Political Opportunity Structures and Progressive Movement Sectors

This chapter focuses on the structural features of political systems and their possible influence on social movement sectors in the eight countries—Belgium, Britain, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States—that participated in the February 15, 2003 protests. It seeks a direct link between general political structures, and the structures of a large social movement sector, or even specific kinds of movements. Large antiwar protests usually recruit from a cluster of movements referred to as a social movement family. For the most part, peace movements consist of progressive and leftist groups. The chapter concentrates on the size and character of the progressive left, labeled the “progressive movement sector”.