The Organizational Substructure of Disorderly Politics

According to the theory of mass society, organizational membership drags people into routine politics, while discouraging participation in direct action movements. The thesis of this paper is that this theory needs severe modification. First, for an important class of organizations—organizations with goals unincorporated by the larger society or containing members with interests or values that are unincorporated—membership increases rather than inhibits participation. This is indicated both by a theoretical analysis of mass theory and by data gathered from participants in the Negro sit-in movement of the early 1960s. Second, this data indicates that the existence of many such organizations is necessary if a direct action movement is to be strong. Thus, not only routine, but disorderly politics too requires an organizational substructure to create and sustain it. Third, the data indicates that the substructures of these two types of politics are not totally distinct, but rather share certain organizations in common. Some organizations seem to generate participation in both types simultaneously, while others may, at one point in their history, inhibit participation, but at another, when a movement has gathered strength, generate it. In short, theory and data suggest the need for a major revision of mass theory which takes the variable of unincorporation into account.