Theory of Collective Behaviour

Neil J. Smelser, Neil J. Smelser

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781136277979
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

This is Volume XVII of eighteen of a series on the Sociology of Behaviour and Psychology. First published in 1962, this study offers a theoretical synthesis of collective behavior.

Chapter X

The Value-Oriented Movement

Introduction

Definition, A value-oriented movement is a collective attempt to restore, protect, modify, or create values in the name of a generalized belief.¹ Such a belief necessarily involves all the components of action; that is, it envisions a reconstitution of values, a redefinition of norms, a reorganization of the motivation of individuals, and a redefinition of situational facilities.²

Our definition encompasses the phenomena designated by the labels “nativistic movement,” “messianic movement,” “millenarian movement,” “utopian movement,” “sect formation,” “religious revolution,” “political revolution,” “nationalistic movement,” “charismatic movement,” and many others.³ Given the inclusive character of our definition and given the complexity of any value-oriented movement, we must specify at the outset the principal aspects of these movements which we will attempt to explain.

Major Lines of Variability among Value-oriented Movements. Value-oriented beliefs may be composed of indigenous cultural items, of items imported from outside the culture, or—perhaps most frequently—a syncretism.⁴ Such beliefs may involve the restoration of past values, the perpetuation of present values, the creation of new values for the future, or any mixture of these.⁵

We may also distinguish between religious and secular value-oriented beliefs.⁶ Examples of religious beliefs are found in the following classification of the beliefs of American religious sects by E. T. Clark:

The Pessimistic Sects. These are typical groups of the disinherited, in final despair of obtaining through social processes the benefits they seek. They see no good in the world and no hope of improvement; it is rushing speedily to hell, according to the will and plan of God. The adherents of such sects magnify millenarianism and see the imminent end of the present world-order by means of a cosmic catastrophe. They have turned on the world, and they seek escape through a cataclysm which will cast down those who have been elevated and secure to the faithful important places in a new temporal kingdom as well as eternal bliss in heaven [Example: Seventh-Day Adventists]…

The Perfectionist Sects. These seek holiness, personal perfection of life, or freedom from the temptations and “desires of the flesh.” They are of the experimental type, realizing their hopes through strong emotional reactions [Examples: early Methodists, Holiness sects]….

The Communistic Sects. These groups withdraw from “the world” into colonies where they secure the social approval which is denied them elsewhere and where they engage in economic experiments. Community of goods is the common characteristic. Some of these groups have espoused free love or community of women and their rites have run into orgiastic and antinomian excesses [Examples: Shakers, Amana Society, the House of David]…

Legalistic Sects. A group of sects which stress certain rules, objective forms, observances, or “things” which can be definitely performed as essential to true religion. Frequently the distinguishing mark is the rejection or denial of some practice. These sects derive their rites or taboos from some portion of the Bible and usually look upon themselves as the “true Church” or restorers of primitive Christianity [Examples: “hook-and-eye” Mennonites, Primitive Baptists, Reformed Episcopal Church, African Orthodox Church]…

Egocentric Sects. These have physical comfort, personal exhilaration, and freedom from pain, disease, and ennui as their objective [Examples: Christian Science, Divine Science, Unity School of Christianity, New Thought].

Esoteric Sects. These are devotees of the mystic. They espouse doctrines into which one needs to be initiated. They are nearly all offshoots of Hinduism and can hardly be called Christian sects. They specialize in mysteries and the occult, and their literature is scarcely understandable to the ordinary man [Examples: Theosophists, Spiritualists, Vedantists, and Bahais].⁷

Secular value-oriented beliefs include nationalism, communism, socialism, anarchism, syndicalism, and so on. Many beliefs display a mixture of religious and secular elements—for example, Christian Socialism in mid-nineteenth century Britain, or Sarekat Islam, the nationalist movement in Indonesia in the early twentieth century.

Value-oriented movements differ according to their outcome. Religious movements, for instance, may result in the following:

(1) Religious revolution (e.g., the Protestant Reformation), in which the religious belief is the basis for challenging the legitimacy of established political authority. In any religious revolution, furthermore, the challenge may take the form of a secessionist movement (i.e., the attempt to set up a separate political unit) or internal warfare (i.e., the attempt to overthrow forcibly and assume power from a government in the same political unit). Any given revolutionary movement may be classified according to the tactics it employs— terrorism, street fighting, guerrilla warfare, coup d’état, etc.

