Page 109 - Contemporary Political Sociology Globalization Politics and Power

Social Movements 95

(Olson, 1968 : 60 – 1). Oberschall extends that idea to give a more socio-
logical account of individual preferences as shaped by social conditions.
He remains clearly committed to Olson ’ s methodological individualism,
however, arguing that consideration of action as based on anything
other than rationally chosen self - interest is mere speculation (Oberschall,
1973 : 118).
RMT was further developed by the sociologists Mayer Zald and John

McCarthy, who were the first to coin the term as such, and who developed
many of the ideas on which the empirical research program it stimulated
has been based. Zald and McCarthy focused particularly on social move-
ment organizations, arguing that it was, above all, the fostering of such
organizations which was responsible for the exponential growth of social
movements in the 1960s. Again, they largely accepted the premises of
rational choice theory and Olson ’ s ideas on the fundamental incompatibil-
ity of individual self - interest and collective action. For them, any satisfac-
tory explanation of social movements would have to be consistent with
those premises.
According to Zald and McCarthy, the professionalization of social
movement organizations responsible for the increase in social movement
activity involves the development of career opportunities for the individu-
als they employ. Often experts in social policy, the law, or a “ social
problem, ” they move “ in and out of government agencies, private agen-
cies, community organizations, foundations and universities, ” committed
above all to programs and policies rather than to a particular organization
or to their profession (Zald and McCarthy, 1987 : 397). These opportuni-
ties were linked in the 1960s and 1970s to a growth in funding for
“ worthy causes ” provided by charitable foundations, corporations,
churches, and, also, the state.
Zald and McCarthy define resources more narrowly than Oberschall

and Olson – setting the terms within which the research agenda of RMT
was to develop – as involving legitimacy, money, the labor of supporters,
and facilities. In practice, however, the resource with which they are most
concerned is money. This is the second important factor Zald and
McCarthy see as contributing to an increase in social movement activity:
the general increase in wealth of developed societies. The increased wealth
of the new middle classes, who are able and inclined to provide such

resources, is significant, according to Zald and McCarthy, as it helps
to form “ the social movement sector, ” consisting of the total activity
and membership of all social movements in a society. Social movement
organizations compete with each other to convert what Zald and
McCarthy call “ adherents, ” those who are sympathetic to the aims of