The politics of anti-austerity protest: South Korea in 1997–1998 and Greece in 2009–2010

Abstract

Why does austerity confront varying degrees of popular resistance? While prior research primarily addresses the economic threat of austerity as the stimulus for anti-austerity protest, a growing volume of studies highlights the roles of external environments in moderating the mobilizing effect of austerity. This study challenges the recent literature on the moderating role of external environments, pointing out that it tends to overlook the distinction between structural and contingent aspects of external environments. I undertake a paired comparison of carefully chosen cases, South Korea in 1997–1998 and Greece in 2009–2010, to examine the moderating roles of the two aspects of external environments—each aspect is characterized through the notion of political opportunity drawing on Rootes’ work. Results reveal that structural and contingent opportunities played distinct roles in promoting (Greece) and hampering (South Korea) the growth of anti-austerity movements, initially triggered by the economic threat of austerity in both countries.