Political process and popular protest: the mobilization against free trade in Canada

American Journal of Economics and Sociology, The,  Oct, 1996  by Jeffrey M. Ayres

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In short, the political process model fills a scholarly need that exists for developing a more precise theoretical interpretation of the political context of movement emergence. As an explicitly political model, it puts political processes at the center of its theory, namely, shifting political conditions and a structure of political opportunity represent central factors in determining the successful emergence and growth of social movements.

This model does not overdraw the contrast between movements and political institutions, viewing movements as anti-institutional and marginalized from the formal political process. It does not view movements as simple extensions of conventional politics and interest group lobbying techniques. It also does not identify so many factors relevant to movement mobilization that it becomes difficult to specify those that are most central and generalizable across cases. In short, it provides a useful tool for scholars seeking to analytically link social and political mobilizations to political unrest within the context of the rapidly emerging global economy.

Notes

1. Charles Tilly, From Mobilization to Revolution, (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1978).

2. Douglas McAdam, Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency, (Chicago: U. of Chicago P., 1988), 36.

3. -----, 42.

4. Dieter Rucht and Friedhelm Neidhardt, "The Analysis of Social Movements: the State of the Art and Some Perspectives for Further Research" in D. Rucht (ed.), Research on Social Movements: the State of the Art in Western Europe and the USA. (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1991), 443.

5. Sidney Tarrow, Struggle, Politics, and Reform: Collective Action, Social Movements, and Cycles of Protest. Western Societies Program Occasional Paper No. 21. Center for International Studies, Cornell U., 1989.

6. Bert Klandermans, "Linking the Old and the New: Movement Networks in the Netherlands," in Russell Dalton et al. (ed.), Challenging the Political Order: New Social and Political Movements in Western Democracies. (New York: Oxford UP, 1990). Klandermans calls social movement sectors the "support structures" for movements - the total possible number of organizations with which the focal organization might establish linkages"linkages based on "common interests, ideologies, audiences, or other shared characteristics."

7. Anthony Oberschall, Social Conflict and Social Movements, (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1973), 119.

8. The term "popular sector" was first coined in The Other Macdonald Report to describe the variety of progressive and social welfare groups that presented briefs to the Macdonald Royal Commission in 1985. This descriptive term is now widely used by such groups to describe themselves and other groups opposed to free trade. Cameron, an editor of the Report, describes the popular sector as a term used to connote groups found neither in the public, private or voluntary sector "popular because they represent people, and because they mostly have some form of democratic operating procedures." See Duncan Cameron, "The Free Trade Coalition: Is there Room for People in our Political System?" This Magazine. Vol. 22, No. 1, Mar./Apr. 1988, 22.