Organizational Growth and Ecological Constraints: The Growth of Social Movements in Sweden,1881 to 1940

Based on the theoretical framework of organizational ecology, it is suggested that social movement organizations are inert structures that rarely exceed their initial size. The ecological concept of organizational growth is tested using membership data for Sweden from 1881 to 1940 for virtually all local social movement organizations (29,193 organizations) in three major social movements: the temperance, free church, and trade union movements. Findings show that the organizations in two of the movements have average growth trajectories approximating zero. The ecological argument is then expanded to include information on the movements’ organizational niches and intra- and intermovement density development. After controlling for the local organization's initial size, findings reveal that the remaining variation in aggregate membership is more likely to depend on population and niche dynamics (which organizational ecologists focus on) than on the capacity of the movement's local organizations to expand. These findings are consistent for all three Swedish movements. The ecological argument and the findings presented here are contrary to almost all research on social movements, which takes for granted that social movement organizations are necessarily capable of individual growth.