Theories of Political Action

Undergraduate / Graduate

For much of the 20th and 21st centuries, a wide range of political actors-from anarchists and Marxists to anticolonial, antiracist, and queer activists-have experimented with extra-institutional and extralegal forms of mass political action. Such actors have argued that tactics ranging from boycotts and civil disobedience to revolutionary violence and the general strike are democratic in both their ends and means. How should we understand the morality and efficacy of political (non)violence? What forms of organization are apt for articulating and channeling popular revolt? For containing its unintended consequences? How does the experience of political action transform the self and society? Students will engage these questions through careful reading of key thinkers and by developing research projects that investigate the theory and practice of political action in contemporary social movements.