Social Influence and the Power of Minorities: An Analysis of the Communist Manifesto

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the strategies that a minority uses to exert direct influence toward social change through the qualitative analysis of a document that has prompted people toward collective action and change, namely the Communist Manifesto. To inform and guide the qualitative analysis, a social psychological model of social influence was used (G. Mugny, The Power of Minorities, Academic Press, London, 1982). According to this model, in order for minorities to exert influence it is important to target those in the majority that, although perhaps numerous, are powerless. The minority needs to create and maintain an antagonism with the powerful majority while, simultaneously, it needs to boost the identity of the powerless majority and to invent itself as the group that can guide them to overthrow the powerful. The analysis suggests that the minority follows three strategies: (a) The declaration of a world vision suggesting a system of categorization that objectifies power relations and creates different targets for influence and for conflict; (b) The construction of the minority’s identity as a particular group that is part but prototypical of the target of influence–the population; (c) The creation and maintenance of relations of antagonism with that part of the majority that holds the power. This enables the minority to avoid being portrayed as deviants, enables them to stand as equals to the majority, and creates the impression that the minority has the potential to overthrow the powerful majority from its position.