Article

Zapatista and counter-Zapatista protests A test of movement–countermovement dynamics

Authors:
To read the full-text of this research, you can request a copy directly from the author.

Abstract

This study represents the first systematic analysis of the interactions between pro-Zapatista and counter-Zapatista protestors in Chiapas, Mexico, and the first empirical test of movement–countermovement theories in a transitional democracy. Three claims are tested: (1) movement protests trigger countermovement protest activity; (2) different political parties at different levels of government trigger movement–countermovement protest activity; and (3) victories won by one side of a conflict, viewed as procedural concessions, trigger further pro- and countermovement protest activity. These hypotheses are tested using negative binomial models and data on Zapatista-related protest activity between 1994 and 2003. The results show that: (1) movement and countermovement protests have a positive, reciprocal effect on both groups' future protest activity; (2) movement and countermovement protesting groups use the dominant political party as a target of protest. The characteristics of the electoral cycle and rise of multi-party competition at all levels of government do not have a consistent effect on protest activity; (3) granting procedural concessions to pro-movement actors generates more protest activity among both groups. However, granting procedural concessions via social programs and public works to the population irrespective of its sympathy to either side of the movement–countermovement conflict decreases movement protests and increases countermovement protests.

No full-text available

Request Full-text Paper PDF

To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.

... On one side, some view RWP movements as a threat to liberal democracy and claim that joining anti-populist rallies is important to challenge their claims to represent "the people" (Boone et al. 2018). On the other, previous research on movement-countermovement dynamics has shown that activities by opposing movements can lead to a reinforcing mobilization dynamic (Inclán 2012;Banaszak & Ondercin 2016). ...
... For instance, white supremacists copied slogans from the civil rights movement (Blee & Creasap 2010: 271). As shown by work on pro-and counter-Zapatista protests in Mexico (Inclán 2012) and the women"s movement in the U.S. (Banaszak & Ondercin 2016), the mere protest activity of one side influences mobilization on the other side. However, we do not know how countermovements affect RWP mobilization. ...
... As a result of these interactions with the countermovement, RWP protesters will remain active on the streets to defend their group"s interests against external attacks. Existing empirical research on movement-countermovements interaction finds support for this mutual reinforcing mobilization dynamic between movements (Inclán 2012;Banaszak & Ondercin 2016). ...
Article
Full-text available
Right‐wing populist (RWP) movements have been on the rise in Western democracies. Outside of party politics, such movements regularly organize demonstrations against political elites and minority groups. At the same time, civil society coalitions have mobilized against these movements. Yet we know little about the effect of counter‐demonstrations on RWP protest activities. We derive competing theoretical expectations from previous work. On the one hand, counter‐mobilization reduces mobilization because the original movement is less likely to achieve its goals (expected utility/costs). On the other hand, clashes and standoffs between opposing movements facilitate mobilization through polarization and anger (identity/emotions). We empirically analyze movement‐countermovement dynamics using a new city‐level event dataset on street protests by the German Pegida movement and its opponents. In our quantitative analysis, we investigate how counter‐mobilization is associated with the onset of Pegida protests, their intensity in terms of participant numbers, and their demobilization. Counter‐mobilization does not prevent protest onset, but large counter‐demonstrations are associated with larger subsequent Pegida protests, and violence against Pegida supporters reduces the likelihood that they will stop protesting. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved
... Inspired by the theoretical and empirical analyses provided by aforementioned scholars that investigate the contentious politics of social assistance in other countries (Yörük, 2012;Crost, Felter & Johnston, 2015) and in the past (Fox-Piven & Cloward, 1971), we propose to explain social assistance provision in Mexico by considering the effect of indigenous unrest and by showing that social assistance programs have disproportionately been directed to indigenous populations. In other words, we discuss social assistance programs in Mexico in relation to government attempts to contain indigenous autonomous struggle, namely, the Zapatista movement (Gil-García, 2016;Inclán, 2012;EZLN, 2014;Mora, 2008). We follow Sidney Tarrow and Charles Tilly who define contentious politics as ''episodic, public, collective interaction among makers of claims and their objects when (a) at least one government is a claimant, an object of claims, or a party to the claims and (b) the claims would, if realized, affect the interests of at least one of the claimants." ...
