Routing the Opposition

Social Movements, Public Policy, and Democracy

David S. Meyer, Valerie Jenness, Helen Ingram

• Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press
• Year: 2005
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• eBook ISBN:
  9780816696741
• Subtopic: Political Advocacy
• Index: Politics & International Relations

On one side are the policy makers, on the other, the movements and organizations that challenge public policy. Where and how the two meet is a critical juncture in the democratic process. Bringing together a distinguished group of scholars from several different disciplines in the social sciences, Routing the Opposition connects the substance and content of policies with the movements that create and respond to them. Local antidrug coalitions, the organic agriculture movement, worker's compensation reforms, veterans' programs, prison reform, immigrants' rights campaigns: these are some of the diverse areas in which the contributors to this volume examine the linkages between the practices, organization, and institutional logic of public policy and social movements. The authors engage such topics as the process of involving multiple stakeholders in policy making, the impact of overlapping social networks on policy and social movement development, and the influence of policy design on the increase or decline of civic involvement. Capturing both successes and failures, Routing the Opposition focuses on strategies and outcomes that both transform social movements and guide the development of public policy, revealing as well what happens when the very different organizational cultures of activists and public policy makers interact.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction. Social Movements and Public Policy: Eggs, Chicken, and Theory
• Part I. Context Matters and Patterns of Influence: Agendas and Alliances
• Part II. The Social Movement–State Nexus: The Structure and Consequences of Interpenetration
• Part III. The Nature of the Field: Impacts on Participation, Mobilization, and Identity
• Conclusion. Social Movements, Public Policy, and Democracy: Rethinking the Nexus
• Contributors
• Index