Narrative, Organization, and Political Efficacy: A Comparative Study of the Occupy and Tea Party Movements

Following the 2008 financial crisis, two social movements emerged in the United States, both attempting to address economic anxieties and grievances, though from very different ideological positions. The Tea Party Movement and the Occupy Movement arose within a few years of one another, and both sought to explain the failure of the existing economic system, whether in terms of overregulation and government overreach, or in terms of political corruption and the failures of capitalism. Despite both movements seeking to address economic failures and anxieties, and both movements emerging within two years of one another, the Tea Party Movement and Occupy Movement had very different trajectories and outcomes. Putting aside the question of how to measure the success of a social movement, it is clear that the lasting effects of these two movements were quite different despite substantial similarities in the timing of these movements, and the economic anxieties which helped fuel them. While there are likely a constellation of factors which contributed to the differing outcomes between these two movements, the factors of interest in this analysis are the narratives espoused by these movements, and the relationship between narrative, and the organization and political activities of these movements.