... Such measures taken by the Mexican government would hopefully mitigate local Zapatistas' demands for alternative sources of income following the laws/policies against deforestation and intervene further adherence to the EZLN groups (Harvey, 2005). Moreover, in her analysis of the interactions between pro-Zapatista and counter-Zapatista protestors in Chiapas, Inclán (2012) revealed that procedural concessions from the local governments in the form of expenditures on public works and social programs had significantly decreased pro-Zapatista protest activity. Indeed, Inclan invites further research to unpack the relationship between the decrease in Zapatista mobilization activities and increase in social programs (Inclán, 2012, 470). ...
... One might argue that the decrease in propensity to protest occurs as a result of the government pleasing indigenous protesters by providing them with better services. However, this explanation is convoluted by the fact that the Zapatistas refuse any government aid as they are vigilant about the potential control and containment that comes with it (Inclán, 2012;Ruiz, 2004). ...
... We follow the literature on countermovements 8 by analyzing two forms of influence that opposing movements have on each other (Zald and Useem 1987;Inclan 2012;Meyer and Staggenborg 1996;Lo 1982): 1) each movement stages events because of the other movement's actions; and 2) each movement reacts to the other movement's success. ...
... Several scholars argue that a movement's events create the impetus for its oppositional movement to mobilize (Andrews 2002;Inclan 2012;Lo 1982;Zald and Useem 1987). The visibility of the original movement's mobilization creates grievances when opponents realize that what they had considered accepted positions and practices are being challenged, leading to opposing movement mobilization. ...
... The visibility of a movement's events also demonstrates to its oppositional movement that mobilization can be effective (Andrews 2002). Like Meyer and Staggenborg (1996) and Inclan (2012), we examine how a movement's events inspire the mobilization of its oppositional movement after the initial founding. If movements continue to affect their opposition (and vice versa), this could increase the number of movement events and extend the length of time movements mobilize, altering the shape of waves of mobilization (for example, Staggenborg 1991, 152). ...
Article
We examine the causes of movement and countermovement mobilization, focusing specifically on the effect that the national movements have on each other by responding directly to mobilization and indirectly through their policy successes. We discuss the mechanisms by which national movements respond to each other, and we examine the influence of political parties and social, political, and economic changes for women. We analyze these relationships using a Poisson Autoregressive (PAR(ρ)) estimator, which is uniquely designed to model both the time dependence and the count distributions, on quarterly time series of feminist, anti-feminist, pro-choice, and anti-abortion events. Results show that movements and countermovements respond to each other and that anti-feminist movements mobilize in response to national policy change and societal change. The results suggest that many quantitative analyses of women's movements may be misspecified and that feminist mobilization does not always abate during conservative backlash.
... Na pesquisa sobre a literatura brasileira e latino-americana realizada através de repositórios de periódicos e de teses e dissertações, foram encontradas apenas nove produções que mobilizam, direta ou indiretamente, a discussão sobre contramovimentos sociais (Alonso, 2014;Inclán, 2012;Malagón Penen, 2018;Pereira, 2018;Rezende, 2016;Ruibal, 2014Ruibal, , 2015Szwako, 2014;Vaggione, 2012 (Ruibal, 2014). ...
... Na medida em que grande parte das demandas e propostas dos movimentos sociais são direcionadas ao Estado, essa parte da literatura enfatiza que a resposta do Estado àquelas demandas e propostas é um elemento fundamental para a conquista de resultados positivos por parte dos movimentos sociais e, assim, para oportunizar a emergência de contramovimentos sociais em oposição a tais conquistas (Inclán, 2012). Apenas quando a ação do Estado começa a ser interpretada como favorável às demandas dos movimentos, indicando a relevância política dos mesmos, é que se colocaria um sentido de ameaça que mobilizaria a formação de um contramovimento social (Lim, 2017). ...
