How Do Political Opportunities Matter for Social Movements?: Political Opportunity, Misframing, Pseudosuccess, and Pseudofailure

Abstract

A longitudinal case study of Korean white-collar labor movements, which newly thrived in the democratizing atmosphere after the 1987 June Democratic Struggle, confirms that political opportunity is an important external factor that impels movement dynamics toward political protest and interunion solidarity. However, the impact of political opportunity is more complicated than the political process model suggests. First, it is not objective but perceived opportunity that is causal for movement dynamics: Opportunity is filtered through participants' interpretations, which shape their responses to it. The effect of political opportunity is mediated by participants' subjective conclusion (often inaccurate) that a movement goal has been promoted or obstructed by a particular source (source attribution). Without this framing mediation, the impact of political opportunity remains indeterminate, as a single opportunity structure may produce disparate movement dynamics and, conversely, movements may mobilize under both contracting and expanding opportunities. Second, the causal impact of perceived opportunity-whether perceived contraction or expansionis contextually specific and contingent. When union members consider their attempts to achieve goals a failure and ascribe the failure to government intransigence, antigovernment sentiments facilitate political protest. In contrast, success attributed to the efficacy of collective action nurtures solidarity consciousness and labor collectivity. In either event, movement dynamics improve.Authoritarian regimes had been in place in South Korea (hereinafter Korea) since liberation from Japanese colonialism in 1945. They stifled most white-collar attempts to unionize and brutally repressed blue-collar unions until the 1987 June Democratic Struggle. Only a few white-collar unions were organized, while blue-collar unions, though their number was small and their collective power was weak due to persistent state repression, mounted a sporadic but mass radical antigovernment insurrection against it. In addition, a long heritage of enterprise unionism (which I will elaborate below) and legal restrictions fragmented labor movements by confining union activities Direct all correspondence to Doowon Suh,

The Discourse of Demobilization: Shifts in Activist Priorities and the Framing of Political Opportunities in a Peasant Land Struggle

“…It can also be influenced by the past success of the movement in achieving its goals and demands (Kurzman 1996;Einwohner 2002). Activists' attribution of their movement's achievements to its own strength and tactical prowess has been shown to be associated with more intense mobilization (Kurzman 1996;Suh 2001). Conversely, when movement participants blame setbacks on their own failings rather than on external factors, this has had a demobilizing impact (Voss 1996).…”

“…Because we cannot expect everyone to perceive the same kinds of events as either an expansion or a contraction of opportunities, different movements may respond to these events differently. But few scholars have elaborated on the way perceptions of opportunities influence mobilization, with some exceptions being Gamson and Meyer (1996), Kurzman (1996), andSuh (2001) who show that framing theory, to be elaborated below, is an important complement to political opportunity theory, especially for understanding mobilization dynamics in single-case studies. But as well, there has been too little attention to activists' strategic choices in response to changes in political opportunities (Goodwin and Jasper 1999).…”

How Local Social Movement Groups Handle a Presidential Election

“…Rather, acts of political contestation are embedded in subtle aspects of social movement culture. In the course of current and past struggles, SMGs develop currencies of shared meaning that make elections significant (or not) to movement activists (Auyero, 2004;Polletta, 1999Polletta, , 2004Suh, 2001). Moreover, SMGs may either act on these meanings or fail to act, reflecting the indeterminate choices that shape strategic action by activists and groups.…”

“…Although aggregated data on protests suggest that SMGs seized the opportunity of the election to stage a series of protests, closer examination of individual groups suggests more sporadic strings of actions. From the outside, the election might seem a political opportunity for SMGs, but many activists adopted this notion only cautiously and partially (also Suh, 2001).…”

‘Obstruction Galore’: A Case Study of Non-violent Resistance Against Nuclear Waste Disposal in Germany

“…Political opportunities are influenced when activists make strategic and tactical choices, thereby influencing the outcome of protest activities. Furthermore, framing activities are performed to interpret political opportunities in ways that help mobilise supporters [Suh, 2001].…”