Hostname: page-component-89b8bd64d-rbxfs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-05-13T08:43:29.123Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Nation of Organizers: The Institutional Origins of Civic Voluntarism in the United States

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2000

Theda Skocpol ,
Marshall Ganz  and
Ziad Munson
Theda Skocpol
Affiliation:
Harvard University
Marshall Ganz
Affiliation:
Harvard University
Ziad Munson
Affiliation:
Harvard University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We challenge the widely held view that classic American voluntary groups were tiny, local, and disconnected from government. Using newly collected data to develop a theoretically framed account, we show that membership associations emerged early in U.S. history and converged toward the institutional form of the representatively governed federation. This form enabled leaders and members to spread interconnected groups across an expanding nation. At the height of local proliferation, most voluntary groups were part of regional or national federations that mirrored the structure of U.S. government. Institutionalist theories suggest reasons for this parallelism, which belies the rigid dichotomy between state and civil society that informs much current discussion of civic engagement in the United States and elsewhere.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 94 , Issue 3 , September 2000 , pp. 527 - 546
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

REFERENCES

Abromowitz, Jack. 1950. “The Negro in Agrarian Revolt.” Agricultural History 24 (April): 89–95.Google Scholar
Aldrich, John H. 1995. Why Parties? The Origin and Transformation of Political Parties in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.10.7208/chicago/9780226012773.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allen, Catherine B. 1987. A Century to Celebrate: History of Woman's Missionary Union. Birmingham, AL: Woman's Missionary Union.Google Scholar
Almond, Gabriel A., and Verba, Sidney. 1963. The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.10.1515/9781400874569CrossRefGoogle Scholar
American Anti-Slavery Society. 1834. Annual Report of the American Anti-Slavery Society. New York: American Anti-Slavery Society.Google Scholar
American Automobile Association. 1952. The Motor Club Movement in the United States. American Automobile Association.Google Scholar
American Bowling Congress. 1999. Memorandum from national office, containing excerpts from original 1906–07 constitution and excerpts on later changes affecting states.Google Scholar
Banaszak, Lee Ann. 1996. Why Movements Succeed or Fail: Opportunity, Culture, and the Struggle for Woman Suffrage. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.10.1515/9781400822072CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beath, Robert B. 1889. History of the Grand Army of the Republic. New York: Bryan Taylor.Google Scholar
Beattie, Donald Weldon. 1966. “Sons of Temperance: Pioneers in Total Abstinence and Constitutional Prohibition.’” Ph.D. diss. Department of Sociology, Boston University.Google Scholar
Beem, Christopher. 1999. The Necessity of Politics: Reclaiming American Public Life. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Bender, Thomas. 1978. Community and Social Change in America. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Berman, Sheri. 1997. “Civil Society and Political Institutionalization.” American Behavioral Scientist 40 (March/April): 562–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berry, Jeffrey M. 1999. The New Liberalism: The Rising Power of Citizen Groups. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Berthoff, Roland. 1971. An Unsettled People: Social Order and Disorder in American History. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Bordin, Ruth. 1981. Woman and Temperance: The Quest for Power and Liberty, 1873–1900. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Bordin, Ruth. 1986. Frances Willard: A Biography. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Breckinridge, Sophinisba. 1933. Women in the Twentieth Century: A Study of Their Political, Social, and Economic Activities. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Brockett, Linus Pierpont. 1864. The Philanthropic Results of the War in America. New York: Sheldon.Google Scholar
Brown, Richard D. 1974. “The Emergence of Urban Society in Rural Massachusetts, 1760–1830.” Journal of American History 61 (1): 29–51.10.2307/1918252CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bryce, James. 1895. The American Commonwealth, 3d ed. Vol. 2. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Carnahan, James R. 1890. Pythian Knighthood: Its History and Literature. Cincinnati: Pettibone Manufacturing/Fraternity.Google Scholar
