Social Movements in Politics

When disillusioned with politics and political parties, it is often necessary for people to turn to social movements to promote political change. In this book, Zirakzadeh examines different types of social movements, from the Greens in Germany to the Shining Path in Peru. Written in an accessible manner, the book is divided into several sections. The first examines three traditions of social-movement theorizing and the logic, biases, and insights of each. The other sections explore the social movements themselves: how they emerged and developed. The book concludes with a juxtaposition of the three major theoretical approaches and historical findings and proposes a fourth theoretical approach emphasizing factional conflict and reconciliation.