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Social movements are legion in American and in world history. Globally, the 2010s was the “mass protest decade,” and movements continue strong today. Movements are curious because they take place outside of the bounds of formal democratic politics, yet social scientists regard them as central elements of democracy. What are movements, how do they achieve collective agency, and how do they relate to other forms of democratic and non-democratic political activity? In addition to philosophers in exploring these questions, we will draw on sociology, political science, and organizing, and examine an ideologically and structurally diverse set of cases of movements spanning the period from 1780 to the present.