Political Opportunity Structure Research Articles

Platforming populism: the services transition, precarious urbanization, and digital platforms in the rise of illiberal populism in the Philippines

Abstract Existing research on the adverse impact of digital platforms on democratic politics has generally focussed on supply side factors underlying illiberal populism. Yet by reinforcing a services-led growth model of capitalism in the developing world, the platform economy has also been implicated on the demand-side of the global populist upsurge by fostering new insecure classes as well as precarious urbanisation patterns. Through a case study of the rise of Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines’ 2016 elections, we show how our theoretical argument has unfolded in one of the most well-known cases of illiberal populism within the Global South. Even while waging unprecedented disinformation campaigns on social media, the political opportunity structure underlying Duterte’s electoral victory in 2016 was fostered by the growth of ‘rising yet insecure’ classes linked to the Philippines’ services and platform economy, as well as the socio-spatial legacies of the country’s experience of premature deindustrialisation.

Het effect van sociaaleconomische status en politieke kansenstructuren op protestparticipatie: een multilevel analyse van 17 Europese landen

The effect of socioeconomic status and political opportunity structures on protest participation: a multilevel analysis of 17 European countries In recent years, protesting has become an increasingly pertinent form of political participation. Within the literature on political participation, both socioeconomic status (SES) and political opportunity structures (POS) have been shown to affect protest participation, but not often have these factors been studied in relation to each other. This study addresses this gap in the literature by analysing the effects of both SES and openness of POS on individual protest participation, as well as the moderating effect of POS on the effect of SES. Multilevel models were estimated using data from the European Social Survey and the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems. The results show that both SES and openness of POS positively affect individual protest participation. The moderating effect of POS openness was not significant, indicating that the positive effect of SES on protest participation remains consistent across different political opportunity structures. Thus, we have shown that political inequality based on socioeconomic status is persistent across European countries, however, it does not depend on political opportunity structures.

Türkiye’de Dijital Feminist Aktivizm: Uzun Süredir Beklenen Dördüncü Dalga Feminizm Geldi mi?

Throughout different waves of feminisms, women have called attention to sexist political and social norms across countries. Starting from the first wave feminist demands of suffrage to third wave’s intersectional feminist politics, women activists have struggled to achieve gender equality in different contexts. With an emphasis on intersected identities, fourth wave feminism, also called digital feminism, endeavours to implement third wave’s concepts in the digital space, via blogs, websites, social media platforms. In Turkey, in the second decade of the 2000s, women have started to extensively use social media to combat patriarchy, particularly violence against women and femicide, and to increase communication and solidarity among women in line with the political opportunity structures in the country. Through digital platforms, women stimulate political change by exposing gendered discourses. However, due to government’s increased control on digital spaces, activists’ capacity to alter the social gendered structure has been limited. Nevertheless, digital spaces still have a great potential to work as counterpublics for marginalised groups, such as women.

Making, unmaking and remaking of context in entrepreneurial identity construction and experiences: a comparative analysis between Türkiye and the Netherlands

This study analyses how women entrepreneurs of Turkish origin do context in constructing their entrepreneurial identities and experiencing their entrepreneurship in two national contexts, namely Türkiye and the Netherlands. In order to study context, we use the term opportunity structures and analyse how these entrepreneurs interpret and perceive opportunity structures, and construct their entrepreneurial identities in relation to their interpretations. Relying on the life story narratives of 21 women entrepreneurs, we analyse social, political and institutional opportunity structures and the relationship between these and the processes of entrepreneurial experiences and identity construction. We propose that Turkish women entrepreneurs make, unmake and remake context during these processes. In the Netherlands, these entrepreneurs challenge existing opportunity structures either by providing alternative images of a Turkish migrant woman or questioning culturalist perspectives behind these opportunity structures. In Türkiye, they are compelled to be more hesitant in challenging the opportunity structures. They either have to step down from their enterprises or downgrade their entrepreneurial affiliations to fulfil the requirements of opportunity structures. This study contributes to the field of entrepreneurship in its contextualisation by providing an extended understanding of the ways in which entrepreneurs do context.

