lturies.

A major alteration in the repertoire of popular collective actlo11 sccompunied it. - 19 -

l'l~e nineteenth-century change in the prevailing repertoire of collcctlve subsequent changes of repertoire have been relatively mlnor. To be sure,

W ' uctiorr is better documenled, and no less dras~a~ic.Around the tinre of he Rcvo- new foro~sof terrorism have arisen, demonatrations l~avemotorized, mi~ss

lutlon of 1848 the tax rebellion consisting of an dttock on Ll~ecollccLor or 111s media have reshaped our perceptlona and our tactics. Set against the

premises went inLo rapid decline. Altl~ougl~protests of I~ighprices end food disappearance of the food riot, tlre witl~eringaway of satirici~lstreet

sl~ortagescontinued in other fors~s,the standard bread rlot practicdlly dls- theater or the flrst flowering of tl~evarious forms of action based on

appeared. So dld the clrarivarl and a number of other theatrical displays of special-purpose associations, the twentieth ce~itury'sinnovations nevertheless

conLempt or moral disapproval. Uurlng the same period, the pre-planned protest look small. Tl~eninetecnlh-century repertoire comprises the buslc meolls

meeting, tlre electoral rally, the den~onstration, the strlke and a number of of action open to today's partielpants In social movements.

related forn~swere crystallizing and becomi~~gfrequent. A great alteratio~~in Second, and more important, the rise of the concept and of the

Ll~erepertoire was going on. reality of the social lllovement were part of tlre same trunsEorn~atlon tl~at

Was there a conconlitant altcraLion in the strr~ctureof power? I believe brought the new repertoire into being. As ~artles,unions and other

Llrere was. It included an cmphatlc nationallrntion of politics, a greatly ln- associations specializing in the struggle for power grew in importance,

creased role of special-purpose associations, a decline in the importance of so did the idea -- and the renlity -- of parallel strenms of people, guided

conu~lunitlesas tlre loci of sl~aredinterests, a growing importance of organized by shared interests and beliefs, which overflowed the narrow char~oelsof

capital and organized labor as pnrticlpants in power struggles. As a conse- elections or labor-management negotiations which were being dug at the

quence of these massive changes, the available means of acting together on same time. Those parallel streums were social movements. Seen from cl~e

shared interests changed as well. The same sorts of correlated transformations perspective of national power structures, tl~eywere (and ore) col~erent

were occurring elsewhere in western Europe during the nineteenth century: phenomena; they exist so long as they offer a challenge to dominant interests

perhaps somewlrat earlier in Great Britain, perhaps a bit later in Germany, on and beliefs. Seen from the bottom up, they are usually much more fragmented

varied schedules according to the particular interplay of capitalism , and heterogeneous: shifting factions, temporary alliances, dlverse i~~tercsts,

and atatemaking in one region or another. a continuous flux of members and hangers-on.

Repertoires, Social Movements and Contemporary Collective Action National stntes,then, played a11 cssentlal part in the creation.of the

Mapping and explaining the changes in the collective-action repertoire modern social movement, l'l~ey 11lay an essc~rCialpart 111 tI-? movc~l~c~~c's

is an important task, but it is not the task of this paper. The nineteenell- operatlon Loday. No doubt rough equivale~~taof the social movelnent appear

century changes connect with the previous discussion of social movements any time autl~oritlesat 9 level monopollre decisions and resources wl~ich -

in two important ways. First, tlre nineteenth-century repertoire is still are vital LO Lhe Interests of the re8t of the population. The distinctive

with us today. The strike, the demonstration, the protest meeting and . contribution of the national state was to stlift the political advantage

other forms of action that were novelties then are commonplaces today. to contenders who could mount a challenge on a very large scale, and could

