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Presents a case for a network version of the concept of political opportunity structure, focusing on environmental movement activity in eight communities in Japan. Embeddedness in specific networks shapes political action much more strongly in densely knit societies like Japan than in Western, individualistic societies; in Japan, networks operate mostly in terms of block recruitment rather than individual recruitment, and this holds for both movements and local elites. In particular, vertical ties between elites and citizen strongly shape local political opportunities: it is the presence of ‘breakaway bosses’ (i.e. local leaders who take the protesters’ side) to prove the strongest predictor of success for collective action. The chapter also presents a distinctive theoretical framework, Integrative Structurational Analysis, to link structure and agency.

This chapter extends institutional theory to analyze processes by which resource‐poor actors initiate new structures within fields of healthcare organizations. Using insights from studies of counter‐movements, political opportunity structures, and social processes, a series of propositions are derived and illustrated using three case studies of institutional change driven by health reform movements: abortion rights, AIDS, and long‐term care. The framework assumes that multiple belief systems (logics) within healthcare fields ensure that institutional arrangements will be challenged, sometimes by reform movements. Five aspects of political opportunity structures support such efforts: organizational fields that are centralized and immature, an open policy context, a decentralized state, neighboring fields of reform activity, and journalistic standards of balanced reporting. Health reform movements are enabled by networked forms of leadership, the development of equivalent capacities to counter‐movements, and leaders framing an array of arguments. Successful reform processes are likely to be slow, highly contested, and result in the new structure being accommodated alongside aspects of the traditional arrangements.

The conclusion gives an overview of how the changes in citizenship, participation and policymaking that have been part of transitions to democracy are gendered and lays out the circumstances under which gender outcomes can be positive. After summarizing the outcomes in the electoral, bureaucratic, and constitutional/legal arenas, the conclusion outlines the key factors involved in any explanation. Although women's movements are often central in articulating gender issues, more is needed to ensure that those issues are placed on the agenda of the transition and subsequently remain on the policy agenda in the post transition period. Any analysis therefore has to include the political opportunity structure and the roles of key actors and strategic alliances. The conclusion then outlines how the book's arguments fit into wider debates within the study of gender and politics and comparative politics.

The concept of the political opportunity structure from social movement studies has undergone various expansions, including the development of a theory of the industry opportunity structure in social movement studies and of the intellectual opportunity structure in science and technology studies. The chapter then discusses how the theory of the political opportunity structure can be further developed through systematic consideration of its epistemic dimension. This dimension has two pairs of basic features: the level of scientization (the use of technical decision-making criteria) and the extent of public participation in the policy process, and the epistemic culture of risk evaluation (the preference of government regulators for narrow or inclusive methods) and the degree of precautionary preference when making decisions in situations of uncertain evidence. The framework is applied to cases of colony collapse disorder, the regulation of genetically modified food, nanotechnology, the smart meter movement, and climate science denialism.

Chapter 3 introduces to the political, social and cultural opportunities for the extreme right in Germany, Italy and the United States, pointing at the mix of similarities and differences between the three countries. As the authors explain, Germany and Italy were chosen within a ‘most similar’ logic, where the cases under examination share similarities in most of their characteristics, but some differences in our set of dependent variables (the frames, networks and actions of the extremist right), which are then explained by some contextual differences. The addition of the rather different case of the US extreme right aimed at testing the generalizability of some descriptive and causal inferences that emerged in the previous comparison.

Notwithstanding its limited capacity in terms of members and mobilization, the extreme right is perceived as an increasing challenge even in established democracies. On delicate issues such as migration, nationalism, and religious practices, the extreme right has been successful in putting exclusive frames and practices on the agenda, often influencing moderate right-wing and even centre-left parties. While the political parties on the right are well-studied, this is the first volume to address, in a comparative perspective, the social movement organizations on the Extreme Right. In particular, in chapter one, we introduce the main concepts and definitions of the research, presenting our theoretical questions in a cross-country comparison of the extreme right in three countries (Germany, Italy, and the US).

This chapter maintains that the transition of formal decision rule to the Community method, in combination with a high acceptance of conflict-minimizing special arrangements for cooperation-reluctant member states, has been at the centre of the EU's efforts to mitigate problems associated with the joint-decision trap in the field of justice and home affairs. The role of supranational actors in undermining veto players' positions has been less influential than in other policies, although it has evolved with the entering into force of the new decision rules. Using the Prüm Process of police data sharing as a case study, the analysis illustrates how a group of member states managed to escape from a particular decision-making blockade by promoting an enhanced form of cooperation outside the EU's legal framework.

The chapter focuses on the processes of industrial change in relationship to social movements. It builds on two literatures, one on institutional logics and the other on industrial transitions, and shows similarities and differences between the two literatures. It then examines the problem of resistance from industrial regime organizations or incumbent. Empirical material is based on the case of regime resistance to energy transition policies in the U.S., where the incumbent organizations have closed down the political opportunity structure for policy reform. It then draws on research that discusses three strategies that industrial transition coalitions can use to overcome regime resistance: countervailing industrial power (finding allies in neighboring industries), ideological judo (using regime ideology and frames to advance transition policies), and dual-use design (building coalitions by redefining energy transition policies in terms of a different institutional logic).

This chapter provides an institutional analysis of the European Union. It maps out potential sites of advocacy and identifies important actors within and outside of the European Union that pertain to the issue of violence against women and gender equality more broadly. It addresses the institutional context of advocacy within the complex and evolving system of multilevel governance that is the EU. It discusses the role of treaties in defining and redefining the policy process and in shaping political opportunity structures. It provides an overview of the EU institutions and their general favorability and openness to women’s rights advocacy. It also addresses the role of particular nonstate actors, including umbrella organizations and various experts and practitioners.