Why Did China’s Zero-COVID Policy Persist? Decision Urgency, Regime Type, and Political Opportunity Structures

ABSTRACT Despite soaring social costs, opposed professional opinions, and divergent foreign experiences, China still persisted with its Zero-COVID policy. Preexisting theories of policy change are unable to explain the continuation of China’s COVID policy. Corresponding to the three stages of policy making, implementation and adjustment, the authors propose a framework of three decision-making constraints: (1) decision urgency, (2) regime type, and (3) political opportunity structures, which are believed to jointly shape China’s policy against Omicron and obstruct Chinese decision-makers from adjusting it. This intensive case study enriches understanding of China’s COVID policy specifically and the policy process in China more generally.

30 Years of International Climate Negotiations: Are They Still our Best Hope?

30 years of international climate talks have not prevented the globe from heating up more than 1 degree Celsius over post-industrial times, nor have they kept the year 2022 from breaking new temperature and extreme weather records around the world. Although the international process has been indispensable for building the foundation to move out of the carbon age, it is now time to shift attention away from the acrimonious climate talks and treat them as a sideshow, rather than the solution to the problem. An analysis of 30 years of international climate negotiations shows that multilateral climate diplomacy years ago stopped driving countries’ action. National political opportunity structures, normative shifts, economic factors, and external events are what shape countries’ climate policies largely independent of international climate negotiations.

A contextual analysis of entrepreneurial identity and experience: women entrepreneurs in Turkey

ABSTRACT This study aims to understand the complex mechanisms of entrepreneurship in context and explores the entrepreneurial identities and experiences of women entrepreneurs in relation to opportunity structures in Turkey. Turkey’s position at the boundary of Western and Middle Eastern geographies and cultures presents a compelling context for the study of women’s entrepreneurship. Drawing on life-story interviews with 11 women entrepreneurs, this study analyses social, political, and institutional opportunity structures in Turkey. The findings illustrate that women entrepreneurs engage in exaggerated perfectionism, strategic political distancing, and closed social positioning in relation to the opportunity structures in Turkey. This study contributes to the entrepreneurship literature by providing a more in-depth and nuanced understanding on the relationship between different opportunity structures and women entrepreneurs and herewith responding to the dominance of Western thinking and context on entrepreneurial experiences and identities.

How do Political Opportunity Structures affect the success of social movements in China and the USA?

This paper investigates the effects political opportunity structures have on the mobilisation, organisation, and outcomes of civil rights movements in the USA and Hong Kong. The Civil Rights Movement between the 1950s-60s and the Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill Movement of 2019 are used as case studies in this research. The paper examines the various attributes of both regions’ political input and output structures while examining how the movement was organised and strategised. It then considers whether either movement can be deemed successful. Through comparative analysis, it contrasts the assessments made in both case studies to determine which factor discussed had the most significant impact on the success of both campaigns. It finds that the initial hypothesis put forth can be disproved and that a fluid link between the movement and institutional elites plays the most critical role in the success of both movements.

In the Name of “Endangered Nations” and “Unsovereign States”? Official Discourses of Radical Right Movement Parties and Social Movement Organizations in Poland and Germany

AbstractThe political landscape of the radical right has long been a major discussion point in the political and social sciences. By considering the variety of radical right organizations (movement parties and non-parliamentary organizations) and the particular national and transnational political and discursive opportunity structures, the paper aims at a comparative analysis of the main discursive frames present in political programs and manifestoes of radical right social movement organizations and movement parties in Poland (Konfederacja Wolność i Niepodległość and Obóz Narodowo-Radykalny) and Germany (Alternative für Deutschland and Identitäre Bewegung Deutschland). Moreover, based on approaches developed by Cas Mudde and Jens Rydgren, this article analyses how the features presumed essential to the radical right (nativism, authoritarianism and populism) are reflected and interconnected in the official discourses of the selected radical right organizations.

The Impact of Diasporas on the Tactics of Rebel Groups: The Case of the IRA and Noraid

Do diasporas affect rebel tactics in the home country? We argue that diaspora organizations can influence tactics when rebel leaders are divided, and domestic political opportunity structures are restrictive. Drawing on a variety of primary sources, we analyze the influence of the Irish-American group Noraid on the Provisional IRA tactics during four episodes of the Troubles. When the military and political leadership of the Republican movement diverged over tactics, Noraid’s militant stance and support for Gerry Adams incentivized the simultaneous adoption of both violence and cooperation. Over time, the group also helped consolidate Adams’s leadership and overcome an organizational crisis.

