Dynamics of Social Movement and Political Opportunity Structure

Although the theory of political opportunity structure has been one of the most influential theories in social movement research, it has some conceptual defects. In this article, we propose a modification of the theory and examine its validity by hypothesis testing using empirical data on social movements in Miyagi prefecture from 1986 to 1997.Our analysis of the data produces the following findings. First, the effects of political opportunity structure on social movement vary depending on the nature of the issue. Thus we have to study carefully how political opportunity structure affects social movements differently in each type of issue. Previous studies of political opportunity structure have failed to recognize the implication of such differences. Second, certain types of social movement are not affected by the political opportunity structure in terms of “opportunities” involved. Instead, such social movements are the result of social issues brought about by policies implemented by the polity. Thus a closer scrutiny of the interaction between the polity and the social movement organization is necessary.