Jenkins J. Craig, Klandermans Bert (eds). The Politics of Social Protest Comparative Perspectives on States and Social Movements

University of Minnesota Pres, 1995. — 381 p.state to center stage. Because it is primarily concerned with the politics of social protest movements in the Western democracies, it focuses on the fourway interaction between citizens, social movements, the political representation system, and the state. The primary focus is the three-way struggle between social movements, political parties, and the state, looking at the opportunities that electoral politics present to social movements, the impact of social protest on political parties and electoral processes, and, finally, the implications
that these relationships have for the modern democratic state. The volume traces the emergence of the modern social movement out of changes
in the conception of political representation that occurred during the construction of the liberal democratic state in the nineteenth century through to its contemporary impact on the late-twentieth century state. Because movement-state relations cannot be fully understood except through broad-ranging comparative analysis, the essays range from nineteenth-century France to the left-libertarian or "new social movements" of Western Europe to contemporary protest in Israel, Peru, and the Western democracies to the postcommunist transformation of Eastern Europe. A central theme woven
throughout the volume is that political opportunities are central to the emergence and development of social movements and that these opportunities are primarily structured by the organization of the state, the cohesion and alignments among political elites, and the structure, ideology, and composition of political parties. In this sense, the state shapes the conflict and alliance Systems that shape social movement emergence and development. At the same time, social movements are also agents of political change. They act upon these opportunities, and their actions in turn often help to generate new opportunities. Any thorough discussion of the state and social movements must focus on both sides of this relationship.