The lines of descent of the present crisis

The neoliberal settlement has been comprehensively destabilised by the 2007 financial crisis, the imposition of austerity, growing social inequalities and the emergence of populism as a social force. This article explores why institutional opposition to this settlement has principally taken a nationalist form in Britain. It does so through a history of the present by tracing the labyrinthine lines of descent and the social forces and conflicts from which the contemporary moment emerged. In particular, I show how the conditions for the emergence of these nationalist projects were produced incrementally over time and through a series of interrelated social processes. These included the caesura of the 1970s and the shift from Fordist to flexible regimes of accumulation secured by extinguishing the educated hope generated by an increasingly multi-ethnic politics and language of class; the bipartisan commitment to neoliberalism; the racialisation of class through state multiculturalism; and the long-term failure to arrest the structural decline of non-urban localities caused by the technical decomposition of class. In this explanation, the 2007 financial crash and the continuing indifference of the political elites to the deepening injuries of class and locality constituted an accelerant placed on an already emergent crisis of representation helping to engineer a transformation in the political opportunity structure by opening a space for nationalist mobilising structures to fill the political vacuum.

Local Governance Diversity in the Unitary Authoritarian State: NGO-State Relations in Guangzhou and Hangzhou

ABSTRACT This study investigates how the different political opportunity structures (POS) are related to NGO mobilization in two Chinese cities, Guangzhou and Hangzhou. Based on 48 interviews from 2016–2019, the study finds that variance in NGO mobilization is related to differences such as rules for NGO registration, more or less open-minded local leaders, and a relatively more independent media. NGO governance in Hangzhou is characterized as coopted participation. A few NGOs are allowed some influence in policy making, but in order to be allowed to mobilize, NGOs must accept a certain degree of cooptation. NGO governance in Guangzhou is characterized as constrained autonomy as the government plays a less active role in mobilizing NGOs, and more initiative for policy influence comes from the NGOs themselves.

O estabelecimento da moratória da soja na Amazônia Brasileira: ação ambiental estratégica para explorar oportunidades em múltiplos campos

Abstract The paper addresses how environmental movement organizations were able to establish the soy moratorium in the Brazilian Amazon. It combines the Strategic Action Field (SAFs) perspective with ideas of social movements theory, addressing markets as cultural, political and historical constructions. Qualitative research was conducted using data from multiple sources. Debating with authors who conceptualized the political opportunity structures (POS) of markets, we demonstrate that these may be better understood as an ensemble of interconnected SAFs. In order to deal with closed POS in the Amazon, environmental organizations had to strategically shift the scale and internationalize their protests, identifying and taking advantage of openings in European sectors and companies and pressuring them into using their force to transform the practices of major soy traders.

AS ESTRUTURAS DE OPORTUNIDADES POLÍTICAS À LUZ DAS VIOLÊNCIAS NA AMÉRICA LATINA

Abstract The article discusses the concept of Political Opportunity Structure, central to the Political Process Theory, which emerged in the 1960s, in North America, and is essential to the study of social movements. Its objective is to nuance the use of this concept, after presenting its context of initial formulation and addressing the main criticisms, reformulations-internal and external-and a proposal to include the category of violence, notably from Latin American experiences. From a qualitative approach, with an extensive bibliographic review, it concludes that the neglect of the polysemical category of violence provided an often mistaken reading of the classic questions of this field, namely, how and why subjects mobilize. Furthermore, we come up with readings that definitely include the different uses of violent practices both in social movements and to repress them in the analysis of political opportunities.

From Exclusion to Co-Optation: Political Opportunity Structures and Civil Society Responses in De-Democratising Hungary

While it is well-known that democratic backsliding imposes a variety of challenges on civil society organisations, it is often assumed that it represses civil society. However, a closer look at the impact of democratic backsliding on civil society organisations reveals that even in countries where democratic backsliding is fairly advanced, the relationship between civil society and the state is more complex. Close cooperation and partnership between civil society organisations and the state are scarce in backsliding countries; the relationship between civil society organisations and the state might, however, range from hostility to varying forms and degrees of co-optation. Based on interviews with representatives of civil society organisations and the examination of the sector-specific social and political environment, we aim to explore the forms and factors that shape the relationship between civil society organisations and the state in Hungary. More specifically, we analyse the impact of the changing political opportunity structures on three important sectors of civil society organisations: human rights organisations, environmental organisations, and women’s organisations. We argue that, to seize control over civil society the government applies sector-specific strategies, ranging from exclusion to co-optation. State strategies, in turn, spark different responses from civil society organisations.

