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Draft of Wikipedia article on "Political movement"

A political movement is a collective attempt by a group of people to change government policy or society with mainly political goals. Political movements are usually in opposition to an element of the status quo and are often associated with a certain ideology. Some theories of political movements are the political opportunity theory that states that political movements stem from mere circumstances and the resource mobilization theory that states that political movements result from strategic organization and resources. Political movements are also related to political parties in the sense that they both aim to make an impact on the government and that several political parties have emerged from initial political movements. While political parties are engaged with a multitude of issues, political movements tend to focus on only one major issue.

Definition
A political movement is a type of social movement and it occurs when several people form a group in order to collectively attain a political goal on a local, national or global level. The goals of political movements are often about making an impact on policy in the political sphere or achieving social change in general. While political movements involve both dealing with conflicts and compromise, the discourse of these movements tends to consist of a confrontational nature. There are several types of political movements such as reform movements, mass movements, totalitarian movements or violent political movements like guerrillas and insurgencies.

Ideologies play a large role in political movements and individuals that are a part of a movement usually have a similar ideological reasoning for their participation. These ideologies can be very oppositional to the current political system, and how it operates in comparison to the goals that the members of the movement aspire to achieve. This can however, help promote the message of the political movement.

Political Movement Theories
Some of the theories behind social movements have also been applied to political movements in specific, like the political opportunity theory and the resource mobilization theory.

Political opportunity theory
The political opportunity theory asserts that political movements occur through chance or certain opportunities and have little to do with resources, connections or grievances in society. Political opportunities can be created by possible changes in the political system, structure or by other developments in the political sphere and they are the driving force for political movements to be established.

Resource mobilization theory
The resource mobilization theory states that political movements are the result of careful planning, organizing and fundraising rather than spontaneous uprisings or societal grievances. This theory postulates that movements rely on resources and contact to the establishment in order to fully develop. Thus, at the beginning and core of a political movement there lies a strategic mobilization of individuals.

Relation to political parties
Political movements are different from political parties since movements are usually focused on a single issue and they have no interest in attaining office in government. A political movement is generally an informal organization and uses unconventional methods to achieve their goals. In a political party, a political organization seeks to influence, or control, government policy, through conventional methods, usually by nominating their candidates and seating candidates in politics and governmental offices.

However, political parties and movements both aim to influence government in one way or another and both are often related to a certain ideology. Parties also participate in electoral campaigns and educational outreach or protest actions aiming to convince citizens or governments to take action on the issues and concerns which are the focus of the movement. What links political movements to parties in particular, is that some movements have turned into political parties. For example, the 15-M Movement against austerity in Spain led to the creation of the populist party Podemos and the labor movements in Brazil helped form the Brazilian Workers' Party. These types of movement parties serve to raise awareness on the main issue of their initial political movement in government, since the established parties may have neglected this issue in the past.