Resources and resourcefulness: Strategic capacity in the unionization of California agriculture, 1959-1966

Why did the insurgent United Farm Workers (UFW) succeed while its better-re sourced rival-the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO (AWOC) -failed? Explanations relying on altered political opportunity structures o r resources, accounts of Cesar Chavez's charismatic leadership, or descript ions of UFW strategy fail to identify mechanisms for creating effective str ategy. By analyzing leadership, organizational influences on actors' choice s, and their interaction within the environment, this study shows that grea ter access to salient information, heuristic facility, and motivation gener ated more effective strategy. Differences in "strategic capacity" can expla in how resourcefulness can compensate for lack of resources, why some new o rganizations can overcome the "liability of newness," and how reorganizatio nal "focal" moments may lead to a social movement.