As compared with the large alterations in the nineteenth century, the do SO in a way ellat ~demoostmted.or even used, their ability to intervene - 20 - - 21 - seriously io regular national politics. In particular, as electoral politics co~~cesslons,bargains, cooptatioo, repression or alliances; the activists became a more important way of doing national business, the advantage ran routinize andlor demobilize their uction. Many protcsts stall in the i~~creosinglyto groups and organizers who threatened to disrupt or co~~trol earlier phases of this sequence. But the full sequence is roughly whuc the routine games of candidates and partles. State toleration or promotion observers of the contemporary United States mean by the rise and fall of a of various sorts of electoral association, furthermore, provided an oppor- social movealent. Otl~ercountries have their own standard sequences -- tunity, a warrant and a model for the action of associations that were similar, but not identical. In each country, participants, powerl~olders quasi-eleccorul, seml-electoral or even non-electoral. Signaling that you and observers customarlly speak of the sequence as the l!istory of a group: had a large nt~n~berof committed supporters became nn increasingly effective of a fairly determinate set of people sharing a common interest who mobili.ze way to score political poinLs. The short-run logic of the den~onstration , and then den~obilizearound that interest. parnlleled the long-run loglc of the social movement: in hoth cases The group image is a mystification. ln real social movements, organizers sought to display the numbers, commitment and internal discipline iovol.vement ebbs and flows, coalitions form and dissolve, fictltlous of the people behind a particular set of claims on some powerful body. In organizations loom up and fade away, would-be leaders compete for both cases. the coalition mounting the action was often fragile and shifti~~g; recognition as the rcpresentutivcs of unorganized coustltuencies, leaders if from the viewpoint of the powerful the challenge was sustained and make deals with police and politicians. The pdrullels witl~the mounting coherent. from the viewpoint of the participants it was often a hasty, of dcmonstrdtions are i~spressive. At the extreme (as John McCnrthy and tenlporary and risky alliance in a couunon cause. Mayer Zald have sald) professio~ialSocial Movement Organizations manage

That duality of perspective accounts for the chronic puzzlement and to keep movements going despite little or no contact with the publics e~nplricaldifficulty experienced by sociologi$ts and historians who seek to on whose behalf they claim to be acting; they manage by finding elsewl~ere study social movements systematically: fro~nthe top down, the rise and fall the resources to sustain a challenge. What is more, organizers, brokers, of a movement does normally have a sort of natural history. In the contem- some participants and some authorities conunonly know that they nre not porary United States a frequent scenario runs like this: seall, scattered dealing wit11 a group durably organlzed around a well-defined interest. sets of people beg111 voicing a grievance or sakjng a demand; more people Yet they collaborate in mai~itainl~~gthe illusion. Why? Uecairse the

Join them; the separate sets of concerned individuals start to communlc:~te group image is essential to a social movcment'e political logic: the and coordionte; activists, leaders, spokespeople and formal associations demonstration that committed, determined citizens support an alternative become visible; the activists make claims to speak for larger constituencies to the existing distribution or exercise of power. The movement leaders

(all blacks, all farmers, sometimes all citizens); the groups involved take threaten implicitly that the commiLted, determined citizens will withdrnw action to dramatize their progrants, de~nonstmtetlielr strength and determina- their support from the existing power structure, devote their support to some tion, enlist new support; powerholders respond variously by means of alter~~ative,or even attack the current system. Within a system of - 22 -

parliame~~taryrepreseotation, such a threat is often an effective way of the character of the people who join social movements. lhat domination

doing political business outside the routines of parties and elections, of the paths of social movements by their political context Ls not easy

precisely because of its posslble impact on parties and elections. to see; among other things, the leadcrs and entrcpre~ieursof a movement

Ihe social movement's standard sequence does not result from the have a strong i~~vestmel~tin making It nppenr to be conti~~uous,col~ercnt,

internal logic of a group'e development. It corresponds to the process and an oulgrowtl~of its own internal logic,

by which a national political system shapes, checks, and absorbs the Prorn the bottom up, however, Lhe coincidence of a particular interest,

challenges wlrich come to it. 111 the United States, the character of a particular population, a par~icularset of bellefs and a partlcular

electoral politics strongly affects the course of any "social movement" program of action w11ich characterizes a social moven!ent turns out to be

which passes the first stage of the standard sequence; to the extent that quite temporary; when the interest, the populatlon, the beliefs rind the

the grievances in question promise to become electoral issues and the program move in different directions -- as they inevitably do -- the

people concerned with those grievances an electoral bloc, every exlsting most active partLcipants are generally quite nwnre of the change. In

group which has an interest in the next round of electlons fact, they seek to control and disgulse it st the same time. But in tha~

responds to the movement as a potential source of competition, collaboration case, should the student of social nlovements follow the interest, the

or support. The Americ&~system therefore creates three main destinations populatlon, the beliefs or the program? So Long t~swe n~lstnkenly think of

for any movement: a social movement as a coherent group raLl~ertl~t~n as a political product,

1. dissohrtion; as a solo performance rather Lhan as an interacllon, the problem remains

2. merging of the organized activists into one of the insoluble. major polltlcal parties; or The solution 1s neverLl~elessat hand. 'I'he solution LY 1) LO study 3. constitution of a durable pressure group devoted to influencing both the government and the nlajor partles. the collective action of particular gro~~ps,and then 2) ask under wl~utcon-

