RM I and RM II are macro versions of the perspective. McCarthy and Zald’s article
clearly shows this. However, there is a micro version of the RMP as well.
Anthony Oberschall, one of the founders of the perspective, suggests: “Participants
in popular disturbances and activists in opposition organizations will be recruited
primarily from previously active and relatively well-integrated individuals within
the collectivity, whereas socially isolated, atomized, and uprooted individuals will
be underrepresented, at least until the movement has become substantial”
(Oberschall 1973: 135). McAdam, McCarthy, and Zald (1988: 703) succinctly
summarize this proposition by stating: “The greater the density of social organization,
the more likely that social movement activity will develop.” In general, the
integration of individuals into social networks promotes their protest participation.
Piven and Cloward (1991: 442) regard this proposition as “one of the RM school’s
most fundamental causal propositions.” Indeed, from the perspective of the RMP
this is not implausible: a person who is member of a social network – which may
consist of friendship relationships or relationships to group members – may dispose
of resources in the sense that one may recruit others in the network to participate in
protest action at relatively low costs. Thus, individuals in networks are easily
available as targets of mobilization and can easily address others as targets of
mobilization.