States Make Movements? The Material and Discursive Influence of State-Sponsored Community Organizing in Puerto Rico

The authors examine the interaction between an emergent community movement in Puerto Rico and a poverty program implemented by the Puerto Rico government to deal with poverty in a self-claimed radical way. The authors explain the development of this movement, showing how state sponsorship shaped the material and discursive opportunities and constraints faced by movement leaders and participants. The authors then examine three discursive themes that emerged from fieldwork and interviews with community movement leaders and state actors that suggest the potential as well as the constraints implied by the close state—social movement relationship. These are (1) the partial recasting of dependency arguments in a critique of conventional clientelistic politics and government policy toward the poor, (2) the dismantling of traditional single-issue (i.e., Island political status) party politics in favor of an economic interest-based politics, and (3) an embrace of the rhetorical and coercive power of law. The authors conclude by discussing implications of these findings for the study of social movements, civic participation, and public policy.