Identity-based actions can reshape political power structures without being intended as political

Evidence

Politics is typically defined as the constrained use of power by people over other people (Goodin & Klingemann, 1996, p. 7; see also M.Weber, 1919). The struggle between social groups for power within society can therefore be understood as political group activity. Accordingly, we suggest that politicized collective identity can be understood as a form of collective identity that underlies group members’ explicit motivations to engage in such a power struggle. At this point, it may be helpful to distinguish between political repercussions of collective identity and politicized collective identity proper. In many cases, behavior or action in terms of collective identity might have political repercussions in that it also affects the power structure within society. However, these political repercussions may or may not be intended by the collective actors. Take, for example, a religious group that “simply” wants its children to be taught in its own schools. It is not difficult to imagine that this acting out of a specific collective identity may have wider political repercussions in that it may challenge the educational system of society at large and, more generally, the power relations between church and state, although such challenges were not intended by the religious group in the first place. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 4416

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the school-segregation literature’s finding that private religious schooling shifted church-state relations, connecting to Coleman’s social-capital work on Catholic schools. — connects to: A leaderless mass movement can outflank its own nominal leaders’ proposals — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and…, 506; Institutional power structures both bestow and strip recognition of identities. — Mary Bucholtz and Kira Hall, Identity and Interaction: A…, 100; Regime form shapes which collective actors can act on their interests — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 84 (+3 more)
• SEED: A religious-group school case study offers an essay angle: how untended identity-driven choices quietly redraw church-state power lines.