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Suggests that the emergence & development of social movements across time can be best understood using the theory of critical mass (Marwell, Gerald, & Oliver, Pamela, 1993) with two additional dynamics incorporated: emotions & social attention space. The emotional dimensions of collective action are analyzed in detail, utilizing sociological concepts to discuss cultural framing, conscience constituencies, collective mobilization, ritual participation, & morality. It is argued that the "emotional energy" of social movements is shaped by a struggle over social attention space. Intellectual, religious, political, & other types of movements are described, showing how their participants are motivated & bound together by emotional solidarity that links them across the movement's lifespan. It is argued that the emotionally laden social capital at the root of the most successful social movements transcends transient movement dynamics & reincarnates itself in the next mobilization. K. Hyatt Stewart

A chapter-by-chapter précis is presented of Randall Collins's book, The Sociology of Philosophies: A Global Theory of Intellectual Change. It presents a sociological theory of intellectual networks that connect thinkers in chains of masters and pupils, colleagues and rivals, and of the internalized conversations that constitute the social processes of thinking. The theory is used to analyze long-term developments of the intellectual communities of philosophers in ancient Greece, ancient and medieval China and India, medieval and modern Japan, medieval Islam and Judaism, medieval Christendom, and modern Europe through the early 20th century.

Proposes a sociological theory of the conditions for democracy, drawing on the writings of Max Weber. It is suggested that most theories of democracy are insufficiently state-centered. Democracy is fundamentally a state configuration &, therefore, following Weber, has at its core a specific form of military organization. Democracies have expanded & contracted according to their ability to expand & conquer or enter into coalitions with other states. More specifically, democracy has been advanced most when a plurality of actors maintain control over political/military resources, & are thereby forced to enter into coalitions with one another. This thesis is demonstrated, drawing on evidence of European state maneuverings during the Middle Ages. Thus, democracy is understood from the outside in, as conditioned by geopolitical shifts among independent state actors. The contemporary relevance of this theory for interpreting the prospects for democracy in Eastern Europe is briefly considered. 1 Figure, 11 References. D. M. Ryfe