Protest Dynamics under the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces Transitional Government

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kira D. Jumet
Keyword(s):  
Armed Forces ◽  
Power Relationship ◽  
Political Opportunity ◽  
Transitional Regime ◽  
Opportunity Structures ◽  
Political Opportunities ◽  
Supreme Council ◽  
Political Opportunity Structures ◽  
The Military

This chapter explains how changes in political opportunity structures following the 2011 revolutionary protests affected subsequent anti-regime mobilization and the dynamics between the military transitional regime and those who contested it. Through an examination of protest cycles in Egypt 2011–2012, the chapter explores how government violence, repression, and concessions affected individuals’ emotions and their decisions to protest or not protest. The chapter demonstrates that changes in political opportunities created during the 18-day uprising altered repertoires of contention and reconfigured the power relationship between the regime and its opponents. The chapter also claims that particular elements of protest dynamics under the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) led to a relatively quick transition to civilian rule.

scholarly journals It's Not Just Structural: Social Movements are not Homogenous Responses to Structural Features, but Networks shaped by Organisational Strategies and Status

2009 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clare Saunders
Keyword(s):  
Structural Features ◽  
Political Opportunity ◽  
Opportunity Structures ◽  
Government Institutions ◽  
Political Opportunities ◽  
The Status ◽  
Political Opportunity Structures ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Different Characteristics ◽  
Environmental Organisation

Political opportunity structures are often used to explain differences in the characteristics of movements in different countries on the basis of the national polity in which they exist. However, the approach has a number of weaknesses that are outlined in this article. The article especially stresses the fact that such broad-brush approaches to political opportunity structures fail to account for the different characteristics of movement organisations within the same polity. The article therefore recommends using a more fine-tuned approach to political opportunities, taking into account that the strategies and status of organisations affect the real political opportunities they face. This fine-tuned approach is used to predict how the status and strategy of environmental organisations might influence the extent to which different types of environmental organisations in the UK network with one-another. We find that organisations that face an open polity - those with a moderate action repertoire and a constructive relationship with government institutions - tend not to cooperate with those with a radical action repertoire and negative relations with government institutions. On the other hand, those that vary their action repertoires, and which have variable status according to the issues involved or campaign targets, have a much broader range of network links with other types of organisations. Thus, there is much more diversity in types of environmental organisation in the UK than the broad-brush to political opportunity structures would account for. Nonetheless, it does seem that environmental organisations are aware of how their own behaviours might influence (non-structural) political opportunities, and that they mould their strategies and networking patterns around this awareness.

scholarly journals Why have Anti-Offshore Tin Mining Movements Failed in Bangka but Succeeded in East Belitung? Political Opportunity Structures and Political Settlement in the Context of Indonesia's Democratic Future

PCD Journal ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-227
Author(s):  
Eko Bagus Sholihin
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Economic Resources ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Opportunity ◽  
Opportunity Structures ◽  
Political Opportunities ◽  
Political Access ◽  
Political Opportunity Structures ◽  
Important Position ◽  
Political Settlement

Civil society movements have occupied an important position in Indonesia's democratisation. This article seeks to determine why anti-offshore tin mining movements in the post-authoritarian era failed in Bangka but succeeded in East Belitung, an area where tin mining has historically been important. By analysing the political opportunity structures and political settlement mechanisms involved, this article argues, first, that the movement's success in East Belitung can be attributed to open political access, fragmentation within elite circles, and alliances with influential elites; such political opportunities were not available in Bangka. Second, in Bangka, the local bourgeoisie and brokers used clientelistic approaches in their political settlement and prevented resistance by co-opting local communities within the extraction chain. In East Belitung, meanwhile, such efforts were stymied by the lack of local bourgeoisie, the strength of environmental awareness, and the availability of alternative economic resources. It may thus be concluded that, while a clientelistic approach to settlement may prevent conflict, it also limits the political participation of civil society movements—an important element of democracy.

Strategies for Survival: Human Rights Organizations’ Responses to the Closing of Political Opportunity Structures in Hungary

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-139
Author(s):  
Márton Gerő ◽  
Pál Susánszky ◽  
Ákos Kopper ◽  
Gergely Tóth
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Political Opportunity ◽  
Opportunity Structures ◽  
Political Opportunities ◽  
Human Rights Organizations ◽  
Political Opportunity Structures

In the last decade, there has been a tendency for governments to impose tighter restrictions on civil society organizations, especially those promoting democracy and human rights. In this study, we examine how human rights organizations are responding to the increasingly hostile political environment in Hungary. The expanding limits on civil society organizations is usually discussed within a framework labelled as the closing space for civil society, which emphasizes the legislation and governmental actions directly attacking civil society organizations. Despite the impression that the restrictions threaten the existence of these organizations, a closer examination reveals that well-established organizations are capable of developing coping strategies to survive. To fully understand how these strategies are developed, we need to supplement this framework with the theory of political opportunity structures. This broader theoretical perspective examines the openness of decision-making processes for non-ruling actors and includes the role of perceptions in the examination of reactions to changes in the opportunity structure. As our study shows, perceptions about the social environment have a crucial role in understanding the strategies of human rights organizations. Examining the reactions of ten organizations, primarily using the method of organizational interviews, we show that rather than direct restrictions attacking civil society organizations, the major factor shaping their strategies is the closing of political opportunities. As a consequence of an almost total closure of decision-making mechanisms, they have been changing their activities from focusing on their roles as experts and working with state institutions to emphasizing social embeddedness, community building and raising awareness.

