Coalition Building
Summary
The deliberate work of bringing distinct organisations and constituencies together behind a shared campaign demand — the move from single-organisation to coalition power.
Body
The deliberate work of bringing distinct organisations and constituencies together behind a shared campaign demand — the move from single-organisation to coalition power.
A coalition is a formal or informal alignment of distinct organisations pursuing a shared campaign demand. The SFAF manual on popular mobilisation treats coalition-building as central to any mass campaign in Latin America [source: sfaf-movilizacion]. CIVICUS’s framework for civil-society alliance-building emphasises clarity of demand, division of roles, and shared accountability [source: civicus]. The spectrum of allies is the operational map that tells the coalition which actors to bring in and in what order spectrum-of-allies. Citizen lobbying is the policy-engagement angle — many coalitions are formed specifically to lobby a common target citizen-lobbying. The hardest part is rarely building the coalition — it is keeping it together through the inevitable disagreements on strategy and credit. The strongest coalitions agree on governance (who decides, who speaks, who gets credit, who funds the next round) before they agree on demands.
Examples
Examples
- Argentine workers campaign for human rights (Semana Roja), 1909 — Many workers also sought the resignation of the police chief, Ramón Falcón, 1909 · Latin America
- Argentinian students force university reforms, 1918 — Argentinian students force university reforms, 1918. December, 1917 to October, 1918 · Latin America
- Austin, TX, U.S. students sit-in for desegregated lunch counters (Austin Movement), — Time period notes. There were scattered sit-in incidents beginning in spring 1959-1961 · North America
- Australian Aboriginal workers strike for fair wages and equality, 1946-1949 — Case Study Details. Database Narrative. In 20th century Australia indigenous 1946-1949 · Asia
- Mongolians win multi-party democracy, 1989-1990 — Apr 17, 2024 [TRUNC] Mongolian Case Study. Risking Protest; Creation of the 1989-1990 · Asia
- Baltimore students sit-in for U.S. civil rights, 1960 — Despite only lasting three weeks, the campaign was very successful. Baltimore 1960 · North America
- Barcelona citizens general strike for democracy and economic justice, 1951 — Barcelona citizens general strike for democracy and economic justice, 1951 1951 · Europe
- Barcelona workers win general strike for economic justice, 1919 — The demands of the strikers were the “release of political prisoners, the 1919 · Europe
See all 140 case studies using this method → examples-by-tactic > coalition-building
Use it for
Recruiting coalition partners for a new campaign; structuring decision-making in an existing coalition; sequencing coalition recruitment to a public launch.
Worked examples
Learn more
- On Wikipedia: Coalition — CC BY-SA 4.0
Related
- power-mapping
- spectrum-of-allies
- stakeholder-analysis
- citizen-lobbying
- governance
- coalition-building
- civicus
- sfaf-movilizacion
- thinkers/grover-norquist
- thinkers/marshall-ganz
- m4bl-toolkit (back-link from T1)
Open Questions
(none)
FAQ
What is coalition building?
Coalition building is the deliberate work of bringing distinct organisations and constituencies together behind a shared campaign demand — the move from single-organisation to coalition power. A coalition is a formal or informal alignment of distinct organisations pursuing that shared demand. The SFAF manual on popular mobilisation treats coalition-building as central to any mass campaign in Latin America [source: sfaf-movilizacion]. The spectrum-of-allies is the operational map that tells the coalition which actors to bring in and in what order.
What does the CIVICUS framework emphasise?
CIVICUS’s framework for civil-society alliance-building emphasises three disciplines: clarity of demand, division of roles, and shared accountability [source: civicus]. These let a coalition act as one voice on the shared campaign demand while keeping member organisations’ distinct identities and constituencies intact. citizen-lobbying is the policy-engagement angle at which many coalitions are specifically formed to lobby a common target.
What is the hardest part of coalition building?
The hardest part of coalition building is rarely building the coalition — it is keeping it together through the inevitable disagreements on strategy and credit. The strongest coalitions agree on governance before they agree on demands: they decide in advance who decides, who speaks, who gets credit, and who funds the next round [source: civicus]. That governance discipline precedes and protects the shared campaign demand through the disagreements that any long-running coalition will face [source: sfaf-movilizacion].
Sources & verification
- sources/sfaf-movilizacion — grounding: secondary — RAW (8527 chars)
- sources/civicus — grounding: secondary — RAW (958 chars)