Chalmers, David M. 1965. Hooded Americanism: The First Century of the Ku Klux Klan, 1865–1965. New York: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Child, Clifton James. 1939. The German Americans in Politics, 1914–1917. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Chudacoff, Howard. 1972. Mobile Americans: Residential and Social Mobility in Omaha, 1880–1920. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Clark, Francis E. 1906. Christian Endeavor in All Lands: A Record of Twenty-Five Years of Progress. Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor.Google Scholar
Clawson, Mary Ann. 1989. Constructing Brotherhood: Gender, Class, and Fratemalism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.10.1515/9781400860500CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clemens, Elisabeth S. 1997. The People's Lobby: Organizational Innovation and the Rise of Interest Group Politics in the United States, 1890–1925. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. Senate. 1918. “National German-American Alliance Hearings … United States Senate, Sixty-Fifth Congress, Second Session on S. 3529 …, February 23–April 13, 1918.” Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Croly, Jennie June. 1898. The History of the Women's Club Movement in America. New York: Henry G. Allen.Google Scholar
Curtis, James E., Grabb, Edward G., and Baer, Douglas E.. 1992. “Voluntary Association Membership in Fifteen Countries.” American Sociological Review 57 (2): 139–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dannenbaum, Jed. 1984. Drink and Disorder: Temperance Reform from the Washingtonian Revival to the WCTU. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Davidson, Walter. 1950a. History of the American National Red Cross. Vol. 38. State Organization and Relations within the Period of Congressional Charter …. Washington, DC: American National Red Cross.Google Scholar
Davidson, Walter. 1950b. History of the American National Red Cross. Vol. 39. General Organization. Washington, DC: American National Red Cross.Google Scholar
Deemer, Edward S., Shanor, P. A., and Deily, H. J.. 1896. History of the Junior Order, United American Mechanics. Boston: Fraternity.Google Scholar
Desmond, Humphrey J. 1912. The A.P.A. Movement: A Sketch. Washington, DC: New Century Press.Google Scholar
Drucker, Peter F. 1993. The Ecological Vision: Reflections on the American Condition. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Dunning, N. A., ed. 1891. The Farmers' Alliance History and Agricultural Digest. Washington, DC: Alliance.Google Scholar
Eckstein, Harry. 1961. A Theory of Stable Democracy. Research Monograph No. 10. Princeton, NJ: Center for International Studies, Princeton University.Google Scholar
Engle, Willis D. 1912. History of the Order of Eastern Star. Indianapolis, IN.Google Scholar
Evans, Peter, ed. 1997. State-Society Synergy: Government and Social Capital in Development. Research Series, Number 94, International and Areas Studies. Berkeley: University of California.Google Scholar
Fahey, David M. 1996. Temperance and Racism. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky.Google Scholar
Foley, Michael W., and Edwards, Bob. 1999. “Is It Time to Disinvest in Social Capital?” Journal of Public Policy 19 (2): 141–73.10.1017/S0143814X99000215CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fraternal Order of Eagles. 1913. Constitution and Laws of the Grand Aerie and Constitution for Subordinate Aeries Fraternal Order of Eagles. Chicago: Attwell.Google Scholar
Fuller, Guy H., ed. 1918. Loyal Order of Moose and Mooseheart. Mooseheart, IL: Mooseheart Press.Google Scholar
Gamm, Gerald, and Putnam, Robert D.. 1999. “The Growth of Voluntary Associations in America, 1840–1940.” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 29 (Spring): 511–57.10.1162/002219599551804CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ganz, Marshall. 1994. “Voters in the Crosshairs: How Technology and the Market Are Destroying Politics.” American Prospect no. 16 (Winter): 100–9.Google Scholar
General Union for Promoting the Observance of the Christian Sabbath. 1828. “The Address of the General Union … Accompanied by Minutes of … Its Formation, Its Constitution and Officers.” New York: Daniel Fanshaw.Google Scholar
Grosh, A. B. 1842. Washingtonian Pocket Companion, 2d ed. Utica, NY: R. W. Roberts.Google Scholar
Hall, Patricia Kelly, and Ruggles, Steven. 1999. “Moving through Time: Internal Migration Patterns of Americans, 1850–1990.” Presented at the Social Science History Association, Fort Worth, Texas, November.Google Scholar
