ABSTRACT
Resource mobilisation theory rests on 'rational choice' models of behaviour. Social movements are studied as organisations, i.e. as collectives of rational decision-makers confronted by a set of strategic problems. Historical studies convey little of the interaction between the National Socialist German Workers' Party's (NSDAP) own choice of strategies and the larger 'structure of opportunity and constraint' within which it functioned. This chapter analyses the relationship between the Republic's structure of opportunities and constraints and the NSDAP's choice of mobilisation strategies. It focuses on the extent to which the Weimar party system influenced the NSDAP's mobilisation strategy, especially in the last phase of its electoral competition. The chapter examines how after 1928 the NSDAP developed a grassroots mobilisation strategy that successfully exploited the 'opportunities' found within the Weimar party system. In analysing Nazi implementation of their mobilisation strategy at the local level, it relies on earlier study of Nazi voting and mobilisation in Franconia.
