BREAKDOWN THEORIES OF COLLECTIVE ACTION

Historically, breakdown theory dominated the sociological study of col lective action. In the 1970s, this theory was found to be increasingly unable to account for contemporaneous events and newly discovered his torical facts. Resource mobilization theory displaced breakdown theory as the dominant paradigm. Yet the evidence against breakdown theory i s weak once a distinction is made between routine and nonroutine colle ctive action. Several recent contributions affirm the explanatory powe r of breakdown theory for nonroutine collective action. Breakdown theo ry also contributes to an understanding of the use of governmental for ce against protest and of the moral features of collective action. Bre akdown and resource mobilization theories explain different types of p henomena, and both are needed to help account for the full range of fo rms of collective action.