ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a survey of social movement theories, their strengths and weaknesses, and the problems they pose for analysis of anti-apartheid activism. Numerous difficulties confront scholarly analysis of US anti-apartheid activism. The political process approach overcomes many of the limitations of resource mobilization and new social movements models because it allows exploration of the origins, development, and consequences of social movements. New social movements models explain the rise of new groups and patterns of collective activity as a response to fundamental changes in postindustrial societies. The political process approach overcomes many of the limitations of resource mobilization and new social movements models because it allows exploration of the origins, development, and consequences of social movements. The contextualized political process approach, with its focus on the pivotal role of political factors in determining the timing and prospects for social movement development, offers a viable theory for understanding the development of US anti-apartheid activism.
