Neither horizontal nor vertical. The decision-making process in a social movement of Argentina (2004-2015).

LONGA, FRANCISCO

Congreso; ISA IV Forum of Sociology; 2021

International Sociological Association

During the late 1990s and the beginning of the 21st century, new social movements emerged in Latin America, differentiating from the traditional forms of collective action such as political parties, trade unions or guerrillas. One of the main characteristics of these movements would be that, unlike the other formats, they presented horizontal schemes in their decision-making processes (Zibechi, 2003; Sitrin, 2010).In this article, I analyze the decision-making process in a social organization of Argentina, the Frente Popular Darío Santillán (Popular Front Darío Santillán). Based on in-depth interviews, field visits in their grassroots organizations and analysis of its official publications, I analyze the complex decision-making process of this organization.The results of my work indicate that the decision-making processes of social movements are so complex, that categorizing them only from the binary pair ´horizontality-verticality´ is insufficient. On the contrary, an analytical approach in a sociological perspective shows that the practice of decision-making in a social movement is varied, complex and diverse and it combines consensual, democratic and centralized dynamics.