ABSTRACT
The systematic causal analysis of the origins of social movements is downplayed in both perspectives, and the reason should be clear: if mobilization comes only through outside agency, then the implication is that without such agency mobilization of the populace to collective action will be considerably scarcer than the mobilizers would prefer. Resource mobilization (RM) theory focuses heavily on competition among Social movement organizations within the Social Movement Industry, while Lenin’s attacks on his revolutionary competitors are, of course, legend. The time has therefore come to assess the contributions RM theory can and cannot make to our understanding of the mobilization processes involved in guerrilla warfare. RM theorists have written exhaustively about the manner in which social movements try to secure resources from the populace, and have paid only a little attention to the “[potential] beneficiaries” who join/support movements because they may individually benefit from membership or from the achievement of movement goals.