In countries where single-constituency and single-issue parties loom ditions, from the perspective of national centers of power, that colleciive

larger, on the other hand, the third destination is less likely. Either action appears to form part of a soclal movement. We look for a sustained dissolution or the cooptation of the activists by an existing -interaction in wl~ichmobilized people, actlng 111 the name of a defined party may well occur in such a country, but a fourth outcome is also interest, make repeated broad demands on powerful others via means whlcl~

a distinct possibility: go beyond the current prescriptions of the authoritles. I 4. creation of a new, if usually temporary, political party. This way of proceeding shakes off the confusion between abstract 1 If characteristic differences in the standard paths of social lnovcments definition and hlstorlcally specific phenomenon. It recognizes the appear from one country or era to another, then, they are more likely historical specificity oE the social movement. It ties the soclal n~ovemcnt, 1 i to be due to differences in political contexts than to differences in by definltion, to the natio~lalstate. Llke electlons and party politics,

- 26 - - 27 -

In sl~ort,treat the social nlovement ss an established way of doing polltlcal Itef erences

buslneas, rattler than as a set ot deviant Jndlvlduals. Risto Alapuro

That agenda is mainly sociological; it is a set of recommendations 1976 "On the I'oliticnl Mobilization of the Agrarian Population

for improvlng our understanding of the con~rectiorrsbetween soclal nlovemenLs in Plnland: Problems and llypotlieses." Scandinavinn Political

and other forms of social behavior. Tlrere is also a11 overlapping hls~oricnl St~~dlcs.11: 51-76.

agenda which emphasizes understanding the connections between social Frdncesco Alberonl

movements end their settings in time and space. If the arguments of this 196R Stot~rnascenti. Studi sui processi colletivi. Bologna:

paper are correct, the firat emergence of the colrLcmporary repertoire of 11 Elulino.

collective nction -- including the social movement, the sustained chdllenge Carl-CBran luldrae

to national authorities in the name of an unreprcsented interest -- dese~ves 1969 "Popular Movements in Sweden: tlelrort on a Muss-l)ata Hescarclr close examinntlon. Its timing should tell us a good deal ubouL thc tlmlng Project," Social Science 1nfornl~Lio11,8: 65-75, of more general political changes (including those we sometimes loosely lloberta Asir cull "political modernization") in different countries. Its particular 1972 Soclal Movement. Ln America. Chicago: Markham. path and character In a given region should help us understand what sorc of Yves-Marie Brrc6 power structure was coming lnto existence, and thereby con~prehend Lhe 1974 HlsLoire dcs Croquants. Parlu: 1)roz. 2 vols. structure within which contention goes on in that region today. The close Harry Brill

examination of more recent changes in the prevailing repertoire should 1971 Why Organizers Fail. The Story of a Rent Strike. Berkeley:

assist us in detecting gradual alterations of the political system as a whole. University of California lJress.

Finnlly, the student of the collective nction of a pdrtlculsr group -- Maren Lockwood Cardcn women, farmers, regional minorities, or others -- allould gain plenty of 1974 Tlre New Feminist Movement. New York: Russell Sage FoundaLion.

insight from a systematic comparison of the rcpertoirc of that group with Manuel Castells

tho repertoires of other groups within the same national populatlon. At 1973 Luttes urbaines. Paris: Hasl>cro.

this point, the history and sociology of collective action nlerge lnto Manuel CasLells, Eddy Cl~erkl. Francis Coderd nnd Doa~inlqucMet11 common and fruitful enterprise. 1974 Sociologie des mouvements socinux urb'~ios. Enqueue sur la

Rdglone parisieone. Vol. I: Prubl6matique thdoriquc, Mdtho-

dologie, Analyse des tendunces gdndralcs. Purls: Ecole des

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1975 Agrarian Revolution. Social Muvements and Export Agrict~ltureill "10/18." the Underdeveloped World. New York: Free Press. - 30 -

C.C. Pickvance

1975 "On the Study of Urban Social Movements." Sociological Review,

23: 29-49.

Ken6 Pillorget

1975 Les mouvelnenta insurrectionnels 1113 Provence entre 1598 et 1715.

Paris: Pedone.

Prances Pox Piven and Riclinrd A. Cloward

1977 Poor People's Movements. Wlly Tl~eySucceed. How Tliey Fail.

New York: Random House.

Doris Horchnev

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Paris: Mouton.

Charles Tilly

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Addison-Wesley.

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Social Movements: Resource Moblllzation. Tactics, and Social

Control. Cambridge, Massacl~usetts:Winthrop.

Miirk Traugott

1978 "Reconceiving Social Movements," Soclal Problems, 26: 38-49.

Michael Useem

1975 Protest Movements in America. Indianapolis: Bobhs-Merrill.

Paul Wilkinson

1971 Social Movement. London: Macn~illan. "Key Concepts in

Political Science. "

Kennet11 L. Wilaon and Anthony Orum

1976 "Mobilizing People for Collectivt: Political. Actlon," Journal

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