Political opportunity

Three vital components for movement formation are the following: • Insurgent consciousness: certain members of society feel deprived, mistreated, and have grievances directed at a system that they perceive as unjust (see also deprivation theory). When a collective sense of injustice develops, it motivates people to become movement members. There are various definitions of political opportunity, but Meyer (2004) stresses that of Tarrow (1998): From the three components there emerges a proponent term which Doug McAdam coined as cognitive liberation, the ability for those active in political protest to recognize their collective strength and take advantage of political opportunities as they become available to them. As political opposition to the movement's demands weakens, members may feel a collective sense of symbolic efficacy, the capacity to enact significant change within the political arena. This opens up significant opportunities for movements to both recruit members and mobilize under a concentrated and effective cycle of demands. Over time, the broad socioeconomic processes develop, maintain and cause decline within the movement. A movement, once developed, may be affected by the level of social control placed on it, which, in turn, affects its ability to mobilize and maintain members since when the movement's demands are portrayed as underdeveloped or unattractive, they risk losing or failing to receive support from outside institutions. Furthermore, movements may be affected by oligarchization, a class of individuals within the movement working to ensure the maintenance of the movement itself, rather than a continual push for collective goals, or co-optation, when outside support is garnered for the movement at the same time as it is forced to sacrifice its goals to meet the demands of those supporting institutions. That, in turn, may lead to the loss of indigenous support and, along with it, many of the supporting grassroots organizations that were able to quickly mobilize members at the onset of the movement. Meyer (2004) credited Eisinger (1973) with first use of the political opportunity theory framed in such a way (traces of which, of course, go further back). Meyer (2004), in his overview of political opportunity theory, noted that this broader context can affect: • "mobilizing", • "advancing particular claims rather than others", • "cultivating some alliances rather than others", • "employing particular political strategies and tactics rather than others", and • "affecting mainstream institutional politics and policy". A key advantage of the theory is that it explains why social movements emerge and/or increase their activity at a given time. When there are no political opportunities, simply having grievances (organizational consciousness) and resources is not enough. It is only when all three of these components are present that the movement has a chance to succeed. ==Comparison with political structure==

Within the structure and agency debate, actions of activists (agents) can be understood only when they are seen in the broader context of political opportunities (structure). However, Tarrow, who used the term in his earlier publications, now argues it is misleading, as most opportunities need to be perceived and are situational, not structural. Political opportunity structures are prone to change and can alter in days or last for decades. Demographics and socioeconomic factors create "structure" that affects political actors. ==Political mediation model==

One side model, based on the political opportunity theory, is known as the political mediation model. The political mediation model focuses on how the political context affects the strategic choices of the political actors. The model goes beyond looking at whether the movements just succeeded or failed and analyzes other consequences, including unintentional ones as well as collective benefits. The opposite of political opportunity is a political constraint. ==Criticism==

The political process model has been criticized both structurally and conceptually. Critics suggest that political process theorists use overly-broad definitions as to what constitute political opportunities, and those definitions vary widely based on the historical context of the social movement itself. Furthermore, as political process theory frames movements as legally or politically detached from the state, it ignores movements that form out of cultural solidarity or do not directly stand in opposition to extant rules or regulations. Critics contend that theorists place too great an emphasis on the role of social networks and often almost entirely ignore the cultural underpinnings that allow the networks to form and subsist. In response to some criticisms, Doug McAdam, Sidney Tarrow and Charles Tilly proposed the Dynamics of Contention research program, which focuses on identifying mechanisms to explain political opportunities, rather than relying on an abstract structure. == Examples ==

MoveOn.org is an organization that started in 1998 and still operates. MoveOn.org is a progressive which could potentially start a social movement of its own. MoveOn.org also includes other petitions and political articles and video clips on the front page for people to sign and view as a mechanism for people to assemble over a similar issue, perpetuating the concept of solidarity, or a sense of collective identity over political discourse. MoveOn.org can also be applied to resource mobilization theory since MoveOn.org is a site that is meant to assemble people, which adds to the strength and success of the organization. ==See also==