Hall, Peter A., and Taylor, Rosemary C.R.. 1996. “Political Science and the Three New Institutionalisms.” Political Studies 44 (December): 936–57.10.1111/j.1467-9248.1996.tb00343.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hansen, John Mark. 1991. Gaining Access: Congress and the Farm Lobby, 1919–1981. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Hicks, John D. 1935. The Populist Revolt: A History of the Farmers' Alliance and the People's Party. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Hodges, Samuel W. 1877. “Sons of Temperance—Historical Record of the Order.” In Centennial Temperance Volume. New York: National Temperance Society and Publication House. Pp. 544–98.Google Scholar
Holmes, William F. 1975. “The Demise of the Colored Farmers' Alliance.” Journal of Southern History 41 (May): 187–200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holtzman, Abraham. 1963. The Townsend Movement. New York: Bookman.Google Scholar
Hopkins, Charles Howard. 1951. History of the Y.M.C.A. in North America. New York: Association Press.Google Scholar
Howard, David M. 1992. People, Pride and Progress: 125 Years of the Grange in America. Washington, DC: National Grange.Google Scholar
Independent Order of Odd Fellows [IOOF]. 1844. Journal of Proceedings of the Right Worthy Grand Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows … to the Close of the Annual Session, 1843 ….” New York: McGowan and Treadwell.Google Scholar
John, Richard. 1995. Spreading the News: The American Postal System from Franklin to Morse. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.10.4159/9780674039148CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Joyce, Michael S., and Schambra, William A.. 1996. “A New Civic Life.” In To Empower People, 2d ed., ed. Novak, Michael. Washington, DC: AEI Press. Pp. 11–29.Google Scholar
Kaufman, Christopher J. 1982. Faith and Fratemalism: The History of the Knights of Columbus, 1882–1992. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Kinzer, Donald L. 1964. An Episode in Anti-Catholicism: The American Protective Association. Seattle: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Kile, Orville Merton. 1921. The Farm Bureau Movement. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Kitschelt, Herbert P. 1986. “Political Opportunity Structures and Political Protest: Anti-Nuclear Movements in Four Democracies.” British Journal of Political Science 16 (January): 57–85.10.1017/S000712340000380XCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knights of Labor of North America. 1883. Constitution of the General Assembly, District Assemblies and Local Assemblies of the Order of the Knights of Labor of North America. Marblehead, MA: Statesman.Google Scholar
Knights of the Maccabees. 1894. Revised Laws of the Knights of the Maccabees of the World …. Port Huron, MI: Riverside.Google Scholar
Knights of the Maccabees. 1901. “Note the Progress of the Maccabees” (reverse side of a postcard). Port Huron, MI: General Offices [of the Maccabees].Google Scholar
Kopf, Edward. 1977. “Untarnishing the Dream: Mobility, Opportunity, and Order in Modern America.” Journal of Social History 11 (Winter): 202–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krout, John Allen. 1925. The Origins of Prohibition. New York: Alfred Knopf.Google Scholar
Ladd, Everett Carl. 1999. The Ladd Report. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Larson, Leland A., and Cook, James R.. 1991. The Woodmen Story: “Our First 100 Years.” Updated edition. Woodmen of the World Life Insurance Society.Google Scholar
Lemons, J. Stanley. 1973. The Woman Citizen. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Levi, Margaret. 1996. “Social and Unsocial Capital.” Politics and Society 24 (March): 45–55.10.1177/0032329296024001005CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lichtman, Charles H., ed. 1901. Official History of the Improved Order of Red Men, rev. ed. Boston: Fraternity.Google Scholar
Loyal Order of Moose. 1943. Laws for the Institution and Regulation of Member Lodges.Google Scholar
MacLean, Nancy. 1994. Behind the Mask of Chivalry: The Making of the Second Ku Klux Klan. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Macleod, David. 1983. Building Character in the American Boy: The Boy Scouts, YMCA, and the Forerunners, 1870–1920. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Martinek, Joseph. 1985. One Hundred Years of the CSA: The History of the Czechoslovak Society of America, trans. Gorman, R. A.. Cicero, IL: Executive Committee of CSA.Google Scholar
Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics. 1910. Directory of Labor Organizations in Massachusetts, 1910. Labor Bulletin No. 76. Boston: Wright and Potter.Google Scholar
Mathews, Donald G. 1969. “The Second Great Awakening as an Organizing Process, 1780–1830: An Hypothesis.” American Quarterly 21 (Spring): 23–43.10.2307/2710771CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matzelle, Al, and Schneider, Jerry. 1995. History of the American Bowling Congress. American Bowling Congress.Google Scholar
Maxwell, Milton. 1950. “The Washingtonian Movement.” Quarterly Journal Studies on Alcohol 11 (3): 410–51.10.15288/qjsa.1950.11.410CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McConnell, Stuart. 1992. Glorious Contentment: The Grand Army of the Republic, 1865–1900. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
McGerr, Michael E. 1986. The Decline of Popular Politics: The American North, 1865–1928. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
McMath, Robert C. Jr. 1975. Populist Vanguard: A History of the Southern Farmers' Alliance. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
McPherson, James M. 1988. Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. New York: Ballentine.Google Scholar
Melish, William B., et al. 1919. The History of the Imperial Council Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine for North America, 1872–1919. Cincinnati, OH: Committee on History, Imperial Council Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.Google Scholar
Mezvinsky, Norton. 1959. “The White-Ribbon Reform: 1874–1920.” Ph.D. diss. Department of History, University of Wisconsin.Google Scholar
Minkoff, Debra C. 1997. “Producing Social Capital: National Movements and Civil Society.” American Behavioral Scientist 40 (March/April): 606–19.10.1177/0002764297040005007CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Modern Woodmen of America. 1999. Letter from historian Gail Ann Levis about historical changes in the association's constitution.Google Scholar
Murray, William D. 1937. History of the Boy Scouts in America. New York: Boy Scouts.Google Scholar
Myers, John Lytle. 1961. “The Agency System of the Anti-Slavery Movement, 1832–1837 ….” Ph.D. diss. Department of History, University of Michigan.Google Scholar
National Congress of Parents and Teachers. 1947. Golden Jubilee History, 1897–1947. Chicago: National Congress of Parents and Teachers.Google Scholar
Newton, Pierce I. 1869. The History of the Independent Order of Good Templars. Philadelphia, PA: Daughaday and Becker.Google Scholar
Nicholson, James R., Donaldson, Lee A., and Dobson, Raymond C.. 1978. History of the Order of Elks, 1868–1978, rev. ed. Chicago: Grand Secretary's Office of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of the United States of America.Google Scholar
Nordin, Sven D. 1974. Rich Harvest: A History of the Grange, 1867–1900. Jackson: University of Mississippi Press.Google Scholar
O'Reilly, J. Fanning. 1904. History of the Fraternal Order of Eagles. New York: Press of M. Schlesinger.Google Scholar
Palmer, Edward Nelson. 1944. “Negro Secret Societies.” Social Forces 23 (December): 207–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Partridge, Bellamy. 1952. Fill 'er Up! The Story of Fifty Years of Motoring. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Pencak, William. 1989. For God and Country: The American Legion, 1919–1941. Boston: Northeastern University Press.Google Scholar
Powell, Walter W., and DiMaggio, Paul J., eds. 1991. The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.10.7208/chicago/9780226185941.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Preuss, Arthur R. 1924. A Dictionary of Secret and Other Societies. St. Louis, MO: Herder.Google Scholar
Putnam, Robert D. 1993. Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Putnam, Robert D. 2000. Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
Ridge, John T. 1986. Erin's Sons in America: The Ancient Order of Hibernians. New York: AOH Publications.Google Scholar
Rosenstone, Steven J., and Hansen, John Mark. 1993. Mobilization, Participation, and Democracy in America. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Royal, David. [1890s] n.d. “Introduction of the Order of Knights of Pythias in the Grand Domain of Minnesota.” Knights of Pythias archives, Quincy, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Arcanum, Royal. 1901. The Code of Constitutions and Laws of the Royal Arcanum …. Boston, MA: Supreme Council [of the Royal Arcanum].Google Scholar
