How Social Movements Die: Repression and Demobilization of the Republic of New Africa (Cambridge Studies in Contentious Politics) - Hardcover

Davenport, Christian

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 110704149X ISBN 13: 9781107041493

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2014

Synopsis

How do social movements die? Some explanations highlight internal factors like factionalization, whereas others stress external factors like repression. Christian Davenport offers an alternative explanation where both factors interact. Drawing on organizational, as well as individual-level, explanations, Davenport argues that social movement death is the outgrowth of a coevolutionary dynamic whereby challengers, influenced by their understanding of what states will do to oppose them, attempt to recruit, motivate, calm, and prepare constituents while governments attempt to hinder all of these processes at the same time. Davenport employs a previously unavailable database that contains information on a black nationalist/secessionist organization, the Republic of New Africa, and the activities of authorities in the U.S. city of Detroit and state and federal authorities.

About this title

Book Description

This book argues that social movement death is the outgrowth of a coevolutionary dynamic whereby challengers, influenced by their understanding of what states will do to oppose them, attempt to recruit, motivate, calm, and prepare constituents while governments attempt to hinder all of these processes at the same time.

From the Author

This book (initially entitled "To Kill a Movement") has been underway for the better part of the last decade.  I was drawn to it for several reasons: 1) we know very little about why social movements die relative to what we know about why they begin and what they do when they are around, 2) we know very little about how state repression influences social movement organizations as well as participants at a very micro level of analysis, 3) we know very little about African American social movements especially those that were not favorably viewed by the majority when they existed, and 4) there was a fantastic amount of previously unexplored data about the group that I came across. Finally, I wanted to write something that was very different from the books that I had previously written.  This work is at once tied to my last one (Media Bias, Perspective and State Repression) in that it concerns a specific dissident organization and its interaction with a specific part of the US political apparatus. At the same time, the book is much more nuanced in its treatment of the subject, much more narratively appealing and I was able to utilize a greater amount of the archival material that I came across. Additionally, I endeavor to show that the book and the argument should not be simply viewed as an isolated case without relevance to other social movements as well as other countries. Indeed, I believe that the argument resonates well with information available about other cases.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 110704149X
• ISBN 13: 9781107041493
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 366