Ballots and Barricades: On the Reciprocal Relationship between Elections and Social Movements

2010/06/01 by Doug McAdam, Sidney Tarrow · 467 citations
Social Sciences · #Cognate #Communication #Computer science #Conversation #Democracy #Dynamics (music) #Electoral Systems and Political Participation #Epistemology #Law #Linguistics #Linkage (software) #Mechanism (biology) #Movement (music) #Political Conflict and Governance #Political economy #Political science #Politics #Populism, Right-Wing Movements #Reciprocal #Set (abstract data type) #Social movement #Sociology

paper · doi:10.1017/s1537592710001234

published in Perspectives on Politics 8(2), 529-542 (Cambridge University Press)

openalex publication_date 2010/06/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/17

Abstract

Why do two cognate literatures—social movements and electoral studies—travel along parallel paths with little conversation between them? And what can be done to connect them in the future? Drawing on their work with the late Charles Tilly on Dynamics of Contention (2001), Doug McAdam and Sidney Tarrow examine two important studies that approach (but do not effect such a linkage), propose a mechanism-based set of linkages between elections and social movements, and apply their approach in a preliminary examination of the relations between the American anti-war movement after 9/11 and the Democratic Party.

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