International comparison on the occurrence of social movements

Abstract

This article examines what factors increased social movements from the 1960s to the 1970s in advanced capitalist nations, by the Boolean algebra approach where the unit of analysis is a nation. The article verifies three powerful theories (political opportunity structure theory, relative deprivation theory, and resource mobilization theory) that describe the occurrence of the social movement of advanced capitalist nations. The analysis clearly shows the following: (1) each theory partially influenced the occurrence of social movement; and (2) the factors of social movement occurrence are not so different at each period of the protest cycle.