Di Alto
2003 APSA paper
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“To me its very healthy that people have tremendous disagreements, enunciate them, and have political positions that
they can clearly put forward to their people. That’s the nature of democracy. It’s never clean, it’s never neat, and
sometimes it’s pretty rowdy”.
Dr. Haunani-Kay Trask, Native Hawaiian sovereignty movement leader and political activist
Introduction
Nearly all social movements are characterized by intramovement conflict. In fact, one would
be hard pressed to identify a movement that has not experienced internal turmoil at some point
during its lifecycle.
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Intramovement conflict can occur in one of two primary arenas. First, there
may be conflict within a particular social movement organization (SMO) as to what the SMO should
be doing. Second, there may be conflict between SMOs competing for prominence within the
movement. These two arenas of conflict are not mutually exclusive. Within a given social
movement it is entirely plausible that there may be conflicts occurring within a SMO at the same
time that SMOs are competing with one another. Rather than the exception to the rule, it is much
more likely that internal conflict is the norm for social movements.
Social movements can experience dissention along a number of important lines including
membership, leadership, and ideology. In terms of their membership, social movements are not
usually comprised of “a homogenous social, economic, political, or intellectual group” (Masotti, et
al. 1969: p. 39) of activists. Instead, social movement membership draws on a diverse pool of
individuals whose backgrounds vary according to race and ethnicity, social class, religion,
intellectual tradition, political orientation, and gender. The diversity of activists’ backgrounds
readily lends itself to intramovement conflict both within SMOs and between them. Just as social
movement membership varies so does social movement leadership. As Killian (1972) notes social
movements are typically characterized “by a variety of leaders reflecting different orientations and
styles” (p. 41). Leaders of social movement organizations compete not only to maintain their
positions within their organizations but also to achieve prominence within the movement itself. As a
result, leadership is often a contributing factor to intramovement conflict. Another important
division within social movements is that of ideology.
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Benford (1993) notes that “numerous
organizations typically comprise a particular movement. While a movement’s various organizations
share an overarching goal, disagreements frequently erupt within and among movement
organizations regarding specific objectives, strategies, and tactics” (p. 678). These battles are not
insignificant as they have important consequences for the direction that movements take, the
Convention