A lot has been written recently in an effort to understand the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and how we’ve risen to such prominence in a short time.
asserted
we → write → time
It is clear that we reflect a growing disillusionment with the Democratic party, and a further radicalization of the American population.
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we → reflect → population
But many leftwing social movement organizations, such as Black Lives Matter and the Women’s March, have risen in the last decade or so, and many groups, from MoveOn to the Sunrise Movement, have attempted to absorb large numbers of people, influence the Democratic party and enter the public consciousness with lower levels of success.
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groups → rise → success
It may just be that we happened to be the organization that had the name closest to the ideology of Bernie Sanders, the man arguably most responsible for reintroducing democratic socialism to the popular American lexicon.
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that → happen → lexicon
But name recognition alone can’t explain both our rapid growth and the ability to sustain that growth.
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recognition → explain → growth
Sanders has also talked about the need for a “political revolution” – but his own organization, Our Revolution, is politically irrelevant.
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organization → talk → revolution
What is missing from the discussion is the DSA’s structure.
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missing → miss → discussion
Unlike all of the groups I’ve named, it is a thoroughly democratically run organization that allows its members to set its goals, elect its leaders and amend its constitution.
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members → name → constitution
None of the other organizations even have constitutions to be altered.
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None → have → constitutions
Instead, they have corporate bylaws and unelected executive boards to maintain their tax status with the IRS.
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they → have → IRS
While the DSA is primarily operated and funded by its growing membership, the other organizations rely on foundation funding and have a deeper reliance on professional staff.
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organizations → operate → staff
While local chapters of most of these groups have almost no control over the national structure, the DSA functions as a federation in which the national office is beholden to its constituent parts.
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office → have → parts
The DSA is not succeeding because of a good name.
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DSA → succeed → name
It is growing because it treats its members like adults capable of managing their own affairs and that of the organization, and they reward it with monthly dues and a long commitment that supersedes the natural highs and lows of uprisings.
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that → grow → uprisings
Writing in the early 19th century, the French philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville described these kinds of membership-driven organizations as the “free schools” of democracy that serve as the bedrock of America’s political system.
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that → write → system
They prepare Americans to lead and give them the political vehicles in which they can work with their neighbors to steer the country.
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they → prepare → country
This model is dying, but we still see it alive through organizations like the NAACP and the US Student Association, which I was a member of in my youth.
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I → die → youth
While the DSA was created in 1982, it can trace its full history as a faction within larger organizations going back well over a century.
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it → create → organizations
It is doubtful that the conflict-ridden Black Lives Global Network Foundation, the 501(c)3 organization that took the reins of the BLM movement, will survive the decade.
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that → take → decade
BLM chapters have dissolved, broken away or become relatively dormant across the country.
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chapters → dissolve → country
The network helped oversee the largest protest in US history, but it is doubtful that there are more than a handful of chapters functioning in the country.
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it → help → country
The Minneapolis chapter, arguably its most successful, reconstituted itself as Black Visions, and then sunsetted after years of misalignment and the forcing out of its original leadership.
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chapter → reconstitute → leadership
The Green New Deal-championing Sunrise Movement has fared better, but not by much.
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Movement → champion → much
It too has faced internal power struggles between leadership, who are paid staff members, and its base.
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who → face → members
According to one former member, the organization went from having more than 500 chapters in 2021 to probably fewer than 90 by 2023.
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organization → accord → 2023
It has made efforts to become more democratic but could only muster 700 votes for an internal decision, despite counting more than 80,000 members years prior.
While some of this must be the natural attrition of social movements – the DSA’s membership also ebbs and flows – founders of the Sunrise Movement have publicly recognized the internal conflict built into their model.
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founders → make → model
And this is why the DSA will continue to succeed where most groups fail.
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groups → continue → ?
It has clear mechanisms for its membership to change the direction of the organization without engaging in backroom schemes and internal coups.
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membership → have → schemes
Clashes still happen, but they are facilitated by clear guidelines that allow factions – called caucuses – to vie for power, and leaders have clear term limits.
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leaders → happen → limits
I joined the US Student Association (USSA) with a desire to learn from it and steal members for my own organization, in the vein of the Québécois student unions.
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I → join → unions
But the USSA was so democratic and full of meaningful deliberation that I realized I could change it from within instead of splintering it.
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I → realize → it
Over a decade later, I’m a dedicated alumnus who has volunteered dozens of hours out of sheer love for the organization.
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who → ’m → organization
There is evidence that participating in a thoughtful deliberative process increases satisfaction with the outcomes of a decision and trust of institutions.
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participating → be → institutions
I joined the DSA after sitting through one meeting and realizing that my voice actually mattered.
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voice → join → meeting
I did not need to become a staff member or somehow be appointed to the board of directors.
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I → need → directors
I could make the DSA what I want it to be, while being transformed by it in turn.
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it → make → turn
I hadn’t experienced that since my days at the USSA’s national student congress.
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I → experience → congress
And that is because the new model of social movement organization has long become dominant.
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model → become → organization
According to the Harvard sociologist Theda Skocpol, grant-funded, staff-run, low membership participation models became popular in the 1970s.
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models → accord → 1970s
They create an incentive model that I believe is deleterious to long-term social change.
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I → create → change
…and 5 more, not listed.
The Aporia
