Why do two cognate literatures - social movements and electoral studies -travel along parallel paths with little conversation between them? And what can be done to connect them in the future? Drawing ontheir work with the late Charles Tilly on Dynamics of Contention (2001), Doug McAdam and Sidney Tarrow examine the reciprocal links between movements and elections, propose a mechanism-based set of linkages between elections and social movements, and apply their approach in a preliminary examination of the relations between elections, movements and the politics of racial contention in the United States.
Social movements; Contentious politics; Electoral studies