Leadership, Authority, and Collective Action

Abstract

This article examines leadership and its role in the emergence of collective action with a comparison of resistance activities in two Jewish ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe. In the Warsaw Ghetto, Jews rose up in armed rebellion against the Nazis twice during 1943; in contrast, Jewish activists in the Vilna Ghetto planned for similar resistance, but a sustained uprising never took place. The author argues that these different outcomes can be attributed in part to the resistance fighters' “authority work,” or efforts made to establish their credibility in the eyes of each community; activists in Warsaw performed this work successfully, whereas those in Vilna did not engage in this work at all. The lack of authority work in Vilna was especially damaging because of the actions of another authoritative ghetto leader, who persuaded the community to oppose resistance efforts. The findings suggest that authority work varies across different movement settings and is particularly important in the context of uncertainty.