ed. Dalton&Kuechler Challenging the Political Order: New Social and Political Movements In Western Democracies. (Polity Press, 1990)

ed. Dalton&Kuechler Challenging the Political Order: New Social and Political Movements In Western Democracies. (Polity Press, 1990)

Dalton, Russel J, Kuechler Manfred, and Burklin, Wilhelm. The Challenge of New Movements.


"On the ideological level these movements advocated a new social paradigm, which contrasts with the dominant goal structure of Western Industrial societies. New social movements also illustrate a style of unconventional political action - based on direct action - that contrasts sharply with the traditional neo-corporatist pattern of interest intermediation in a many contemporary democracies." p5


this is a bit of a dodgy attempt to create a complete historical disjncture between new and old social movements, escpecially given a glance of Rude and Thompsons study of the french and english crowd;

" Activists in new social movements often hold intense feelings about their cause , but these sentiments fall short of the primoridal frustration aggression emotions that spawned food riots and tax revolts in the eighteenth and the revolutionary movements of the nineteenth." p7


Three mainstream models of approaching social movements:

Manbchurs Olsens rational choice model applies a cost benefit analysis to them

The resource mobilisation model of political action - dissatisfaction always exists but depends on existence of organisations to mobilise it - the challenge of new social movements is then to mobilise this base..




Differnces of new social movements in academic literature:

base of support is non class based

goals are non instrumental to individuals but collective

decentralised organisational structure

political styles is less spontaneous



on page 30 Karl Werner Brand describes origins in sixties steady economic growth

"the sixties saw a dramatic shift of personal attention and energies to the public sphere. The consensus about the prevailing petit-bourgeoise, privatistic values broke down. The complacency of the 1950s gave way to the critical view of and moral outrage about the shadowy side of the "affluent society.""


Inglehart gives an excellent analysis of neo-corportist practices on page 69


Claus Offe: "These are "new" movements to the extent that they persist as political movements, that is, they do not retreat into literary, artistic religous or other cultural forms of collective expression and the folklore of life styles but continue to claim a role in the generation and utilisation of political power. Movements are "new" in that their very existence and persistence testifies to the limited and perhaps shrinking absorbtion and political processing of established political actors and the procedures of "normal politics" as well as of institutions within civil society." p233

Offe is an ignorant fucking oaf" "They are incapable of using the grammar of political change that was common to the liberal and the socialist traditions. This grammar basically consists of two dichotomies: the dark past versus the bright future, and the progressive "we" against the selfish and reactionary "them". Instead of such grandiose ideological constructs , we find a scattered set of issues and the incoherant expression of complaints, frustrations and demands which do not add up - either ideologically or for that reason, organisationally to a unified force or vision." p234