Article
Full-text available
O campo de estudos de movimentos sociais tem-se caracterizado pela adoção de uma perspectiva analítica movimentocêntrica, que concentra seu foco de análise em características e processos internos aos movimentos sociais e suas organizações, bem como tem privilegiado como objetos de investigação os atores coletivos progressistas ou dominados, secundarizando a análise da mobilização coletiva de setores conservadores ou dominantes da sociedade. Desenvolvido no âmbito de perspectivas relacionais de análise dos movimentos sociais, o conceito de "contramovimentos" oferece ferramentas para superar essas lacunas, ao propor um deslocamento do foco analítico para as relações de conflito entre organizações de movimentos sociais de perfis ideológicos ou de segmentos da população distintos. O objetivo deste artigo é apresentar esse conceito a partir de uma revisão da literatura a respeito: a) de sua apropriação pela literatura nacional e internacional; b) dos debates teóricos em torno de sua definição e explicação; c) e das principais temáticas que têm sido investigadas empiricamente a partir desse conceito.
Chapter
The Cambridge Handbook of Environmental Sociology is a go-to resource for cutting-edge research in the field. This two-volume work covers the rich theoretic foundations of the sub-discipline, as well as novel approaches and emerging areas of research that add vitality and momentum to the discipline. Over the course of sixty chapters, the authors featured in this work reach new levels of theoretical depth, incorporating a global scope and diversity of cases. This book explores the broad scope of crucial disciplinary ideas and areas of research, extending its investigation to the trajectories of thought that led to their unfolding. This unique work serves as an invaluable tool for all those working in the nexus of environment and society.
Book
Full-text available
Civil society actors have contested the fifty-year-long transition to a global economy based on the principles of neoliberalism. Mobilization against neoliberal measures represents one of the most common forms of social movement activity across the world. We explore the evolution of resistance to economic liberalization from the 1970s to the current period. Our study highlights several dimensions of civic opposition to the implementation of free market policies, including: forms of neoliberalism; geographic distribution of protest events across world regions and time; and outcomes of movement campaigns. PDF Available at: https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/collective-resistance-to-neoliberalism/99C68E546FAF83324F397530AFDD494A
Article
Full-text available
Social movements pushing for social change are often met with reactionary counter-movements that defend the status quo. The present research examined this interplay by focusing on the role of racial majority group members claiming collective psychological ownership. We examined collective ownership that stems from being native to the land and from being founders of the nation. Study 1 found that in Malaysia, the Malay majority group endorsed more native ownership than Chinese and Indian minorities, which in turn predicted greater threat in response to protests demanding electoral reforms and subsequently greater support for a reactionary pro-government movement. Situated in the United States, Study 2 found that the more that White Americans endorsed founder ownership beliefs, the more they reported negative attitudes towards the Black Lives Matter protests, which in turn predicted more support for White nationalistic counter-protests. This effect was stronger among White people compared to people of colour. Study 3 examined both founder and native ownership in Australia. Founder (but not native) ownership beliefs predicted more negative attitudes towards Invasion Day protests, which subsequently predicted more support for counter-protests defending Australia Day celebrations. Implications of culture-specific beliefs about collective ownership for social movement research are discussed.
Article
This article offers a review of the most salient studies on Latin American social movements published in the last 25 years. It not only assesses the questions and empirical implications that these studies have uncovered, but it also points out theoretical and empirical puzzles that are currently investigated or are yet to be examined. In doing so, this article reviews two type of studies: those that in the author’s opinion cover the most salient movements in the region and those that offer us most promising propositions for the development of the subfield in the future. With this review, the author hopes to open the debate and help include Latin American social movements within the systematic study of comparative social mobilization in sociology and comparative politics. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Sociology Volume 44 is July 30, 2018. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
Article
Full-text available
The purpose of this essay is to provide the reader with basic terms and conceptual ideas in the literature of protest mobilization, as protests are the more tangible expressions of a social movement. The essay opens with a discussion about cycles and waves of protests. After identifying the differences between these two, I explore more specific concepts like framing and diffusion of protests, their timing, scale shift, and repertoires of contention to finally end by proposing what can be considered as successes and failures of the protest movement. For each concept I provide a concise definition and an applied example. Most of the concepts’ illustrations come from the Zapatista cycle of protests. However, I also incorporate examples from more recent protest movements in order to show the reader that while the study of social movements tend to adapt itself constantly to the events that shape the subfield, some concepts survive as useful tools in the discipline.