Gender Gaps in Immigrants’ Political Participation within and across Borders: Political Socialization or Opportunity Structures?

This study assesses gender gaps in political participation within the host country and in transnational activities among immigrants, using a survey of more than 1000 immigrants in Quebec (Canada). More specifically, the study examines whether premigration experiences with gender equality shapes immigrants’ political participation. We find no evidence of gender gaps in political activities in the host country, but observe a gender gap in transnational political activities varying in size depending on levels of gender equality in immigrants’ countries of origin. The analyses suggest that structural opportunities, more than political socialization, might account for this gender gap.

The contribution of reform coalitions to inclusion and equity: lessons from urban social movements

ABSTRACT Coalitional politics is being used by multiple urban social movements – and agencies that support their work – to address the scale and nature of disadvantage in towns and cities of the Global South. To advance our understanding about how coalitions might form and function effectively, this paper introduces and analyses four diverse exemplars that illustrate the approaches used. We find that coalitions have the potential to improve the relational capital of disadvantaged residents, increasing the legitimacy of their claims, advancing their interests and leading to pro-poor reforms. Coalitions enhance existing political opportunities and potentially improve the political opportunity structure. However, context matters, particularly the nature and extent of local democracy, and coalitions must operate in a space that is circumscribed and contested.

Army embeddedness, political opportunities and threats, and the dynamics of contention: Understanding the varying role of the armed forces in the Egyptian, Syrian, and Libyan 2011 revolts

In many Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries, the army has traditionally been a central pillar of the authoritarian regimes, responsible for the security and integrity of the state and a symbol of national sovereignty and social unity. Nevertheless, the 2011 Arab revolts witnessed stark differences in the response of the armies. This article argues that a relational reading of the Structure of Political Opportunities and Threats, particularly when its dimension of the state’s capacity and propensity for repression is informed by a MENA-salient regime feature—army embeddedness—offers a compelling solution to the puzzle. An analysis of the Egyptian, Syrian, and Libyan episodes of contention, based on a comparative method that combines mechanism-based process tracing and typological theorizing, demonstrates the theoretical payoffs of this sensitized dimension. Cross-case similarities underscore the value of thinking about the army as a full-fledge agent embedded within a web of relations with social and political forces. Specifically, findings reveal how army embeddedness shapes the respective operation and effect of the mechanisms “political opportunities” and “political threats,” and highlight the importance of differentiating between the state’s capacity and the state’s propensity for repression. Within-case variations highlight the historically specific development of such embeddedness and how it plays out distinctively in each case, forming different scenarios of high and low capacity and propensity for repression.

To Geneva and back: externalising anti-LGBT hate crime as a policy issue

ABSTRACT How and why states legislate against hate crime and what role various actors – including human rights movements and international bodies – play in enacting change is attracting increased scholarly interest. Drawing upon primary, mixed-methods research, with Poland as our case study, this paper seeks to understand how new transnational advocacy opportunities change the way local activists push for improved legal protection from anti-LGBT violence. Using Keck and Sikkink’s (1998) ‘boomerang’ model as our interpretative frame, we observe how Polish LGBT groups systematically work with intersectional and transnational networks to feed their grievances to international human rights institutions, which, in turn, apply pressure on the government to amend hate crime laws. We argue that such externalisation of hate crime as a policy issue is a result of the closing of political opportunity structures at home and the simultaneous appearance of advocacy opportunities abroad along with increased resources being made available to the LGBT movement. While the state still hesitates to change the law, there are signs that calls for a new approach to addressing hate crime, promoted by activists and international organisations, are increasingly being heard by bureaucrats in Warsaw, even if there is currently no political will to make any changes.

A Game of Whac-A-Mole

Abstract This article focuses on the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement's utilization of ‘fluidity,’ conceptualized as the ability to adapt campaign tactics to multiple arenas and political opportunity structures simultaneously. Framing BDS as both a social movement and a transnational advocacy network, it demonstrates the movement's fluidity in the context of three campaigns: the campaign at the 65th FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association) congress in 2015, which illustrates an ‘outsider’ strategy aimed at intergovernmental institutions; the 2014 Olive Declaration of municipalities endorsing BDS, which illustrates how local ‘insider’ campaigns can combine to create a translocal campaign; and the ‘Ferguson-Gaza moment’ in 2014, which illustrates how movements can engage at the level of civil society and embed themselves in the broader global justice movement.