Social Movements and State Transformation: Labor Unions and Racial Conflict in the War on Poverty

Abstract

I analyze the historical development of the job training programs enacted during the War on Poverty. Combining insights from power resource theory, mass turmoil theory, and the polity-centered approach, I develop a theory. State transformation theory moves beyond the traditional focus of social movement theories on how the state shapes the outcome of social protest, to consider how social movements affect the process of state formation. I outline state transformations that occurred in the context of conflict between civil rights activists and organized labor over the definition of economic justice. Evidence indicates that deep structural change occurred within the state and suggests that this transformation was legitimated by ideological claims that redefined democratic rights. Recent developments in the analysis of social movements have renewed interest among sociologists in the political aspects of social movements. Although theories of social movements recognize that social mobilization is part of the process of state formation, they focus primarily on how the state shapes the outcomes of organized protest (McAdam, McCarthy, and Zald