The Interplay between Demand and Supply for Engagement in Social Movement Organisations – Insights from Attac Germany and France

Abstract

This research aims to evaluate whether two types of social movement organisations (SMOs) – an organisation that has political influence and an organisation that focuses on consistent ideological frames and schemata of interpretation, attract different types of activists with different engagement patterns. Based on a comparative study of the membership of Attac Germany and France – two branches of the same organisation, which have identical goals but differ in their degree of political relevancy and ideological consistency – the research shows that, thanks to its recent policy successes, Attac Germany is mainly comprised of instrumentally-oriented members. In contrast, Attac France lacks policy successes, but offers its members a coherent ideological framework. Consequently, the membership of Attac France predominantly attracts activists with strong values and beliefs. The second part of the article also shows that the two types of activists – more instrumentally-driven and more ideology-oriented individuals – display distinct engagement patterns.

Notes

Dieter Rucht, ‘The Transnationalization of Social Movements: Trends, Causes, Problems’, in Donatella della Porta, Hanspeter Kriesi and Dieter Rucht (eds), Social Movements in a Globalizing World (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999), p.207.

E.g. Donatella della Porta, ‘Multiple Belongings, Tolerant Identities, and the Construction of “Another Politics”: Between the European Social Forum and the Local Social Fora’, in Donatella della Porta and Sidney Tarrow (eds), Transnational Protest and Social Activism (Oxford: Rowman and Littlefield, 2007), pp.175–202; Doug McAdam, Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency, 1930–1980 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982); Sidney Tarrow, Power in Movement (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998); Charles Tilly and Sidney Tarrow, Contentious Politics (Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers, 2007).

E.g. Ted. R. Gurr, Why Men Rebel (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1970); McAdam, Political Process and the Development; John D. McCarthy and Zald N. Mayer, The Trend of Social Movements in America: Professionalization and Resource Mobilizations (Morristown, NJ: General Learning Press, 1973).

E.g. Bert Klandermans, ‘The Demand and Supply of Participation: Social Psychological Correlates of Participation in Social Movements’, in David A. Snow et al. (eds), The Blackwell Companion of Social Movements (Oxford: Blackwell, 2004); Bert Klandermans and Dirk Oegema, ‘Potentials, Networks, Motivations, and Barriers: Steps Towards Participation in Social Movements’, American Sociological Review 52/4 (1987), pp.519–31.

E.g. Bert Klandermans and Nonna Mayer, ‘Right-wing Extremism as a Social Movement’, in Bert Klandermans and Nonna Mayer (eds), Extreme Right Activists in Europe: Through the Magnifying Class (London: Routledge, 2006), pp.3–16.

See Jacqueline Van Stekelenburg, Dirk Klandermans and Wilco W. von Dijk, ‘Context Matters: Explaining How and Why Mobilizing Context Influences Mobilizational Dynamics’, Journal of Social Issues 65/4 (2009), pp.815–38.

Attac stands for: Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions for the Help of Citizens.

Bert Klandermans, ‘Mobilization and Participation: Socio-Psychological Expansions of Resource Mobilizations Theory’, American Sociological Review 5/5 (1984), pp.583–600; Bert Klandermans, ‘Psychology and Trade Union Participation: Joining, Acting, Quitting’, Journal of Occupational Psychology 59/2 (1986), pp.189–204; Bert Klandermans, The Social Psychology of Protest (Oxford and Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1997); Klandermans, ‘The Demand and Supply of Participation’.

E.g. Robert Bedford and David A. Snow, ‘Framing Processes and Social Movements: An Overview and Assessment’, Annual Review of Sociology 26/1 (2004), pp.611–39; Hank Johnston and John E. Noakes, Frames of Protest: Social Movements and the Framing Perspective (London: Rowman and Littlefield, 2005)

E.g. Deborah B. Gould, ‘Passionate Political Processes: Bringing Emotions Back into the Study of Social Movements’, in Jeff Goodwin and James M. Casper (eds), Rethinking Social Movements – Structure, Meaning and Emotion (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003), pp.155–76.

E.g. Jeff Goodwin, ‘Introduction: Why Emotions Matter’, in Jeff Goodwin, James M. Jasper and Francesca Poletta (eds), Passionate Politics: Emotions and Social Movements (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), pp.1–24; James M. Jasper, ‘The Emotions of Protest: Affective and Reactive Emotions in and around Social Movements’, Sociological Forum 13/3 (1998), pp.397–424.

