Several previous studies have in different ways tried to explain how new social movements are affected by the different sets of political and social contexts within different states and societies. This essay asks the question how much the institutional aspects within the theory of Political Opportunity Structures (POS) have determined how the rather successful animal rights movements in the Netherlands and Great Britain have mobilized and acted to gain progress. Since the Netherlands and Great Britain contains different kinds of political and institutional contexts, these two states are found to be suitable for a comparative analysis of the theory's durability. A qualitative portrayal of both state's institutional political opportunity structures are presented. Then the mobilization, progress, and actions of the political party “Party for the Animals” in the Netherlands, and a wide group of animal rights organisations in Great Britain are determined. What is found is that the open political system in the Netherlands according to the theory shaped the national animal rights movement to mobilize as a political party and only use conventional means to gain progress. What is also found is that the closed political system of Great Britain according to the theory probably shaped the national animal rights movement into mobilizing itself into a wide range of animal rights organisations that use a lot of confrontational strategies to gain political progress. The conclusion being that institutional political opportunity structures that determine whether a state has an open or closed political system proved its durability in the cases of the animal rights movements in the Netherlands and Great Britain.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:hik-2072 |
| Date | January 2009 |
| Creators | Larsson, Josephine |
| Publisher | Högskolan i Kalmar, Humanvetenskapliga institutionen |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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