Chapter
Hostile countermobilization is a crucial, yet relatively understudied, factor in radicalizing movement tactics and generating political violence. This chapter focuses on the movement–countermovement interactions between the Civil Rights Movement and the Loyalist movement in Northern Ireland to clarify the emergence and intensification of political violence in the 1968–1969 years. The interactions between the civil rights mobilization and the loyalist countermobilization created the conditions to fuel both protest-based and sectarian violence, setting the terrain for the eruption of the Troubles. Relying on quantitative data on the actors participating to contentious collective events, as well as original archival research, this chapter shows how the loyalist countermobilization activated mechanisms of object shift and tactical codependency that facilitated the emergence of radicalization in Northern Ireland.
Article
Full-text available
During 1970–1985, South Africa vacillated between reform and reaffirmation of the repressive regime known as apartheid. Did these reforms slow the pace of protest, or did they facilitate protest, by intensifying discontent? Using event-history data on anti-apartheid protest we suggest that passage of reforms will increase the pace of protest while state repression will dampen it. We further hypothesize that the nature and scope of each reform would differentially affect protest by each of three official racial populations: Black Africans, Coloureds, and Asian Indians. As expected, reforms that integrated housing and jobs and reforms that legitimated the rights of black labor unions propelled protest by Black Africans against apartheid, but so did reforms that excluded Black Africans from citizenship. In contrast, relatively few reforms affected the rate of protest by Asian Indians and Coloured population groups. Finally, we found that repression decreased rates of protest significantly for all three groups.
Article
Full-text available
This article contributes to a more systematic understanding of movement outcomes by analyzing how organizational, tactical, political, and framing variables interact and combine to account for differences in the outcomes attained by 15 homeless social movement organizations (SMOs) active in eight U.S. cities. Using qualitative comparative analysis to assess ethnographically derived data on the 15 SMOs, the study highlights the importance of organizational viability and the rhetorical quality of diagnostic and prognostic frames for securing outcomes while identifying a contingent relationship between tactics and political environment. The analysis suggests that there are multiple pathways leading to movement outcome attainment, and therefore unidimensional rather than combinatorial and interactive approaches are misguided.
Article
Full-text available
We examine how state fragmentation has shaped tactical choices of gay rights adversaries between 1974 and 1999. Which political channels have both sides used to advance their goals? Have their tactics changed over time? Specifically, we analyze how they have used three dimensions of the state: (1) judiciary, getting courts to extend or repeal existing legislation; (2) legislative, passing ordinances, laws, executive orders; and (3) popular support, using ballot initiatives and referenda. These dimensions are further fragmented by level of government: federal, state, and local. We find that, despite crucial tactical innovations compared to the 1960s, both adversaries continue to focus on classic civil rights issues. Our analyses suggest that gay rights opponents increasingly find success through ballot initiatives, a venue based on popular support rather than access to central government arenas. In contrast, gay rights proponents increasingly succeed when using central governmental channels (legislatures, courts), which remain contested. These findings highlight the limits of central concepts rooted in the resource mobilization and state literatures, i.e., the distinction between insiders and outsiders to the polity and the social movement/countermovement debate.
Article
Full-text available
This article examines the foundation of private segregationist academies that emerged throughout the U.S. South in the wake of court-ordered desegregation. I focus on the state of Mississippi where private academies grew dramatically from 1969 to 1971. I provide an analytic history of civil-rights and school-desegregation conflicts in Mississippi, and I use OLS models to examine county-level variation in local support for private academies during this period. My analysis shows that the formation of academies occurs as a response to desegregation (1) when there is a credible threat that desegregation will be implemented (implicitly signaling the "success" of the movement); (2) when blacks have the organizational capacity to make claims and voice protest within newly desegregated schools; and (3) when whites have the organizational capacity to resist desegregation. These three specifications extend models of racial competition that have been used to explain white countermobilization. I argue that the establishment of academies was a countermovement strategy that flowed out of the prior history of organized white resistance to the civil-rights movement. In other words, whites were not only responding to court intervention and the proportion of African Americans in their community, but to the social movement mobilization of that community.
