Factions/Factionalism Kelsy Kretschmer Oregon State University The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social and Political Movements, Edited by David A. Snow, Donatella della Porta, Bert Klandermans, and Doug McAdam. © 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2013 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd. DOI: 10.1002/9781405198431.wbespm089 A faction is a subgroup within a larger organization that is in conflict with other members of that organization. Factions occur when a subset of organizational members begin to develop a distinct collective identity that is at least partially at odds with other members. Factionalism emerges from conflict between an organizational faction and other members, or from competing organizational factions. Strictly speaking, factionalism refers to this intra-organizational conflict. However, many social movement scholars have used the concept of factionalism to understand inter-organizational conflict within a broader social movement. In other words, we can use the language of factions to understand a wider range of phenomena, including how different branches of a social movement form and interact. Scholars have paid attention to the ways factions originate, to how they disperse or strengthen over time, to the different outcomes of factionalism, and the consequences of factionalism for social movements generally. There are varying perspectives on why factions develop. Many of the social movement studies on factionalism found that it is the result of poor organizational leadership and management, and that it signals the impeding death of the organization (Balser 1997; Gamson 1975; Zald and Ash 1966). In this vein of research, social movement scholars have paid attention to how the structure of some organizations encourages factionalism and affects its intensity. While all organizations are vulnerable to factionalism, some types may be better able to withstand factionalism and some are more vulnerable. For example, Zald and Ash (1966) argue that exclusive organizations - those with stricter membership requirements - are more likely to suffer from factionalism and schism than are inclusive organizations. In this view, inclusive organizations offer greater flexibility in dealing with internal conflict, meaning the organization can withstand greater internal conflict (see also King 2008). Others have found that there is no great difference between inclusive and exclusive organizations in terms of factionalism (Gamson 1975). In a different vein, social psychologists and small-group sociologists have paid attention to the process through which factions emerge and evolve. These studies have found that factions do not randomly form, but are shaped in ways that reflect social divisions in the broader world. Social psychologists studying this phenomenon refer to the preexisting social “fault lines” within organizations (Hart and Van Vugt 2006; Lau and Murnighan 1998; Stark and Bainbridge 1985). Social fault lines refer to meaningful diversity within the organization, including race, gender, and class differences among members. These fault lines may not be initially important to the members of the organization, but the fault lines can be triggered by an event or crisis that makes them relevant. For example, changes in affirmative action policy can cause factions to form along race and gender lines within an organization.