Moral Entrepreneurs

Some of the most consequential acts in politics are not necessarily votes or laws. They are verdicts. Someone decides that a behaviour is a problem. They name it, frame it, and persuade others to see it the same way. That act of labelling in politics is where moral entrepreneurship begins.

The idea was introduced by sociologist Howard S. Becker in 1963 to describe individuals or groups who push for moral and social change by identifying certain behaviours as deviant or problematic. Moral entrepreneurs do not need formal authority to be effective. What they need is the capacity to shape opinion, influence policy, and redraw the line between the normal and the unacceptable. Media and political reach are their primary tools.

The process tends to unfold in three stages. It begins with problem definition: an issue is named and framed as a moral threat, typically using emotionally charged communication. This is often where moral panic takes hold. The idea, coined in 1972 by Stanley Cohen, describes a process: the media sensationalise the issue, public fear rises, and pressure builds for rapid policy response. The second stage is mobilisation, as moral entrepreneurs seek legitimacy through campaigns, lobbying, and coalition-building. The third is institutionalisation, when the new standard becomes official through law or policy, and enforcement follows.

Researchers have since extended these foundations. Digital technologies have helped make moral panics faster and broader than Cohen’s original framework anticipated. And political leaders have not been slow to exploit the phenomenon: scholars have shown how Donald Trump, among others, deployed moral panic strategies to frame immigration as an existential threat.

Another direction concerns resistance and norm change. Not all moral entrepreneurship flows in one direction. Some scholars have mapped the actors who push back—competitor entrepreneurs, “creative resisters”, “norm antipreneurs”—while others have traced how individuals and social movements reshape norms from below. Greta Thunberg is among the more studied recent examples: her moral framing of the climate crisis shifted the terms of the debate, particularly among younger publics.

What moral entrepreneurship makes visible is that norms are made through moral emotions, narratives, and political influence. That is often as powerful as a vote at the ballot box.

Further Reading:

Aaltola, E. (2021). Defensive over Climate Change? Climate Shame as a Method of Moral Cultivation. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, 34(1). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10806-021-09844-5

Becker, Howard S. Outsiders: Studies in the Sociology of Deviance. The Free Press, 1963.

Cohen, Stanley. Folk Devils and Moral Panics. Routledge, 1972.

Critcher, C. (2008). Moral panic analysis: Past, present and future. Sociology Compass, 2(4), 1127–1144. https://doi.org/10.1111/ j.1751-9020.2008.00122.x

Bloomfield, A. (2016). Norm antipreneurs and theorising resistance to normative change. Review of International Studies, 42(2), 310–333. https://doi.org/10.1017/S026021051500025X

Flores-Yeffal, N. Y., & Elkins, D. (2020). Moral framing networks: How moral entrepreneurs create power through the media. In M. W. Hughey & C. Gonzales-Lesser (Eds.), Racialized media: The design, delivery, and decoding of race and ethnicity (pp. 206–226). New York University Press.

Flores-Yeffal, N. Y., & Sparger, K. (2022). The shifting morals of moral entrepreneurs. Social Media + Society, 8(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051221095444

Goode, Erich, and Nachman Ben-Yehuda. Moral Panics: The Social Construction of Deviance. Wiley-Blackwell, 1994.

Heidrich D., Nakonieczna-Bartosiewicz J. (2021). Young Activists as International Norm Entrepreneurs: A Case Study of Greta Thunberg's Campaigning on Climate Change in Europe and Beyond. Studia Europejskie, 25(2). https://doi.org/10.33067/SE.2.2021.6

Hier, S. P. (2019). Moral panic and the new neoliberal compromise. Current Sociology, 67(6), 879–897. https://doi.org/10. 1177/0011392119829511

Nisbett, N., & Spaiser, V. (2023). Moral power of youth activists – Transforming international climate Politics? Global Environmental Change, 82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2023.102717