Article
Full-text available
Electoral competition is necessary but not sufficient for the consolidation of democratic regimes; not all elections are free and fair; nor do they necessarily lead to actual civilian rule or respect for human rights. If there is more to democracy than elections, then there is more to democratization than the transition to elections. But in spite of the rich literature on the emergence of electoral competition, the dynamics of political transitions toward respect for other fundamental democratic rights is still not well understood. Political democracy is defined here in classic procedural terms: free and fair electoral contestation for governing offices based on universal suffrage, guaranteed freedoms of association and expression, accountability through the rule of law, and civilian control of the military. Although analyses of democratization typically acknowledge that these are all necessary criteria, most examine only electoral competition. This study, however, develops a framework for explaining progress toward another necessary condition for democratization respect for associational autonomy, which allows citizens to organize in defense of their own interests and identities without fear of external intervention or punishment.
Chapter
The aim of this book is to highlight and begin to give 'voice' to some of the notable 'silences' evident in recent years in the study of contentious politics. The seven co-authors take up seven specific topics in the volume: the relationship between emotions and contention; temporality in the study of contention; the spatial dimensions of contention; leadership in contention; the role of threat in contention; religion and contention; and contention in the context of demographic and life-course processes. The seven spent three years involved in an ongoing project designed to take stock, and attempt a partial synthesis, of various literatures that have grown up around the study of non-routine or contentious politics. As such, it is likely to be viewed as a groundbreaking volume that not only undermines conventional disciplinary understanding of contentious politics, but also lays out a number of provocative new research agendas.
Chapter
In direct and palpable ways, states shape movements. In the case of the civil rights movement, law enforcement officers harassed, arrested, and assaulted demonstrators. States prosecuted civil rights organizations; state sovereignty commissions and legislative investigative committees organized covert surveillance of activists and orchestrated various legalistic and economic reprisals against the proponents of racial equality. Most of these state activities are clear and directly related to movement behavior. Equally important yet far less studied are the many ways in which state and local authorities indirectly affect movements by modulating counter movement mobilization. During civil rights protests or desegregation events, public officials were obliged to respond to hostile white crowds and to the activities of countermovement organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan and the White Citizens' Council. Though relatively ignored in the expansive literature on social movements, I argue that studies of the impact of states on social movements must address the manner in which states respond to countermovement mobilization. Simply put, states shape countermovements and countermovements affect the movement to which they are opposed. By opting to suppress, tolerate, or encourage countermovement mobilization, states can decisively affect the intensity of countermovement activity directed against the initial movement. In the case of the civil rights movement, I assert that a combination of state repression of Klan-type organizations and condemnation of lawlessness substantially reduced the intensity of private anti-rights violence. © Cambridge University Press 2003 and Cambridge University Press, 2010
Article
The abstract for this document is available on CSA Illumina.To view the Abstract, click the Abstract button above the document title.
Article
This article follows a revised political opportunity approach to argue that mobilization of underprivileged groups is constrained by the political opportunity structures provided by the institutional context of the country in which they act. Contrary to traditional opportunity theories, it is suggested that their mobilization also depends on a set of opportunities specific to the political or issue field most directly addressed by their claims. I propose to look for these specific opportunities in the institutional approaches to unemployment. I further maintain that such opportunities stem largely from the ways in which a given political or issue field is collectively defined. I apply a theoretical framework stressing both general and specific opportunities as well as the discursive context of claim making to original data on claim making in the unemployment political field in six European countries for the 1995-2002 period. The findings provide some support for the proposed theoretical framework, but also point to its shortcomings, especially in the lack of attention to economic factors.
Article
Drawing on an original survey of more than 5,000 respondents, this book argues that, contrary to claims by the 1994 Zapatista insurgency, indigenous and non-indigenous respondents in southern Mexico have been united by socioeconomic conditions and land tenure institutions as well as by ethnic identity. It concludes that – contrary to many analyses of Chiapas's 1994 indigenous rebellion – external influences can trump ideology in framing social movements. Rural Chiapas's prevalent communitarian attitudes resulted partly from external land tenure institutions, rather than from indigenous identities alone. The book further points to recent indigenous rights movements in neighboring Oaxaca, Mexico, as examples of bottom-up multicultural institutions that might be emulated in Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America.
