Page 108 - Contemporary Political Sociology Globalization Politics and Power

94 Social Movements

Olson was not himself aiming to provide an explanation of the forma-
tion of social movements. On the contrary, he was interested in showing
why it is that people do not take part in collective action, despite their
individual interests in collective goals. The existence of social grievances

is not a sufficient condition for the rise of a social movement. However,
for Resource Mobilization theorists impressed by rational choice theory
but interested in studying actually existing social movements, given that
people are participating in collective action, the question becomes rather
different: how are resources mobilized in such a way as to make that
participation rational for self - interested individuals?
This is the question addressed by Anthony Oberschall, who extended
Olson ’ s theory to explain the historical emergence of oppositional social

movements. Oberschall defines resources widely enough to include mate-
rial resources, such as jobs, money, and the right to goods and services,
and non - material, including authority, commitment, friendship, skills,
and so on. By mobilization, he means the processes by which groups
manage resources for the pursuit of their goals (Oberschall, 1973 : 28).
Like Olson, Oberschall supposes that individuals faced with their own
resource management decisions participate in collective action to the
extent that they rationally choose to pursue their interests in this way.
However, he is able to show that such participation is more common than
one would suppose on Olson ’ s theory by taking into account aspects of
the social situations in which individuals find themselves, something

Olson largely ignored. In the case of movement leaders, he argues that,
although the costs of their participation are very high, as indeed may be
the risks where they are involved in activities which are opposed to vested

interests, so too are the potential benefits in terms of social status and
power within the movement, and a successful career as a result of the
leadership role if it succeeds. This is particularly the case where “ normal ”
opportunities in the wider society are closed to members of a particular

social group, in which case the benefits to leaders as individuals should
they succeed will be very high, and the costs relatively low. Oberschall
also considers the social context of the rank - and - file members of social

movements, arguing that they do not exist as isolated individuals as Olson
assumes; in fact, they often live in communities in which everyone stands
to gain from collective action so that each individual is under social pres-
sure to participate in a movement working toward common goals. This
is particularly likely to be successful because the costs of that kind of
participation are low. In fact, Olson himself thought that social sanctions
and rewards are among the kinds of incentives that can mobilize a group,
but he believed they only work among small, friendship - based groups