ABSTRACT
Recent reviews of the political opportunity and political process perspectives are pointing to alternative and novel ways for the study of contentious politics (Aminzade et al. 2001; McAdam, Tarrow, and Tilly 2001; Tilly 2005; Kousis and Tilly 2004; Meyer 2004). One of these, as proposed by Goldstone and Tilly (2001), is looking at the interactions between state responses and challengers. Assuming that social movements consist of bounded, contingent, interactive performances by multiple and changing actors, including the state (Tilly 1987; Tilly 1999a), these specialists argue for a need to focus on the dynamics of collective action and not alone on external or internal factors that weaken the state, or on changing social conditions that increase the resources and protesters’ confidence, as factors leading to increases in popular action. Thus far, studies focusing on statemovement interactions are mostly dependent on qualitative, case-study, and secondary evidence on specific issues (Flam 1994; Szasz 1994; Aguilar Fernández, Fidélis, and Kousis 1995; Brand 1999). This chapter provides a systematic empirical analysis of trinational primary data on state responses to environmental challengers for a twenty-year period, in its exploratory attempt to highlight basic features of the dynamics of environmental contention.