The Dynamics of Social Movement Development: Northern Ireland's Civil Rights Movement in The 1960s

2006 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorenzo Bosi
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
Political Context ◽  
Political Opportunity ◽  
Northern Irish ◽  
Opportunity Structures ◽  
Political Opportunities ◽  
Political Opportunity Structures ◽  
The 1960S

This article extends our understanding of social movement development through a qualitative longitudinal analysis of Northern Ireland's civil rights movement during the 1960s. It applies Diani's (1996) approach that links categories of master frames with political opportunity structures. The analysis chronicles how political context shaped the evolution of the moveSment's dominant message and traces how political opportunities imparted advantages to a reformist civil rights message that reflected a realignment master frame in early stages of Northern Irish mobilization. Later, changes in political context—police repression, lack of political responsiveness, and countermobilization—rendered reformist political realignments impossible and gave advantages to elements in the civil rights network that stressed the traditional ethnonational divisions and revanchist, antipartitionist messages. Specifically, this article asks how the inclusive and reformist mobilizing messages of the 1960s Northern Irish civil rights movement came about and then reverted to the exclusivist Nationalist message of the 1970s, and how the shifting political opportunities brought about these changes.

Political Opportunities and Strategic Choices: Comparing Feminist Campaigns in Morocco and Iran

2010 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 267-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentine Moghadam ◽  
Elham Gheytanchi
Keyword(s):  
Women's Movements ◽  
Law Reform ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Political Opportunity ◽  
Strategic Choices ◽  
Feminist Activism ◽  
Opportunity Structures ◽  
Structure And Agency ◽  
Political Opportunities ◽  
Political Opportunity Structures

How do women's rights activists mobilize in nondemocratic and culturally conservative contexts? Why do some women's movements succeed in securing the policy outcomes they seek while others fail to realize their objectives? Comparing two recent cases of feminist activism in the Middle East/North Africa region—the Moroccan and Iranian campaigns for family law reform—the article demonstrates the way that political opportunity structures shape the strategic options available to activists and influence movement frames. While a political opening is conducive to movement growth and success, including cooperation for legal and policy reform (Morocco), the closing of political space compels extrainstitutional feminist contention and transnational links (Iran). In examining the structure of political opportunity in addition to strategic choices, the paper addresses the interplay of structure and agency in mobilization processes and finds that—to paraphrase Marx—women and men make history, but not under conditions of their own choosing.

scholarly journals The Other Side of the Coin: Explaining Crossnational Similarities Between Social Movements

1998 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Giugni
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Political Opportunity ◽  
Opportunity Structures ◽  
The Core ◽  
Political Opportunities ◽  
Political Opportunity Structures ◽  
Affinity Model ◽  
Structural Affinity ◽  
And Diffusion

This exploratory essay provides a general framework for the study of crossnational similarities among social movements by looking at three broad social processes: globalization, structural affinity, and diffusion. Each of these concepts is at the core of three apparently rival explanations of movement similarities. The globalization model explains similarities among social movements as a product of similar movement reactions to transnational political opportunities; the structural affinity model states that similar national political opportunity structures account for similarities among social movements across countries; and the diffusion model argues that the adoption of information from abroad causes similarities among social movements in different countries. This essay integrates three concepts in a general model of crossnational similarities among social movements. The model is illustrated with data on new social movements in four West European countries.

Occupy Movement, Religion and Social Formations

2014 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-24
Author(s):  
Matt Sheedy
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Opportunity ◽  
Social Formation ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Opportunity Structures ◽  
Occupy Movement ◽  
Political Opportunity Structures

The Occupy movement was an unprecedented social formation that spread to approximate 82 countries around the globe in the fall of 2011 via social media through the use of myths, symbols and rituals that were performed in public space and quickly drew widespread mainstream attention. In this paper I argue that the movement offers a unique instance of how discourse functions in the construction of society and I show how the shared discourses of Occupy were taken-up and shaped in relation to the political opportunity structures and interests of those involved based on my own fieldwork at Occupy Winnipeg. I also argue that the Occupy movement provides an example of how we might substantively attempt to classify “religion” by looking at how it embodied certain metaphysical claims while contrasting it with the beliefs and practices of more conventionally defined “religious” communities.

‘It Is a Tradition in the Nuclear Industry . . . Secrecy’: Political Opportunity Structures and Nuclear Knowledge Production in France

2021 ◽  
pp. 136078042110250
Author(s):  
Julie Schweitzer ◽  
Tamara L Mix
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Nuclear Energy ◽  
Nuclear Industry ◽  
Political Opportunity ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Nuclear Program ◽  
Opportunity Structures ◽  
Shaping Process ◽  
History Of ◽  
Political Opportunity Structures

Employing the example of France’s civil nuclear program, we connect political opportunity structures (POSs) to mechanisms of knowledge production, identifying how opposing stakeholders generate knowledge about a controversial technology. A history of nuclear dependence in France creates a context that praises, normalizes, and rationalizes nuclear energy while stigmatizing attempts to question or contest the nuclear industry’s dominant position. Integrating Bond’s knowledge-shaping process with Coy and colleagues’ concept of oppositional knowledge, we consider how the broader social, political, and economic context influences opposing stakeholder assessments of nuclear energy. Employing qualitative semi-structured interviews, we offer unique insight into the French nuclear debate, discussing the role of POS in shaping knowledge production.

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