Factionalism broadly describes the occurrence of conflicts between varying groups (or factions) within a social movement. Factionalism is often thought to be a negative feature of social movements. The goal of this paper is to (a) motivate the significance of the concept of factionalism for social and political philosophy and (b) give a definition of factionalism that captures the sense in which factionalism is a deep political problem. Specifically, the paper argues that factionalism is a form of anti-solidarity; factional groups are groups that, in virtue of their normal functionings, promote anti-solidaristic relations. Consequently, factionalism is particularly harmful because it has a transformative effect on movement actors: namely, it creates actors who are unwilling or unable to engage in collective political struggle. In a slogan: factionalism atomizes.
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