Page 110 - Contemporary Political Sociology Globalization Politics and Power

96 Social Movements

their movement, into “ constituents, ” those who provide its resources,
from within much the same social group. Especially important in this
respect are “ conscience adherents, ” likely to have considerable resources
and to be receptive to the claims of more than one movement. Zald and
McCarthy further distinguish what thy call “ potential benefi ciaries, ”
those who stand to gain from the movement ’ s activities, who may fall
into none of the previous categories. For example, a woman without
disposable income who happened to be opposed to rights for women

might nevertheless benefit from increased opportunities won by the
women ’ s movement.
As Zald and McCarthy see it, their version of RMT, emphasizing as it
does the importance of social movement organizations, provides a full
response to Olson ’ s claims concerning the lack of rationality of collective
action. The free - rider problem does not arise where the participation of
most individuals is virtually cost - free, requiring nothing more than an
annual subscription and/or occasional donation, while there are consider-
able benefits in terms of employment and career opportunities for those

who do take an active role in the collective action of social movements.
According to Zald and McCarthy ( 1987 : 27), their theory turns Olson ’ s
thesis on its head:

Though it may be individually irrational for any individual to join a social
movement organization that already fights on behalf of his [ sic ] preferences,

the existence of a social movement made up of well - heeled adherents
calls out to the entrepreneur of the cause to attempt to form a viable
organization.

In fact, far from being the outcome of individual action to redress social
wrongs, Zald and McCarthy suggest that social movement organizations
may even create grievances which are not felt as such by members of the
population concerned.

The influential work of Zald and McCarthy and their various collabo-
rators (see Zald and McCarthy, 1987, 1988 ) went some way toward situ-
ating social movement organizations in relation to the wider political
process insofar as they suggested that, since the sources of funding they

identified as contributing to those organizations were established elite

institutions, it is likely that there would be difficulty in mobilizing resources
in support of radical causes seen as seriously challenging to the existing
order. It was the work of Charles Tilly, however, particularly in From
Mobilization to Revolution (1978), which provided the tools for the
investigation of political opportunity structures.