Social Justice Research, Vol. 17, No. 4, December 2004 ( C  2004) DOI: 10.1007/s11211-004-2057-z Social Inﬂuence and the Power of Minorities: An Analysis of the Communist Manifesto Xenia Chryssochoou 1,3 and Chiara Volpato 2 In this paper, we investigate the strategies that a minority uses to exert direct in- ﬂuence toward social change through the qualitative analysis of a document that has prompted people toward collective action and change, namely the Communist Manifesto. To inform and guide the qualitative analysis, a social psychological model of social inﬂuence was used (G. Mugny, The Power of Minorities, Academic Press, London, 1982). According to this model, in order for minorities to exert inﬂuence it is important to target those in the majority that, although perhaps nu- merous, are powerless. The minority needs to create and maintain an antagonism with the powerful majority while, simultaneously, it needs to boost the identity of the powerless majority and to invent itself as the group that can guide them to overthrow the powerful. The analysis suggests that the minority follows three strategies: (a) The declaration of a world vision suggesting a system of catego- rization that objectiﬁes power relations and creates different targets for inﬂuence and for conﬂict; (b) The construction of the minority’s identity as a particular group that is part but prototypical of the target of inﬂuence–the population; (c) The creation and maintenance of relations of antagonism with that part of the majority that holds the power. This enables the minority to avoid being portrayed as deviants, enables them to stand as equals to the majority, and creates the im- pression that the minority has the potential to overthrow the powerful majority from its position. KEY WORDS: social inﬂuence; power; social change; minority; Communist Manifesto. 1 Department of Psychology, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, 17671 Athens, Greece. 2 Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20126 Milano, Italy. 3 All correspondence should be addressed to Xenia Chryssochoou, Department of Psychology, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, 136, Syngrou Avenue, 17671 Athens, Greece; e-mail: xeniachr@panteion.gr. 357 0885-7466/04/1200-0357/0 C  2004 Plenum Publishing Corporation