Bureaucratic Insurgency: The Vatican and the Crisis of Modernism

Abstract

The Zald and Berger model of insurgency is assessed in light of data of the in the Roman Catholic Church. Our historical case study of this movement produces evidence that generally supports the model but that also indicates the need for some important modifications. In particular, we find that the Zald and Berger propositions are appropriate only to the later stages of the modernist movement. The earlier stages of the movement's development appear to have been governed by an entirely different dynamic, a process whereby the conflict between authorities and bureaucratic insurgents paradoxically produced resources for both groups. In an effort to organize these findings theoretically, we review several propositional frameworks that deal with the paradoxical, ironic aspects of authoritylinsurgent interaction. Finally, uz synthesize these different perspectives into a single dialectical model that can be appended to the Zald and Berger model. Most sociological thinking, until recently, has located and organizational at opposite ends of the continuum. Because of the emergent character of roles, norms, and other structural characteristics during episodes of collective action, such action appears to be the direct antithesis of highly structured bureaucratic activity (Pfautz). Recent work in both of these areas, however, highlights the similarities between these two realms rather than the differences. Berk suggests, for example, that much of the apparently chaotic behavior of crowds is actu