The Impact of Support Resources on Local Chapter Operations in the Antidrunk-Driving Movement

Abstract

Resource mobilization is critical for the development of social movement organizations. This study evaluates the differential impact of membership support and community organization support on the goals and operations of local chapters of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). It was found that membership support is associated with the programming goals of local chapters, that is, public awareness, victim assistance, and promoting antidrunk-driving legislation. Community organization support was only associated with youth education as a programming emphasis. In terms of organizational operations, membership support was associated with more central office contacts and increased contacts with other MADD chapters and more cooperative programming with the national central office of MADD. In contrast community organization support was associated with less contact and more disagreement with the central office on policies and less cooperation on programs. In this article the relationship between the organizational resources of membership support and community organization support on the operations of local chapters of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) will be examined in the light of the theoretical work done on resource mobilization in social movements. The growing salience of the drunk-driving problem in highway safety reported by Gusfield (1981) has helped propel MADD, since its founding in 1980, into being the largest antidrunk-driving organization in the nation with approximately 380 local chapters. As a major part of a single issue reform movement, MADD can be used to examine the impact of organizational resource mobilization on the operations of social movement organizations (SMO) at the local level. It is a basic tenet of resource mobilization that an SMO will attempt to develop various resources for its benefit but ultimately the types of resources available to the