ABSTRACT
Politics in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) has never been exclusively characterised by established elites and institutionalised collective actors such as political parties and interest groups.1 Social and political movements have come into play as well. For the most part, they have challenged the status quo from the outside. In some cases, these movements conceived of themselves as forces besieging ‘the system’ as though it were a fortress. Quite a number of these confrontations have been highly significant and visible. They mobilised large numbers of people and triggered public debate. In other instances, however, lines of conflict have been blurred, marked by a complex constellation of multiple actors, shifting alliances, negotiations, and only partial agreements. While some interactions between the established and non-established forces have produced only noise and excitement, others have contributed to policy change, rearrangements within the polity, new power constellations, and changes in both the social movement sector and the attitudes of the wider population.
