Social Movements

By understanding how mainstream political culture co-opts elected officials, grassroots groups can help them resist.

Resolving the conflict between being visionary and being pragmatic is critical for those who want to transform society.

As social movements move beyond the default anarchist sensibility that prevailed through Occupy, they must still reckon with hard questions about bureaucracy and cooptation.

In the past five years, abolitionists and advocates of criminal justice reform in Los Angeles County have amassed some impressive victories—laying out a vision for reducing incarceration and providing care that could have national significance.

Understanding the warring factions within the Democratic and Republican Party coalitions is critical for progressives who want to build power.

As the left increasingly focuses on electoral politics, a new framework is emerging for how candidates who win should partner with social movements.

Forty years of struggle by Brazil's landless workers movement offers lessons on engaging the system without being co-opted.

As the "co-governance" model gains traction, here's a look into the promises and pitfalls--and how organizers are reimagining electoral politics.

Political scientists Frances Fox Piven and Daniel Schlozman have debated whether movements do better to put pressure on political parties from the outside, or to focus on gaining insider power themselves.

Daniel Schlozman argues that, by becoming “anchor groups” within mainstream political parties, movements can secure lasting influence. But is entry into a party worth the price of admission?