This page gathers Theda Skocpol’s research on civic associations and social movements, spanning her books, including Diminished Democracy and What a Mighty Power We Can Be, and articles in journals such as the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science, and Social Science History. From nineteenth-century fraternal and women’s groups to today’s grassroots resistance networks, these works examine how Americans have organized to shape democracy and public policy.

Articles

Resistance Disconnect: How Indivisible’s National Advocates and Grassroots Volunteers Have Pulled Apart
Theda Skocpol; Caroline Tervo. The American Prospect February 4, 2021 [PDF]
Categories: Commentary on US Politics and US Associations and Social Movements

The Rush to Organize: Explaining Associational Formation in the United States, 1860s-1920s
Jocelyn Elise Crowley; Theda Skocpol. American Journal of Political Science Vol. 45, No. 4 (October 2001), pp. 813-829 [PDF] [Online Link]
Categories: Research Article and US Associations and Social Movements

A Nation of Organizers: The Institutional Origins of Civic Voluntarism in the United States
Theda Skocpol; Marshall Ganz; Ziad Munson. The American Political Science Review Vol. 94, No. 3 (2000), pp. 527-546 [PDF] [Online Link]
Categories: Research Article and US Associations and Social Movements

The Tocqueville Problem: Civic Engagement in American Democracy
Theda Skocpol. Social Science History Vol. 21, No. 4 (Winter 1997), pp. 455-479 [PDF] [Online Link]
Categories: Research Article and US Associations and Social Movements

Women’s Associations and the Enactment of Mothers’ Pensions in the United States
Theda Skocpol; Marjorie Abend-Wein; Christopher Howard; Susan Goodrich Lehmann. The American Political Science Review Vol. 87, No. 3 (September 1993), p. 686 [PDF]
Categories: Research Article and US Associations and Social Movements

Books

Cover of Diminished Democracy

Diminished Democracy: From Membership to Management in American Civic Life

University of Oklahoma Press, 2003

Shows how American civic life shifted from mass membership federations to professionally managed advocacy groups, and what that shift means for democracy.

Cover of What a Mighty Power We Can Be

What a Mighty Power We Can Be: African American Fraternal Groups and the Struggle for Racial Equality

with Ariane Liazos and Marshall Ganz
Princeton University Press, 2006

Documents how African American fraternal organizations built community institutions and supported the fight for civil rights.