infonet-economy

Explanations of protest policing have neglected the "spotlight of the media." Based on data on repression and its media coverage in four Swiss cities from 1965 to 1994, our findings suggest that the mass media do have an impact on levels and forms of repression, along with political opportunity dimensions and levels of disruption. We identify two mechanisms. First, we show...

Cet article critique une approche qualifiée de « dissociative » dans l'analyse des relations entre les États-Unis et l'Union européenne. Il remet en cause aussi bien les présupposés théoriques que les observations empiriques des chercheurs qui ont prédit une dislocation des liens transatlantiques du fait de la fin de la guerre froide. Cette étude analyse principalement les...

In Austria, the social democrats suffered major electoral losses in the 1980s and the first half of the 1990s, and these losses translated primarily into gains for right-wing populism. In Sweden, by contrast, the social democrats have pretty much held their own in recent elections (except for 1991) and protest voting has assumed leftist as well as rightist forms. Commonly regarded as...

Research on social movements has usually addressed issues of movement emergence and mobilization, yet has paid less attention to their outcomes and consequences. Although there exists a considerable amount of work on this aspect, little systematic research has been done so far. Most existing work focuses on political and policy outcomes of movements, whereas few studies address their...

In this paper, we discuss the relation between social movements, public opinion, and political alliances with respect to the impact of movements on public policy. We first discuss the existing literature and sketch three broad models of the role of public opinion and political alliances (or the absence of such role) in facilitating the task of social movements in producing policy...

In this paper we focus on the handling by the police of mass demonstrations in Switzerland during the past three decades. Our aim is to single out the determinants of police intervention during these protest events. We look at three sets of potential causes: (1) the configuration of power (i.e. political alliances and coalitions), (2) face-to-face interactions between protesters and...

From Contention to Democracy addresses a crucial aspect of contemporary societies: the role of social movements for political and social change. The volume gathers together essays written by prominent social theorists who have been asked to reflect on the relationship between movements and processes of social, political and cultural change. Three broad types of movement-change nexus...