ABSTRACT
This chapter presents two concepts with the aim of contributing to a better understanding of historically rooted and collective processes of strategy making and performing that transcend the over emphasis of specialized literature on contentious and public action. These concepts are repertoire of strategies and stock of legacies. The chapter discusses these concepts as a complement to Charles Tilly's 'repertoire of contention'. The implications of incorporating a focus on strategies are central for social movement studies because they lead us to pay attention to actors and their intentions, and the interactions among the intentions of variety of deliberate actors. The chapter explores Machiavelli's analysis of strategies through a historical understanding of the construction of strategies. Thus, the concepts of repertoire of strategies and stock of legacies help to bridge the artificial distinction between contentious and routine politics, observing the picture as a dynamic interaction involving the selective use of strategies based on inherited legacies.
