Rousseau, Marx and Movement

Abstract

We shall make a convenient distinction throughout this study between ideologists, practitioners and scientists of social movement. Any individual whose major work and concern has been the formulation, elaboration and advocacy of normative or prescriptive theories or ideologies of society, may provide a source of ideological thinking and direction for a social movement, or for many social movements. In the case of a body of ideology that is particularly influential and widely disseminated, ideas derived from it will find their way into the general current of thought. Such major ideological sources will thus influence many participants unwittingly. Major ideologies may therefore be, to this extent, assimilated under historical movements, trends or tendencies. Nevertheless, in many cases, a minority social movement will consciously and consistently attempt to embody or realize the aims of an ideology quite unique to itself, and will expend much of its energies in ideological propaganda and public debate with its opponents.