Organizing Social Movements on the Right and the Left in the United States

• In Event: Social Movements and Parties, Crisis and Change

Abstract

Social movements in the United States tend to organize according to different logics depending on whether they are on the Left or Right of the political spectrum. Right-oriented social movements are most likely to mobilize when they perceive state institutions to be illegitimate. Left-oriented social movements, on the contrary, are most likely to mobilize when policies are threatening their interests, regardless of the perceived legitimacy of state institutions. This study examines these propositions by drawing on more than 6,000 surveys conducted between 2016 and 2020 at a wide range of protests in Washington, DC, such as the Women’s March, Black Lives Matter, the March for Life, and Stop the Steal campaigns. The results support the argument that ideological polarization plays a major role in shaping the organization of American social movements.

Author

• Michael T. Heaney, University of Glasgow