Article
Why do social organizations decide to protest instead of working through institutional channels? This book draws hypotheses from three standard models of contentious political action - POS, resource mobilization, and identity - and subjects them to a series of qualitative and quantitative tests. The results have implications for social movement theory, studies of protest, and theories of public policy/agenda setting. The characteristics of movement organizations - type of resources, internal leadership competition, and identity - shape their inherent propensity to protest. Party alliance does not constrain protest, even when the party ally wins power. Instead, protest becomes a key part of organizational maintenance, producing constant incentives to protest that do not reflect changing external conditions. Nevertheless, organizations do respond to changes in the political context, governmental cycles in particular. In the first year of a new government, organizations have strong incentives to protest in order to establish their priority in the policy agenda.
Article
Conventional accounts of protest cycles posit a demonstration effect-successful protests incite other constituencies to activism. I offer an alternative theory that builds on population ecology models of organizational behavior. I argue that the expansion of social movement organizations, or organizational density, is also an essential component of protest cycles. Multivariate analyses of the effects of civil rights protest and organizational growth on feminist protest and organizational foundings between 1955 and 1985 demonstrate that organizational density promotes the diffusion of protest. Protest also engenders activism by others, but only under favorable political conditions. This implies that an enduring organizational niche and political allies in power are necessary for protest to spread beyond single movements and create protest opportunities for other challengers.
Article
The interaction between social movements and countermovements is a key aspect of resource mobilization theory, yet researchers have devoted comparatively little study to it. This article uses the conflict between Scientology and its Internet critics as a case study in movement/countermovement interaction, concentrating on resource deprivation and damaging actions. The uniqueness of Internet communication, however, requires adjustments to traditional resource mobilization theory in order to theorize this conflict, and this article proposes two refinements. First, the study of Internet movement/countermovement interaction involves the displacement of the normally-central role of the state in resource mobilization theory. Second, a rethinking of the definition of resources to include "virtual" resources facilitates movement/ countermovement analysis on the Internet.
Article
I begin this paper by describing several methods that can be used to analyze count data. Starting with relatively familiar maximum likelihood methods-Poisson and negative binomial regression-I then introduce the less well known (and less well understood) quasi-likelihood approach. This method (like negative binomial regression) allows one to model overdispersion, but it can also be generalized to deal with autocorrelation. I then investigate the small-sample properties of these estimators in the presence of overdispersion and autocorrelation by means of Monte Carlo simulations. Finally, I apply these methods to the analysis of data on the foundings of labor unions in the U.S. Quasi-likelihood methods are found to have some advantages over Poisson and negative binomial regression, especially in the presence of autocorrelation.
Article
I investigate how and why the Shah's policies of accommodation and repression escalated the revolutionary mobilization of the Iranian population. Several major theories--micromobilization theory, value expectancy, and bandwagon (critical mass) models--are used to sort out the empirical relationships between protest behavior (violent and nonviolent), strikes, spatial diffusion, concessions, and repression in the year prior to the Shah's exit from Iran. Estimates from Poisson regression models show that repression had a short-term negative effect and a long-term positive effect on overall levels of protest via repression's influence on spatial diffusion. I infer that this pattern of effects stems from a combination of deterrent and micromobilization mechanisms. Concessions expanded the protests by accelerating massive urban strikes that in turn generated more opposition activity throughout Iran. Spatial diffusion was encouraged by government concessions and massive labor strikes. Mutually reinforcing relationships between concessions, strikes, and spatial diffusion indicate the significance of intergroup dynamics in the revolutionary process.
Article
Specifications and moment properties of the univariate Poisson and negative binomial distributions me briefly reviewed and illustrated. properties and limitations of the corresponding Poisson and negative binomial (gamma mixtures of Poissons) regression models are described it is shown how a misspecification of the mixing distribution of a mixed Poisson model to accommodate hidden heterogeneity ascribable to unobserved variables-although not affecting the consistency of maximum likelihood estimators of the Poisson mean rate parameter or its regression parameterization-can lead to inflated t ratios of regression coefficients and associated incorrect inferences. Then the recently developed semiparametric maximum likelihood estimator for regression models composed of arbitrary mixtures of Poisson processes is specified and further developed It is concluded that the semiparametric mixed Poisson regression model adds considerable flexibility to Poisson-family regression models and provides opportunities for interpretation of empirical patterns not available in the conventional approaches.
