Social movements are a kind of group action. It is larger, informal groupings of indirect widths and / or organizations that focus on specific political or social problems.
Modern Western social movements became possible through education (dissemination of literature), and a greater movement of the working class as a result of industrialization and urbanization in the 19th century.
Within political science and sociology have developed a number of theories and empirically based research on social movements. For example illustrates the political science research the connection between popular movements and the formation of new political parties, and other research discusses the movements' influence on politics.