Structural Social Change and the Mobilizing Effect of Threat: Explaining Levels of Patriot and Militia Organizing in the United States

Abstract

In the 1990s, a widespread patriot/militia movement emerged in the United States. Although patriot/militia organizations exist in all 50 U.S. states, some states have higher levels of patriot/militia organization than do others. We examine the factors that account for this variation, including the possibility that mobilization occurs in response to threats produced by structural social changes. We conduct a negative binomial regression analysis of state-level counts of patriot/militia organizations and find support for the argument that structural transformations can spark the mobilization of reactive social movements. We show that economic restructuring, measured by a decline in manufacturing jobs and the decline of the family farm, influences the mobilization of patriot/militia groups in the U.S. in the mid-1990s. We confirm these state-level findings with an analysis of patriot/militia organization in 300 U.S. counties.