Freedom Is an Endless Meeting
Democracy in American Social Movements
- Contents
- Review Quotes
- Awards

1. Strategy and Democracy
2. Army, Town Meeting, or Church in the Catacombs? The Organization of American Protest, 1900-1960
3. A Band of Brothers Standing in a Circle of Trust: Southern Civil Rights Organizing, 1961-64
4. Letting Which People Decide What? SNCC’s Crisis of Democracy, 1964-65
5. Participatory Democracy in the New Left, 1960-67
6. Friendship and Equality in the Women’s Liberation Movement, 1967-77
7. Democracy in Relationship: Community Organizing and Direct Action Today
8. Conclusion: Rules, Rituals, and Relationships
Notes
Index
“It is more than refreshing to read such a sensible discussion of the political merits of participatory democracy. Francesca Polletta takes issue with the common wisdom that organizations seeking political effectiveness must strategically prefer formalization and hierarchical decision-making. . . . She argues instead that there are significant political benefits in participatory structures. . . . Polletta does a splendid job of tracing the history of participatory democracy within social movements . . . beginning from pacifist groups and labor education movements before and after World War II and taking the story up to antiglobalization groups.”
Society for the Study of Social Problems: C. Wright Mills Award
Short Listed
Choice Magazine: CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Awards
Won
History: American History
Political Science: Political Behavior and Public Opinion | Political and Social Theory
Sociology: Social Change, Social Movements, Political Sociology | Social Psychology--Small Groups
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