Jeff Goodwin and James M. Jasper, ‘Caught in a Winding, Snarling Vine: The Structural Bias of Political Process Theory’, in Jeff Goodwin and James M. Jasper (eds), Rethinking Social Movements Structure Meaning and Emotions (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2004), pp.3–32; Lynn Hunt, The Family Romance of the French Revolution (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992).

Gou J. Andersen, ‘“Environmentalism”, “New Politics”, and Industrialism: Some Theoretical Perspectives’, Scandinavian Political Studies 13/2 (1990), pp.101–18.

E.g. Anthony Downs, An Economic Theory of Democracy (New York: HarperCollins, 1957); Mancur Olson, The Theory of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Goods (Schocken: New York, 1968).

E.g. Hyojoung Kim and Peter S. Bearman, ‘The Structure and Dynamics of Movement Participation’, American Sociological Review 62/1 (1997), pp.70–93; Steven E. Finkel and Edward N. Muller, ‘Rational Choice and the Dynamics of Collective Political Action: Evaluating Alternative Models with Panel Data’, American Political Science Review 92/1) (1998), pp.37–50; Mark Lubell et al., ‘Collective Action, Environmental Activism and Air Quality’, Political Research Quarterly 59/1 (2006), pp.149–60.

Hein A. van der Heijden, ‘Globalization, Environmental Movements and International Political Opportunity Structures’, Organization and Environment 19/1 (2006), pp.28–45.

Klandermans, The Social Psychology of Protest; Klandermans, ‘The Demand and Supply of Participation’.

Van Stekelenburg et al., ‘Context Matters’.

Ibid.

Vicky Birchfeld and Annette Freyberg Ian, ‘Constructing Opposition in the Age of Globalization: The Potential of ATTAC’, Globalizations Journal 1/2 (2004), pp.278–304; Sveinung Sandberg, ‘Fighting Neo-liberalism with Neo-liberal Discourse: ATTAC Norway, Foucault and Collective Action Framing’, Social Movement Studies 5/3 (2006), pp.209–22; Sarah Waters, ‘A l'attac. Globalisation and Ideological Renewal on the French Left’, Modern and Contemporary France 14/2 (2006), pp.141–56.

Attac France, Platforme d'Attac, available from http://www.france.attac.org/spip.php?article7 (accessed 10 Oct. 2009).

Marcos Ancelovici, ‘Organizing against Globalization: The Case of ATTAC in France’, Politics and Society 30/3 (2002), pp.427–63. For example, certain localities such as the city of Cherbourg gained membership in the organisation, left-leaning politicians in the French National Assembly created a parliamentary Attac Network, and the French National Assembly condoned the introduction of the Tobin Tax, if similar measures were launched by the European Union.

William A. Gamson, The Strategy of Social Protest (Homewood, IL: Dorsey Press, 1995). Around 2002 and 2003, the organisation had momentum. Attac pushed for the creation of the World Social Forums, which was supported by politicians (e.g. French President Jacques Chirac met with Attac's President Bernhard Cassen on 18 November 2003) and received financial assistance for its programmes (e.g. the association received €500,000 in public subsidies for the organisation of the European Social Forum).

Didier Hassoux, ‘Non et Maintenant? Parti Socialiste: Pas de Pardon pour la “Trahison” d'ATTAC’, Libération, 4 June 2005; Frederik Uggla, ‘Global Demands and National Politics, Attac in France and Sweden’, Comparative Politics 38/2 (2006), pp.169–88.

In December 2004, ATTAC organised an internal consultation. Two questions were asked: (1) Are you in favour or against the TCE? (84 per cent of the activists who voted said against) and (2) Do you wish that ATTAC gave vote priorities? (72 per cent said yes).

For example, Attac's president at the time, Jacques Nikonoff, promised that the victory of the ‘no’ camp would make it possible to build another Europe that respects human beings and the environment (interview with Jacques Nikonoff, 2005).

Raphael Wintrebert, Attac, la politique autrement? Enquete sur la crise d'une organisation militante (Paris: Edition la Decouverte, 2007).

Xavier Crettiez and Isabelle Sommier La France Rebelle (Paris: Editions Michalon, 2006).

The creation of Attac Germany followed a typical diffusion process. The ideas of Attac France resonated in Germany and Attac Germany emerged about a year after Attac France was launched. As it is rather typical for diffusion processes, Attac Germany diffused at a different rate and via a different pathway than Attac France,

Attac Deutschland, ‘Germany: A Network for Democratic Control of International Financial Markets has been established’, available from http://www.attac.de/aktuell/presse/detailansicht/datum/2000/01/22/germany-a-network-for-democratic-control-of-international-financial-markets-has-been/?cHash=c4ea94d054 (accessed 3 Oct. 2009).