Ryan, Mary P. 1997. Civic Wars: Democracy and Public Life in the American City during the Nineteenth Century. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.10.1525/9780520922082CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sandel, Michael J. 1996. Democracy's Discontent: America in Search of a Public Philosophy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Schier, Steven E. 2000. By Invitation Only: The Rise of Exclusive Politics in the United States. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.Google Scholar
Schlesinger, Arthur M. Sr. 1944. “Biography of a Nation of Joiners.” American Historical Review 50 (October): 1–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmidt, Alvin J. 1980. Fraternal Organizations. Westport, CT: Greenwood.Google Scholar
Schudson, Michael. 1998. The Good Citizen: A History of American Civic Life. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Shefter, Martin. 1994. Political Parties and the State: The American Historical Experience. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Skocpol, Theda. 1992. Protecting Soldiers and Mothers: The Political Origins of Social Policy in the United States. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.10.4159/9780674043725CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skocpol, Theda. 1999. “Advocates without Members: The Recent Transformation of American Civic Life.” In Civic Engagement in American Democracy, ed. Skocpol, Theda and Fiorina, Morris P.. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, and New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Pp. 461–509.Google Scholar
Skocpol, Theda, et al. 1999. “How Americans Became Civic.” In Civic Engagement in American Democracy, ed. Skocpol, Theda and Fiorina, Morris P.. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, and New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Pp. 27–80.Google Scholar
Stevens, Albert. C. 1899. The Cyclopedia of Fraternities. New York: Hamilton Printing and Publishing.Google Scholar
Stillson, Henry Leonard. 1897. The History and Literature of Odd Fellowship. Boston, MA: Fraternity.Google Scholar
Stillson, Henry Leonard, ed. 1926. History of the Ancient and Honorable Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons and Concordant Orders. Boston: Fraternity.Google Scholar
Taft, Philip. 1957. The A.F.L. in the Time of Gompers. New York: Harper and Brothers.Google Scholar
Tarrow, Sidney. 1996a. “Making Social Science Work across Space and Time: A Critical Reflection on Robert Putnam's Making Democracy Work.” American Political Science Review 90 (June): 389–97.10.2307/2082892CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tarrow, Sidney. 1996b. “States and Opportunities: The Political Structuring of Social Movements.” In Comparative Perspectives on Social Movements, ed. McAdam, Doug, McCarthy, John D., and Zald, Mayer N.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tocqueville, Alexis de. [1835–1840] 1969. Democracy in America, ed. Mayer, J. P., trans. Lawrence, George. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Anchor.Google Scholar
Turnbull, William W. 1901. The Good Templars. Arlington, MA: printed privately.Google Scholar
Tyler, Alice Felt. 1944. Freedom's Ferment. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Tyler, Helen E. 1949. Where Prayer and Purpose Meet: The WCTU Story, 1874–1949. Evanston, IL: Signal.Google Scholar
United Society of Christian Endeavor. 1892. The United Society of Christian Endeavor: State and Local Unions. Boston, MA: United Society of Christian Endeavor.Google Scholar
Upchurch, J. J. 1887. The Life, Labors and Travels of Father J. J. Upchurch, Founder of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, ed. Booth, Sam. San Francisco, CA: A. T. Dewey.Google Scholar
Voss, Kim. 1993. The Making of American Exceptionalism: The Knights of Labor and Class Formation in the Nineteenth Century. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Weir, Margaret, and Ganz, Marshall. 1997. “Reconnecting People and Politics.” In The New Majority, ed. Greenberg, Stanley B. and Skocpol, Theda. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Pp. 149–71.Google Scholar
Wells, Mildred White. 1953. Unity in Diversity: The History of the General Federation of Women's Clubs. Washington, DC: General Federation of Women's Clubs.Google Scholar
Wiebe, Robert H. 1967. The Search for Order, 1877–1920. New York: Hill and Wang.Google Scholar
Will, George. 1995. “Look at All the Lonely Bowlers.” Washington Post, January 5, p. A29.Google Scholar
Wuthnow, Robert. 1998. Loose Connections: Joining Together in America's Fragmented Communities. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Zieger, Robert H. 1995. The CIO 1935–1955. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.