Political Parties and Social Movements in American Political Development

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

This panel is inspired by recent scholarship that seeks to examine the complex interplay between social movements and political parties in American Political Development. Political scientists have usually seen participation operating along two registers: the articulation of interests and their aggregation to build electoral majorities, assigned to two different types of organizations. While interest groups and movements articulate interests, it is parties that aggregate them. But as recent studies and political crises show, this division of labor does not neatly map into these two boxes. When movements turn to electoral politics, their strategies and personnel are largely shaped by their interactions with parties; and parties are increasingly forced to take account of – indeed, sometimes to act like – social movements when they are challenged by increasingly aggressive movements. This panel will examine a wide range of party/movement interactions – from the nineteenth century to the present. Participants will also consider how institutional developments – for example the development of the modern presidency, the hollowing out of Congress’s legislative and oversight capacities, and the growing influence of the Judiciary on high stakes domestic and foreign policy -- have affected the dynamic interaction between movements and parties.

Sub Unit

• Division 7: Politics and History

Individual Presentations

• Movements, Executive Power, and Democratic Precarity - Sidney M. Milkis, University of Virginia; Daniel Tichenor, University of Oregon

• Between Parties and Movements: Placing Party Insurgents in American Politics - Adam Hilton, Mount Holyoke College

• Visions of Party in 19th Century American Politics - Daniel Schlozman, Johns Hopkins University; Sam Rosenfeld, Colgate University

• Debtors Movements and American Political Development - Chloe Thurston, Northwestern University; Emily Zackin, Johns Hopkins University

Chair

• Sidney M. Milkis University of Virginia

Discussants

• Sidney Tarrow Cornell University

• Elisabeth S. Clemens University of Chicago