Escalating Mutual Obligation in the Wisconsin Uprising of 2011

• In Event: 561 - Regular Session. Social Movements, Emotions and Motivation

Abstract

In this paper, I develop the concept of escalating mutual obligation as a motivation for continued collective action. I do this by examining the dynamic that developed between the three principle collectivities in the Wisconsin Uprising of 2011, which was one of the largest sustained collective actions in the history of the United States. I argue that the various categories of politicians and protesters in opposition to Governor Walker's "budget repair" bill effectively pushed one another to establish and continue relatively extreme and politically risky forms of resistance. Analysis of political opportunities is insufficient to explain this dynamic, as is pure rational-strategic calculation, as are political opportunities in combination with rational-strategic calculation. With a foot in both these perspectives, my new concept of escalating mutual obligation can sufficiently explain this dynamics of this historically important case.

Author

• Matthew Lawrence Kearney, University of Wisconsin-Madison