This chapter considers whether acculturation processes leave a gap between formal commitments by states and actual practices on the ground. Although such gaps constitute important evidence of acculturation, the process of acculturation may, in other circumstances, foster complete internalization of a norm. The chapter analyzes studies that document just this sort of internalization. The remaining question is whether meaningful change might occur in circumstances in which acculturation does produce gaps between form and practice. On this question, the chapter details processes by which formal, even if shallow, commitments to global legal norms might be translated into meaningful change over time. These processes include shifts in domestic political opportunity structure, the “civilizing force of hypocrisy,” and state learning.

This chapter frames questions about the ethics of political action in relation to Rawlsian ideal theory, which generally does not address those who are directly suffering from injustices. While Rawls defended civil disobedience within nearly just societies, the chapter argues that a broader palette of political strategies seems permissible where significant injustices continue to exist. It argues that those facing persistent injustice have special permissions for forms of political action that are not available to others. The second half of the chapter focuses on the ways in which political opportunity structures set parameters for political action, and examines the ways in which those who undertake political action may transform themselves without realizing this. The chapter concludes by considering how to proceed in evaluating political action when an effective ideal theory does not yet exist for Aboriginal rights.

Chapter 7 reflects on the key findings of the study. It explores the interaction of political opportunity structures, organisational resources and the cultural framing process which encompasses both the construction of collective identities and the framing of age-based policy and constructs such as ‘older people’ and ‘representation’.

This chapter describes the influence of political interaction on the quest for moral capital by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). The ability to devise a strategy is predicated on certain political preconditions. The fate of NGO plans is conditioned, in part, by shifts in the political environment. The political opportunity structures that condition NGO prospects suggest that these organizations cannot defy gravity. When political opportunity structures acquire a democratic hue, the response by political and bureaucratic leaders to NGO criticism tends to be less hostile. The acceptance of criticism may bolster official legitimacy because it demonstrates political maturity. In assessing the significance of routine interaction in structuring NGO–state relations, it needs to be recognized that such interaction represents a strategic choice on the part of NGOs.

This chapter explores regime change, change in the forms of contentious politics, and interactions between them. It attempts to answer this query: when regimes and repertoires alter simultaneously, how do those changes interact, and why? Regimes reshape themselves and thereby alter political opportunities, thus transforming repertoires. Trajectories of regimes and repertoires interact. It closely reviews South Africa's mutual mutations of regimes and repertoires before treating interactions of regimes and repertoires much more generally. A scheme is presented that offers a crude but serviceable model of how regime change does affect popular contention, from governmental change to regime realignment to alterations of political opportunity structures (POS) to changes in contention. The scheme also describes processes that commonly occur when a high-capacity, nondemocratic regime moves toward democracy. South Africa's trajectories belong to a larger family of interactions between changes in regimes and repertoires.

This chapter analyzes the roles of domestic election observers who are monitoring contests in countries around the world where elections have been commonly undermined by malpractices such as clientelism, fraud, intimidation, and vote buying. It predicts that the formation and maintenance of domestic election watchdog groups depends primarily on a combination of grievances (incidents of serious electoral malpractice) and political opportunities (the freedom of civil society groups to mobilize around such issues). Moreover, these factors are theorized to interact. As a result, domestic monitors are expected to be strongest in hybrid regimes that are neither established democracies nor electoral autocracies, displaying an inverted U-shape pattern across levels of democratization. The chapter presents evidence supporting this proposition by drawing from a new data set documenting the global distribution of domestic monitoring groups.

This chapter seeks to situate protest networks underlying the Egyptian revolution within broader structural changes that shaped their emergence. In social movement theory terms, where the previous chapter focused on micro-mobilisational dynamics, this chapter analyses the broader political and socio-economic context against which the networks emerged. Networks need opportunities and resources to organise, and they respond to threats. Their protest frames and tactics are influenced by broader socio-economic and political dynamics. Their timing is affected not just by their internal dynamics or the protest episodes they have initiated, but also by broader structural changes. Drawing on social movement theory and revolution studies, this chapter looks at the interaction between protest networks and structural changes in: the relation between state and society in the context of neo-liberal reforms; the shrinking of the support base of the ruling party and the emergence of transnational networks; fluctuations between limited political ‘inclusion’ and exclusion; and the growth of a police state.

How does China manage political participation? This chapter analyzes changing opportunities for participation in the leadership transition from Hu Jintao to Xi Jinping. Contentious political participation—where individuals and independent organizations engage in protest and other disruptive behavior—has been further curtailed under Xi’s leadership. Yet institutional participation by ordinary citizens through quasi-democratic institutions appears unaffected and is even trending up in certain sectors. Manipulation of the political opportunity structure is likely strategic behavior on the part of authoritarian rulers, as they seek to incorporate or appease the discontented. The political opportunity structure in non-democracies is therefore multifaceted: one channel of participation can close as others expand.

The chapter offers a large comparative study of the fairly new democracies of Latin America to examine the influence of specific qualities of democracies on levels and forms of popular contention using survey data. The analysis shows that in regimes that are hybrid in nature for the concept of political opportunity structure to be analytically useful it is necessary to pay attention to some contextual conditions: equality, freedom, and responsiveness. The chapter also shows that grievance-related factors experienced at the individual level come into play and interact with those contextual characteristics. The chapter acknowledges that often political opportunities are offered by forces and institutions that are not traditionally considered political, such as the military.