Felix Kolb, ‘The Impact of Transnational Protest on Social Movement Organizations: Mass Media and the Making of ATTAC Germany’, in Donatella della Porte and Sidney Tarrow (eds), Transnational Protest and Social Activism (Oxford: Rowman and Littlefield, 2005), pp.95–120.

Attac Deutschland, 2. Ratschlag: Netzwerk plant konkrete Aktionen zu Offshore-Centers, Tobin Steuer und Rentenreform, available from http://www.attac.de/aktuell/presse/detailansicht/datum/2000/04/15/2-ratschlag-netzwerk-plant-konkrete-aktionen-zu-offshore-centers-tobin-steuer-und-rentenreform/?cHash=cedc 734585 (4 Oct. 2009).

Kolb, ‘The Impact of Transnational Protest’; Dieter Rucht, Simon Teune and Mundo Yang, ‘The Global Justice Movement in Germany’, in Donatella della Porta (ed.), The Global Justice Movement, Cross National and Transnational Perspectives (Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers, 2007), pp.157–83.

For example, Der Spiegel, an agenda-setting newspaper in Germany, repeatedly referred to Attac in a 12-page article which appeared two days after the event on 23 July (see Rucht et al., ‘The Global Justice Movement’).

Claus Leggewie, ‘Nach dem Fall. Globalisierungskritik und ihre Kritik‘, Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte 52–3/1 (2001), pp.18–22.

In all of these mobilisation efforts, Attac was successful in linking national problems to the broader international economic environment. For example, with regard to Agenda 2010, which was a government effort to curb the welfare state, Peter Wahl stated in 2005 that ‘Agenda 2010 is [pure] neo-liberalism’. He then goes on to explain that even though ‘globalization is not the only factor that influences the welfare system and job market … the dismantling of the welfare state can only be understood in connection with globalization.

Attac was particularly effective in coordinating the Heiligendamm mobilisation, where a total of 70,000 to 100,000 people protested against the policies of the G8.

The impending economic crisis in 2008 also contributed to the government's abandonment of the privatisation plans. The decline in the stock market would not have allowed for a successful placement of the stocks.

I interviewed 100 activists in Germany and 82 in France.

Joel D. Aberbach, James D. Chesney and Bert A. Rockman, ‘Exploring Elite Political Attitudes: Some Methodological Lessons’, Political Methodology 2/1 (1975), p.5.

Joel D. Aberbach and Bert A. Rockman, In the Web of Politicians in Western Democracies (Washington, DC: The Brookings Press, 2000).

Roland Aminzade, ‘Class Analysis, Politics, and French Labor History’, in Larry Berlanstein (ed.), Rethinking Labor History (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1993), p.105.

In both countries, I deliberately targeted local strongholds of the organisation (e.g. Toulouse in France or Leipzig in Germany), which consist of several hundreds of members as well as small chapters (e.g. Nice in France or Singen in Germany) that only have a handful of activists in their ranks.

I obtained official membership numbers from the two national headquarters. This allowed me to compare my sample with the real numbers.

My interview data indicates that the activists' motivations are deeply entrenched and have not directly been affected by the organisation in which they are currently involved. Not only have 93 per cent of all members shared post-materialist values before joining Attac; even more importantly, nearly all individuals have followed the engagement pattern of any of the three types of activists through their activist careers. The only exception is individuals that have joined Attac to gain knowledge about their social and political environment. Once this knowledge has been acquired, this latter group of activists might become more instrumentally driven, but once their desire to affect political realities has developed, this desire remains the main motivation for their engagement.

See Appendix 2 for details of the interviews.

When asked about the crisis, Paul, an active member from Toulouse, answered: ‘The crisis took place in Paris and not in Toulouse. We kept our serenity and continued to work as we did before’ (Interview 15).

Marc explains how he and his wife have gone through these stages of engagement. He states: ‘I see that our engagement has gone through several steps. First, we absorbed information. Now we feel capable of distributing flyers and talking to people. In one or two years we might be ready to take up a leadership position. In the future we might also be capable of organizing concrete actions’ (Interview 13).

Julie nicely summarises her development in her movement engagement when she explains: ‘Since I have been in Attac I have understood more and more what is happening around me. Thanks to Attac, I feel capable of engaging myself in many other structures. In Attac there are more people that think than people that act. You need these people because they have ideas and knowledge, but you also need people that go out and diffuse this knowledge. Due to the fact that I want to learn and act, I have decided to become engaged in another group. I chose a local group against the installation of a large supermarket. Right now, I am engaged in both structures, but I am more involved in this other group, because there I can really be active and change something ‘(Interview 14).