IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/wzbisc/fsiii96202.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Contexts of political protest in Western democracies: Political organization and modernity

Author

Listed:
  • Roller, Edeltraud
  • Weßels, Bernhard

Abstract

This paper provides a comparative analysis of two contextual determinants of protest participation in 17 Western democracies at the beginning of the 1990's. The two determinants are the individual's organizational context and the national context of political and socioeconomic conditions. The organizational context is defined as the close context of political protest arising due to social interaction, while the national context is defined as the wide context, constituting of extra-individual factors. The relationship between the close context and political protest is specified by theories of mobilization, whereas in the case of the wide context modernization theories are used. Individual-level analysis of the effects of the close context reveals that protest participation increases with an individual's embeddedness in political organizations. This holds true not only for memberships in new but also in traditional political organizations. However, the organizational context does not contribute equally to all forms of protest. Its impact is stronger on legal than on illegal forms of protest. Concerning the wide context of political protest, evidence is provided by aggregate-level analysis that variations in the extent of legal protest between countries can be explained by different levels of political and socioeconomic modernity of societies. The more modern a society, the higher the extent of legal protest participation and the less legal protesters articulate demands for radical change to the societal order. To the contrary, the extent of illegal protest participation cannot be explained by a modernization approach. The research on the close and wide context of political protest indicates that the enlargement of the action repertory of citizens to include legal protest, is part of the modernization of politics.

Suggested Citation

  • Roller, Edeltraud & Weßels, Bernhard, 1996. "Contexts of political protest in Western democracies: Political organization and modernity," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Institutions and Social Change FS III 96-202, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:wzbisc:fsiii96202
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/48999/1/19878144X.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kitschelt, Herbert P., 1986. "Political Opportunity Structures and Political Protest: Anti-Nuclear Movements in Four Democracies," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 16(1), pages 57-85, January.
    2. Rucht, Dieter, 1994. "Modernisierung und neue soziale Bewegungen: Deutschland, Frankreich und USA im Vergleich," EconStor Books, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, volume 32, number 122892, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Newton, Kenneth & Giebler, Heiko, 2008. "Patterns of participation: Political and social participation in 22 nations," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Democracy and Democratization SP IV 2008-201, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    2. Joly, Philippe, 2018. "Generations and protest in Eastern Germany: Between revolution and apathy," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Democracy and Democratization SP V 2018-101, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    3. Joly, Philippe, 2018. "Generations and Protest in Eastern Germany: Between Revolution and Apathy," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 17(6), pages 704-737.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rucht, Dieter, 1994. "Öffentlichkeit als Mobilisierungsfaktor für soziale Bewegungen," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, pages 337-358.
    2. Jung-In Jo & Hyun Jin Choi, 2019. "Enigmas of grievances about inequality: Effects of attitudes toward inequality and government redistribution on protest participation," International Area Studies Review, Center for International Area Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, vol. 22(4), pages 348-368, December.
    3. Newton, Kenneth & Giebler, Heiko, 2008. "Patterns of participation: Political and social participation in 22 nations," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Democracy and Democratization SP IV 2008-201, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    4. Sierra, Jazmin & Hochstetler, Kathryn, 2017. "Transnational activist networks and rising powers: transparency and environmental concerns in the Brazilian National Development Bank," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 79089, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Koopmans, Ruud, 1998. "The use of protest event data in comparative research: cross-national comparability, sampling methods and robustness," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, pages 90-110.
    6. Livia Johannesson & Noomi Weinryb, 2021. "How to blame and make a difference: perceived responsibility and policy consequences in two Swedish pro-migrant campaigns," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 54(1), pages 41-62, March.
    7. Wu, Jing & Chang, I-Shin & Yilihamu, Qimanguli & Zhou, Yu, 2017. "Study on the practice of public participation in environmental impact assessment by environmental non-governmental organizations in China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 186-200.
    8. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/8523 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Zorn, Annika, 2002. "Wie die Löffelente bis nach Brüssel kam - oder: Wie sucht man nach europäischen Bewegungen?," Discussion Papers, Working Group Political Communication and Mobilization P 02-701, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    10. Jale Tosun & Aurel Croissant, 2016. "Policy Diffusion: A Regime-sensitive Conceptual Framework," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 7(4), pages 534-540, November.
    11. Sergio Belda-Miquel & Jordi Peris Blanes & Alexandre Frediani, 2016. "Institutionalization and Depoliticization of the Right to the City: Changing Scenarios for Radical Social Movements," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(2), pages 321-339, March.
    12. Kimberly Turner, 2023. "A win or a flop? Measuring mass protest successfulness in authoritarian settings," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 60(1), pages 107-123, January.
    13. Kim, Seongcheol, 2022. "Von Lefort zu Mouffe. Populismus als Moment und Grenze radikaler Demokratie [From Lefort to Mouffe: Populism as moment and limit of radical democracy]," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 32(4), pages 767-786.
    14. Dolata, Ulrich & Schrape, Jan Felix, 2014. "Masses, crowds, communities, movements: Collective formations in the digital age," Research Contributions to Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies, SOI Discussion Papers 2014-02, University of Stuttgart, Institute for Social Sciences, Department of Organizational Sociology and Innovation Studies.
    15. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/8523 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Cornelia Woll & Alvaro Artigas, 2007. "When trade liberalization turns into regulatory reform: The impact on business–government relations in international trade politics," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 1(2), pages 121-138, June.
    17. Satyapriya Rout & Annu Yudik, 2021. "Environmental Movements in North-East India: Political Opportunity Structure and Movement Success," Review of Development and Change, , vol. 26(2), pages 226-246, December.
    18. Scherhaufer, Patrick & Klittich, Philipp & Buzogány, Aron, 2021. "Between illegal protests and legitimate resistance. Civil disobedience against energy infrastructures," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    19. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/8526 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Patibandla Srikant, 2009. "Koodankulam Anti-Nuclear Movement: A Struggle for Alternative Development?," Working Papers 232, Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore.
    21. Rucht, Dieter, 1991. "Soziale Bewegungen, Gegenbewegungen und Staat: der Abtreibungskonflikt in den USA, Frankreich und der Bundesrepublik Deutschland," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 4(2), pages 31-42.
    22. Richard Cowell & Susan Owens, 2006. "Governing Space: Planning Reform and the Politics of Sustainability," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 24(3), pages 403-421, June.
    23. Lars Sorge & Anne Neumann & Christian von Hirschhausen & Ben Wealer, 2019. "Nuclear Power, Democracy, Development, and Nuclear Warheads: Determinants for Introducing Nuclear Power," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1811, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:wzbisc:fsiii96202. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/wzbbbde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.