Article
Movement-countermovement interaction is an ongoing feature of contemporary social movements and, indeed, of contemporary politics. Yet the interplay of contending movements is understudied and undertheorized. This article begins to remedy this deficit by arguing that new work on political opportunity structure provides important insights and significant theoretical leverage for this study. Through a review of the literatures on countermovements and political opportunity, this article argues that this interaction increases when states enable but do not satisfy challengers. This article presents a general framework of theoretical propositions for understanding the interplay of movements and their opponents to animate and guide subsequent research.
Article
This article focuses on a comparison of direct action and its political effects in Italy and Northern Ireland in the period from 1967 to 1992. It traces how these two unstable one-party democracies were profoundly affected by waves of protest with similar origins that began in the late 1960s. The analysis leads to a consideration of some of the positive and negative consequences of protest and direct action. Central to these political outcomes are the structures and processes of interactions between protesters, counterprotesters, and the authorities.
Article
Some contend that political opportunity theory is ad hoc, lacks clear measurement, and fails to distinguish opportunities from other conditions that contribute to protest. Others argue that the idea of "expanding opportunities" needs to be balanced by consideration of political threats. An annual time-series approach is used to examine the frequency of African-American protest in the United States from 1948 to 1997. Evidence of expanding opportunities created by divided government, strong northern Democratic Party allies, and, during the 1950s, Republican presidential incumbents responding to Cold War foreign policy constraints is found. African-American congressional representation provides routine political access, which reduces protest. The evidence also supports explanations based on collective grievances stemming from black/white income inequality, Vietnam War deaths, and low-to-middle black unemployment.
Article
This introduction examines the historical background and political consequences of the 1994 armed uprising by the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN) in the Mexican state of Chiapas. It begins by presenting a chronology of events, and charting some of the impacts of the uprising on democratization and the rights of indigenous peoples and women in Mexico. This is followed by an examination of the debate concerning the origins and nature of the EZLN itself. Also considered are the agrarian reform, state formation, economic crisis and political and religious change in Chiapas over the period 1920–2004. The final section looks briefly at some of the consequences of the rebellion of 1994, which reignited and intensified many of the pre-existing social and political conflicts in the state.
Article
I review the development of the political opportunity or political pro-cess perspective, which has animated a great deal of research on social movements. The essential insight—that the context in which a movement emerges influences its development and potential impact—provides a fruitful analytic orientation for address-ing numerous questions about social movements. Reviewing the development of the literature, however, I note that conceptualizations of political opportunity vary greatly, and scholars disagree on basic theories of how political opportunities affect move-ments. The relatively small number of studies testing political opportunity hypotheses against other explanations have generated mixed results, owing in part to the articula-tion of the theory and the specifications of variables employed. I examine conflicting specifications of the theory by considering the range of outcomes scholars address. By disaggregating outcomes and actors, I argue, we can reconcile some of the apparent contradictions and build a more comprehensive and robust theory of opportunities and social movements.
Article
Studying collective action with newspaper accounts of protest events, rare only 20 years ago, has become commonplace in the past decade. A critical litera-ture has accompanied the growth of protest event analysis. The literature has focused on selection bias—particularly which subset of events are covered—and description bias—notably, the veracity of the coverage. The "hard news" of the event, if it is re-ported, tends to be relatively accurate. However, a newspaper's decision to cover an event at all is influenced by the type of event, the news agency, and the issue involved. In this review, we discuss approaches to detecting bias, as well as ways to factor knowledge about bias into interpretations of protest event data.
Article
Government This article introduces a new estimator for the analysis of two contemporaneously correlated endogenous event count variables. This seemingly unrelated Poisson regression model (SUPREME) estimator combines the efficiencies created by single equation Poisson regression model estimators and insights from "seemingly unrelated" linear regression models.
women’s movements and public opinion: Examining the chicken and egg question
  • Ondercin Banaszak Lee Ann
  • Heather
Unstable configurations of power and difference: The emergence and transformation of leadership and conflict in the northern frontier of Chiapas
  • Agudo Sanchiz
Estadística de Finanzas Públicas Estatales y Municipales [State and Municipal Public Finances
  • Inegi
Síntesis Informativa
  • Melel Xojobal
Comunicado del Comité Clandestino Revolucionario Indígena-Comandancia General del Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional
  • Marcos Subcomandante