Doing Democracy

by Bill Moyer, JoAnn McAllister, Mary Lou Finley

Citizen activism has achieved many positive results. But the road to success for social movements is often complex, usually lasting many years, with few guides for evaluating the precise stage of a movement's evolution to determine the best way forward.

Doing Democracy provides both a theory and working model for understanding and analyzing social movements, ensuring that they are successful in the long term. Beginning with an overview of social movement theory and the MAP (Movement Action Plan) model, Doing Democracy outlines the eight stages of social movements, the four roles of activists, and case studies from the civil rights, anti-nuclear energy, Central America, gay/lesbian, women's health, and globalization movements.

Bill Moyer is the originator of the MAP Model; he and his coauthors combine several decades of movement experience.

Genres: Activism, Politics, Nonfiction, Social Change, Social Justice, Political Science, Research

227 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2001

Reviews

[Drick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bill Moyer is a veteran of several social movements including the Civil Rights movement, the anti-nuclear movement, and the current movement to challenge global capitalism. Through his years of activism he has developed the Mobilization Action Plan (MAP) model that shows the stages of development social movements go through. This model grew out of his involvement with the Clamshell Alliance, a movmeent in New England that stopped the building of more nuclear reactors in the late 1970's and early 1980's. He developed this to show the activists that while they thoguht they had fallen short of their goals, in fact tgheir movement had succeeded. He has other authors apply his model to other movements to show the insights it can gain.

I picked up this book for both personal and professional reasons. I had read of the MAP model from other authors and wanted to gain more insight so as to include in my courses on leadership and social justice. By teh same token, I have been trying to make sense of where we are in the gun violence prevention movement and where this fits into the larger movement to limit the sale and distribution of handguns in this country. On both counts I have found the book to be very readable and practical.

[Amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is fantastic. I appreciated the practical view of social movements from the author, a well known activist. I also really like the theoretical chapters as they are extremely helpful regarding academic writing.

I would love it if this book could be updated to include recent movement information like BLM, Occupy, the Tea Party, etc. as I think he could really add some insight into where these movements are on the MAP model.

Will use in my research and coursework.

[Nina Luo · Rating 5 out of 5]

illuminating - and clearly labels mental traps of "culture of failure" and "aversion to success"

[Bethany · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book presents a relatively interesting model for thinking about the entire lifecycle of social change movements. The best part of the book is when the model is appplied to several case studies, including the civil rights movement, the gay rights movement, and the breast cancer/women's health movement. A good primer for people interested in the arc of social change.

[Al Kutil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Important work that shows how Social Movements go through phases, the players involved in each phase, and how to move through advocacy with efficiency and not lose momentum. Draws on previous movements that everyone has read about, and shows how they made critical transitions that help gain momentum so more people got informed and involved.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Revolution doesn't get any easier.
Flow charts, major roles, stages of development.
Plus how it all played into several major social revolutions.
If you're planning to change the world, you owe it to yourself to do it the easiest way possible.
Just your average Canadian text book.

[Erica · Rating 5 out of 5]

an excellent step-by-step analysis of how social change happenms fromt he grassroots on up.

[Pilar · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading more the second part of the book that was much practical than the first section. Interesting to learn more about the globalization movement and other main U.S. movements.

[Sarah]

via Fred at CFSA

[Lawrence]

ht aorta - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezA-x...