(2) Formation of a more or less enduring collectivity within a political system, with no overt challenge to the legitimacy of existing political arrangements. Von Wiese and Becker have outlined several types of such collectivities: (a) the ecclesia, or the universal church into which members are born. Frequently the ecclesia is closely alligned with the state, as in the case of Catholicism, Lutheranism, and Anglicanism; (b) the sect, an elective body which one must join to become a member, and which emphasizes ethical demands and personal commitment; (c) the denomination, which is “simply (a sect) in an advanced stage of development and adjustment to (other denominations) and the secular world”; (d) the cult, which emphasizes the “purely personal ecstatic experience, salvation, comfort, and mental or physical healing.”⁸

(3) Disappearance, whether as a result of repression by authorities, internal decay, transformation into another kind of movement, or absorption into another kind of movement.⁹

Similarly, secular value-oriented movements may result in the following:

(1) Political revolution (e.g., the communist revolutions in Russia and China, the nationalist revolution in Indonesia), in which a secular belief is the basis for challenging the existing political authority. Like religious revolutions, these may be secessionist (e.g., anti-colonial revolutions, or the American Civil War), or they may be attempts to overthrow forcibly and assume power from a government (e.g., the French and Russian revolutions, or the German and Italian fascist revolutions). Finally, the political revolution, like the religious, may be classified according to the tactics employed by the revolutionary group.

(2) Formation of a more or less enduring collectivity which may remain revolutionary in principle but which is contained within the political system. Examples are the Communist parties of Britain, Holland, Belgium, and Scandinavia, and political sects, clubs, or societies like the anarchists or socialists.¹⁰

(3) Disappearance.

Thus many outcomes are possible for a given value-oriented movement.¹¹ Our task in this chapter is to ask and attempt to answer the following questions: What are the determinants of value-oriented movements in general? Why, among value-oriented movements, are some religious and others secular? Why do some value-oriented beliefs eventuate in revolutionary movements, others in peaceful sects or political parties? To answer these questions we shall rely on the variables of structural conduciveness, strain, generalized beliefs, precipitating factors, mobilization for action, and social control as these variables combine in a value-added process.

Our task is difficult for several reasons: (a) Any classification of value-oriented movements blurs empirically. Concerning his own classification of sects, for instance, Clark notes:

An attempt has been made to group the small sects… according to their outstanding tenets, but much overlapping has been noted. In the main features the sects are much alike. Most of them might be called Pessimistic, since they believe in the more or less imminent end of the world order and set little or no store by social processes in the realization of their ends. Both Communistic and Charismatic groups are essentially Perfectionistic. Nearly all are Legalistic in that they regard the Bible as an objective authority and insist upon observances drawn therefrom. Some sects are so nearly identical that the impartial student is unable to discover any differences, and in the case of many the differences are trivial.¹²

(b) Any type of value-oriented movement, such as millenarianism or messianism, changes as it is adopted in different areas of the world¹³ and in different historical epochs.¹⁴ (c) Value-oriented movements occur in periods of ferment which produce many other kinds of collective behavior; they must be disentangled from the general pattern of flux.¹⁵ (d) One form of value-oriented movement changes into another; nationalist movements change from religious to secular, open revolts against colonial domination evolve into passive sects, etc.¹⁶ In view of such difficulties, we must settle for the analysis of broad directional changes within empirically mixed and fluctuating movements.

Let us now clarify several frequently confused relations: the relations among value-oriented movements on the one hand, and religious change, revolutions and violence on the other.

Value-oriented Movements and Religious Change. Not all religious movements are value-oriented. We have seen that revivalism in evangelical Protestantism conforms to the typical craze process,¹⁷ and that reform movements within the church (e.g., the Social Gospel movement) are analyzable as norm-oriented movements.¹⁸ Furthermore, the mere diffusion of new rituals into a religion does not necessarily require a full-fledged value-oriented movement.¹⁹ In order for a religious movement to be termed a value-oriented movement it must possess a distinctive generalized belief²⁰ and proceed through a definite value-added process.²¹

Value-oriented Movements and Revolution. The term “revolution” frequently refers not only to challenges to the legiti...