Rethinking Institutional Infrastructures: Institution Building as Social Movement Activity

Abstract

Social movements rely on institutional infrastructures—organizations and networks external to movements that provide supports to social movements—but comparative work is required to understand divergences in the strength of institutional infrastructures in similar movements across national borders. I conduct a historical, comparative analysis of the religious right in Canada and the United States using secondary sources. I examine the historical process of institution building in conservative, evangelical Christian communities from 1920-1950. I show that the large, dense network of para-church organizations established by conservative, evangelical Christians in the United States was not similarly established in Canada. I identify two historical factors in this critical juncture: the role of denominations and bureaucratic regulation of broadcast radio. I argue that this critical juncture produced divergences in institution building that, decades later, affected the supports available to the religious right movements in these countries.