Cambridge University Press Schism Solidarity Social Movements: The Politics of Labor in the French Third Republic: 20 (Structural Analysis in the Social Sciences, Series Number 20)

Like many organizations and social movements, the Third Republic French labour movement exhibited a marked tendency to schism into competing sectarian organizations. During the roughly 50-year period from the fall of the Paris Commune to the creation of the powerful French Communist Party, the French labour movement shifted from schism to broad-based solidarity and back to schism. In this 2001 book, Ansell analyses the dynamic interplay between political mobilization, organization-building, and ideological articulation that produced these shifts between schism and solidarity. The aim is not only to shed light on the evolution of the Third Republic French labour movement, but also to develop a more generic understanding of schism and solidarity in organizations and social movements. To develop this broader understanding, the book builds on insights drawn from sociological analyses of Protestant sects and anthropological studies of segmentary societies, as well as from organization and social movement theory. Review "In this book, Christopher Ansell has made an important contribution to organizational thory, using the French labor movement during teh Third Republic as his laboratory. Along the way, theoretical probability opened new windows on the history of the movement with relevance for our understanding not only of its dramatic and convoluted course but also of contemporary France. The study thus succeeds on two levels, though it is likely that sociologists will be more pleased with it than will some historians." - Journal of Modern History Christopher H. Johnson, Wayne State University Book Description This 2001 study sheds light on the historical development of the Third Republic French labour movement. About the Author Christopher K. Ansell is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley, where he teaches organization theory and political sociology.