Sustainability Politics
Lecture 7: 3
Kitschelt: “Political Opportunity Structures and Political Protest: Anti-Nuclear Movements in Four
Democracies” 3
Steinmetz: “Regulation Theory, Post-Marxism, and the New Social Movements” 6
Van der Heijden: “Globalization, environmental movements, and international political opportunity
structures” 7
Lecture 8: 8
Hindmoor: “Rational Choice and Interpretative Evidence: Caught between a Rock and a Hard Place?”
8
Stevenson: “Chapter 2: The Tragedy of the Commons” 9
Stevenson: “Chapter 4: Capitalism” 10
Pollitt: “The ‘New Public Management’ - revolution or fad?” 11
Aberbach & Christensen: “Citizens and Consumers: An NPM Dilemma” 11
Lecture 9: 12
Lowndes & Robert: “Three Phases of Institutionalism” 12
Felice & Vatiero: “Elinor Ostrom and the solution to the tragedy of the commons” 14
Ostroom: “Governing the Commons” 14
Andrews-Speed: “Applying institutional theory to the low carbon energy transition” 15
Lecture 10: 16
Clapp: “The trade-ification of the food sustainability agenda” 16
Oosterveer & Spaargaren: “Organizing consumer involvement in the greening of global food flows:
the role of environmental NGOs in the case of marine fish” 17
Bush & Belton: “Certifying catfish in Vietnam and Bangladesh: Who will make the grade and will it
matter?” 18
Karadic et al. “How to learn to be adaptive? An analytical framework for organizational adaptivity
and its application to a fish producers’ organization in Portugal” 20
Lecture 11: 21
Parsons: “Constructivism and Interpretive Theory” 21
Blue: “Framing Climate Change for Public Deliberation: What Role for Interpretive Social Sciences
and Humanities?” 23
Uusi Rauva & Tienari: “On the relative nature of adequate measures: Media representation of the EU
energy and climate package” 24
Remling: “Depoliticizing adaptation: a critical analysis of EU climate adaptation policy” 25
Lecture 12: 27
Marsh: “Stability and change: the last dualism?” 27
Swilling et al.: “Developmental States and Sustainability Transitions: Prospects of a Just Transition in
South Africa” 29
Gailing: “Transforming energy systems by transforming power relations. Insights from dispositive
thinking and government studies” 31
1
,Final exams, all readings summarized
2
,Lecture 7:
Kitschelt: “Political Opportunity Structures and Political Protest: Anti-Nuclear Movements in Four
Democracies”
- Anti-nuclear movement of the 1970s in France, Sweden, US, and West Germany with different
strategies
- A nation’s political opportunity structure is the most useful variable to explain variations in the
movements
→ influence the choice of protest strategies and the impact of social movements on their
environments
→ function as filters between the mobilization of the movement and its choice of strategies and
its capacity to change the social environment
Social movements as collective and rational decision-makers that mobilize their followers and
promote their causes with the best available strategies given limited resources
Explaining strategies and impacts of social movements
- 3 ways in which political opportunity structures can further or restrain the capacity of social
movements to engage in protest activity:
1. Resource opportunity: Mobilization depends on the resources that the movement can extract from
its setting
2. Institutional opportunity: Institutional rules can influence the access to the public-sphere and the
political decision making
3. The mobilization of one movement (and its disappearance) creates opportunities for other social
movements to mobilize protest
- The output phase of the policy cycle also shapes social movements and offers them points of
access and inclusion in policy-making
- Policy styles also play a determining role in the dynamics of social movements
- 4 factors which determine the openness of political regimes to new demands on the input side:
1. Number of political parties and other groups with electoral influence
2. The independent capacity of the legislatures from the executive
3. Pattern of intermediation between interest groups and the executive branch
4. New demands must be able to find their way into the process of forming policy
compromise and consensus
France:
- Effectiveness of national policy-making
- Political system is closed
3
, Sweden:
- Lower political capacity than France
- High effectiveness policy
- Open political system
US:
- Openness
- Low political capacity
- Lower effectiveness with policies
West Germany:
- Closed political system
- High capacity
- High effectiveness
Political opportunity structures:
- When a political system is open and weak: assimilative strategy (lobbying, petitioning,
referendum campaigns)
- Closed and strong political system: confrontational strategy (public demonstrations, acts of civil
disobedience)
- 3 types of movement impacts:
1. Procedural
- Open new channels of participation to protest actors
- Involve their recognition as legitimate representatives of demands
- Open political system is needed
2. Substantive
- Changes of policy in response to protest
- A polity must have open institutions and a high capacity to implement policies
- Openness also helps
3. Structural
- Indicate a transformation of the political opportunity structures as a consequence
of social movement activity
- Happens when a political system cannot bring about 1) or 2)
- Social movements try to alter the whole political system fundamentally
4
Lecture 7: 3
Kitschelt: “Political Opportunity Structures and Political Protest: Anti-Nuclear Movements in Four
Democracies” 3
Steinmetz: “Regulation Theory, Post-Marxism, and the New Social Movements” 6
Van der Heijden: “Globalization, environmental movements, and international political opportunity
structures” 7
Lecture 8: 8
Hindmoor: “Rational Choice and Interpretative Evidence: Caught between a Rock and a Hard Place?”
