Social Protest and Policy Change: Ecology, Antinuclear, and Peace Movements in Comparative PerspectiveWhile movement activists spend much of their time and energy trying to change the world and we think that social movements often matter, our theoretical and empirical knowledge in this field is still relatively poor. Social Protest and Policy Change offers a systematic and empirically grounded analysis of the impact of three major contemporary movements on public policy. Following a comparative and historical perspective, the author argues that the policy impact of social movements is facilitated by the presence of favorable political opportunity structures, and more precisely by the presence of institutional allies among the elites, and by a favorable public opinion. Furthermore, the very content of the movements' demands also plays a role, insofar as the power holders are more willing to make concessions on certain issues than on others. On the basis of a historical overview of the mobilization of ecology, antinuclear, and peace movements in the United States, Italy, and Switzerland, and using a unique body of original data, the book presents the results of time-series analyses showing the joint effect of protest, political alliances, and shifts in public opinion for movements that do not address issues that pose too serious a threat to the power holders. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Historical Overview | 17 |
Was It Worth the Effort? The Outcomes and Consequences of Social Movements | 19 |
A Brief History of Ecology Antinuclear and Peace Movements in Three Countries | 37 |
Environmental Nuclear Energy and National Security Policy in Three Countries | 77 |
Conclusion to Part I | 113 |
TimeSeries Analysis | 117 |
Toward a JointEffect Model of Social Movement Outcomes | 119 |
Political Alliances | 167 |
Public Opinion | 189 |
Conclusion to Part II | 215 |
Conclusion | 225 |
Data Measurements and Methods | 235 |
Results of TimeSeries Analysis with Differenced Independent Variables | 261 |
| 271 | |
| 289 | |
Common terms and phrases
allies American antinuclear movement aspects autoregressive process Burstein chapter Charles Tilly Chernobyl accident concerning configuration of power Costain defense democracy Democratic differenced independent variables disruptive Doug McAdam ecology movement Ecology Protests elite actors environment environmental policy environmental protection factors Figure forms of action Gamson's Greenpeace Gulf War impact of social important indicator interactive terms issues Italian Italy joint effect joint-effect model Kaiseraugst Kriesi McAdam measure military spending movement mobilization movement organizations nuclear energy policy nuclear power nuclear weapons number of unconventional one-year lag PACs Party peace movement peace protests percentage period plants policy change policy impact Policy in Three political alliances political opportunity structures protest activities public opinion public policy radical relationship representative democracy role serial correlation significant social movement outcomes specific Swiss Switzerland t₁ Table Tarrow theory three countries three movements Tilly time-series analysis unconventional actions Unconventional Mobilization unconventional protest events United variables are expressed
References to this book
Progressive Community Organizing: A Critical Approach for a Globalizing World Loretta Pyles No preview available - 2009 |