Leadership and Social Movements

This work examines the theory and practice of social movement leadership, past and present. Despite the explosion in social movement research in Europe and the United States in the last 20 years, the question of leadership has been relatively neglected. Why does leadership matter so much to social movement success and failure? Must leadership imply oligarchy and the weakening of movement democracy or is leadership compatible with popular self-emancipation? Can social movements dispense with leadership altogether by creating "leaderless cultures"? These questions are examined in this title. The editors offer a theoretical model of leadership as both a purposive activity and a dialogical relationship. They argue that democratic social movement leadership is possible, is necessary to movement success and goes "all the way down" social movement organizations. The themes established in the introduction are taken forward, from a range of perspectives, in two ways.Firstly, by the critical re-examination of a series of classic treatments of movement leadership, including Michel's theory of an "iron law of oligarchy", Lenin's account of the revolutionary party, influential social psychological models of the leadership of crowds, and the seminal debates about the possibility of "leaderlessness" in the second wave women's liberation movement. Secondly, a series of illuminating case studies explore the complex dynamics and competing forms taken by social movement leadership as well as its impact on movement success and failure. Chapters examine leadership in the US civil rights movement, the early suffragette organisations in Britain and Ireland, the French anti-racist group, SOS Racisme, and the environmental activists of Earth First.