8
Stevenson: “Chapter 2: The Tragedy of the Commons” 9
Stevenson: “Chapter 4: Capitalism” 10
Pollitt: “The ‘New Public Management’ - revolution or fad?” 11
Aberbach & Christensen: “Citizens and Consumers: An NPM Dilemma” 11
Lecture 9: 12
Lowndes & Robert: “Three Phases of Institutionalism” 12
Felice & Vatiero: “Elinor Ostrom and the solution to the tragedy of the commons” 14
Ostroom: “Governing the Commons” 14
Andrews-Speed: “Applying institutional theory to the low carbon energy transition” 15
Lecture 10: 16
Clapp: “The trade-ification of the food sustainability agenda” 16
Oosterveer & Spaargaren: “Organizing consumer involvement in the greening of global food flows:
the role of environmental NGOs in the case of marine fish” 17
Bush & Belton: “Certifying catfish in Vietnam and Bangladesh: Who will make the grade and will it
matter?” 18
Karadic et al. “How to learn to be adaptive? An analytical framework for organizational adaptivity
and its application to a fish producers’ organization in Portugal” 20
Lecture 11: 21
Parsons: “Constructivism and Interpretive Theory” 21
Blue: “Framing Climate Change for Public Deliberation: What Role for Interpretive Social Sciences
and Humanities?” 23
Uusi Rauva & Tienari: “On the relative nature of adequate measures: Media representation of the EU
energy and climate package” 24
Remling: “Depoliticizing adaptation: a critical analysis of EU climate adaptation policy” 25
Lecture 12: 27
Marsh: “Stability and change: the last dualism?” 27
Swilling et al.: “Developmental States and Sustainability Transitions: Prospects of a Just Transition in
South Africa” 29
Gailing: “Transforming energy systems by transforming power relations. Insights from dispositive
thinking and government studies” 31
1
,Final exams, all readings summarized
2
,Lecture 7:
Kitschelt: “Political Opportunity Structures and Political Protest: Anti-Nuclear Movements in Four
Democracies”
- Anti-nuclear movement of the 1970s in France, Sweden, US, and West Germany with different
strategies
- A nation’s political opportunity structure is the most useful variable to explain variations in the
movements
→ influence the choice of protest strategies and the impact of social movements on their
environments
→ function as filters between the mobilization of the movement and its choice of strategies and
its capacity to change the social environment
Social movements as collective and rational decision-makers that mobilize their followers and
promote their causes with the best available strategies given limited resources
Explaining strategies and impacts of social movements
- 3 ways in which political opportunity structures can further or restrain the capacity of social
movements to engage in protest activity:
1. Resource opportunity: Mobilization depends on the resources that the movement can extract from
its setting
2. Institutional opportunity: Institutional rules can influence the access to the public-sphere and the
political decision making
3. The mobilization of one movement (and its disappearance) creates opportunities for other social
movements to mobilize protest
- The output phase of the policy cycle also shapes social movements and offers them points of
access and inclusion in policy-making
- Policy styles also play a determining role in the dynamics of social movements
- 4 factors which determine the openness of political regimes to new demands on the input side:
1. Number of political parties and other groups with electoral influence
2. The independent capacity of the legislatures from the executive
3. Pattern of intermediation between interest groups and the executive branch
4. New demands must be able to find their way into the process of forming policy
compromise and consensus
France:
- Effectiveness of national policy-making
- Political system is closed
3
, Sweden:
- Lower political capacity than France
- High effectiveness policy
- Open political system
US:
- Openness
- Low political capacity
- Lower effectiveness with policies
West Germany:
- Closed political system
- High capacity
- High effectiveness
Political opportunity structures:
- When a political system is open and weak: assimilative strategy (lobbying, petitioning,
referendum campaigns)
- Closed and strong political system: confrontational strategy (public demonstrations, acts of civil
disobedience)
- 3 types of movement impacts:
1. Procedural
- Open new channels of participation to protest actors
- Involve their recognition as legitimate representatives of demands
- Open political system is needed
2. Substantive
- Changes of policy in response to protest
- A polity must have open institutions and a high capacity to implement policies
- Openness also helps
3. Structural
- Indicate a transformation of the political opportunity structures as a consequence
of social movement activity
- Happens when a political system cannot bring about 1) or 2)
- Social movements try to alter the whole political system fundamentally
4
