Social Protest and Policy Change
While movement activists spend much of their time and energy trying to change the world, our theoretical and empirical knowledge in this field is still relatively poor. This research offers a systematic and empirically grounded analysis of the impact of three major contemporary movements on public policy. Using a comparative and historical perspective, this study argues that a social movement’s policy impact is facilitated by the presence of favorable political opportunity structures, coupled with the presence of institutional allies among the elites, and a favorable public opinion. Furthermore, the very content of a movement’s demands plays a role, insofar as the power holders are often more willing to make concessions on certain issues than on others. Within a unique body of original data this study incorporates a historical overview of the mobilization of the ecology, antinuclear, and peace movements in the United States, Italy, and Switzerland. It presents the results of time-series analyses and reveals the combined effects of protest, political alliances, and shifts in public opinion on movements which do not address issues posing too serious a threat to the power holders.
Data description
Dataset 1: Protest Events (Italy, Switzerland, USA)
Observational unit: protest event.
Spatial coverage: Italy, Switzerland, USA.
Temporal coverage: 1975-1999 (plus 1970 for the USA and Italy).
Method/source: content analysis of one major newspaper in each country (Corriere della Sera in Italy,
Neue Zürcher Zeitung in Switzerland, New York Times in the USA.
Sampling method: Monday issue (Sunday and Monday for the USA).
Content: protest events (conventional and unconventional) by peace, ecology, and antinuclear movements.
Includes events by political elites on peace, environmental, and nuclear energy issues.
How to Get the Data? To access the dataset, click here.
Dataset 2: Time Series (Italy)
Observational unit: Year.
Spatial coverage: Italy.
Temporal coverage: 1975-1995.
Method/source: various sources (depending on the type of data).
Content: annual time series of five types of data (protest events, SMOs,
public opinion, political structures, socio-economic indicators, policy).
Variables on protest events come from recodings in the protest event file.
Variables on SMOs comes from the file containing time series of individual SMOs in Italy.
How to Get the Data? To access the dataset, click here.
Dataset 3: Time Series (Switzerland)
Observational unit: year.
Spatial coverage: Switzerland.
Temporal coverage: 1975-1995.
Method/source: various sources (depending on the type of data).
Content: annual time series of five types of data (protest events, SMOs,
public opinion, political structures, socio-economic indicators, policy).
Variables on protest events come from recodings in the protest event file.
Variables on SMOs comes from the file containing time series of individual SMOs in Switzerland.
How to Get the Data? To access the dataset, click here.
Dataset 4: Time Series (USA)
Observational unit: year.
Spatial coverage: USA.
Temporal coverage: 1975-1995.
Method/source: various sources (depending on the type of data).
Content: annual time series of five types of data (protest events, SMOs,
public opinion, political structures, socio-economic indicators, policy).
Variables on protest events come from recodings in the protest event file.
Variables on SMOs comes from the file containing time series of individual SMOs in the USA.
How to Get the Data? To access the dataset, click here.
Dataset 5: Time Series of SMOs (Italy)
Observational unit: year.
Spatial coverage: Italy.
Temporal coverage: 1975-1995.
Method/source: survey through questionnaire submitted to selected SMOs
and various additional sources.
Content: information on membership and financial resources of selected SMOs
of three social movements (peace, ecology, antinuclear movements).
How to Get the Data? To access the dataset, click here.
Dataset 6: Time Series of SMOs (Switzerland)
Observational unit: year.
Spatial coverage: Switzerland.
Temporal coverage: 1975-1995.
Method/source: survey through questionnaire submitted to selected SMOs
and various additional sources.
Content: information on membership and financial resources of selected SMOs
of three social movements (peace, ecology, antinuclear movements).
How to Get the Data? To access the dataset, click here.
Dataset 7: Time Series of SMOs (USA).
Observational unit: year.
Spatial coverage: USA.
Temporal coverage: 1975-1995.
Method/source: Encyclopedia of Associations, survey through questionnaire submitted to selected SMOs,
and various additional sources.
Content: information on membership and financial resources of selected SMOs
of three social movements (peace, ecology, antinuclear movements).
How to Get the Data? To access the dataset, click here.
Main publications
Giugni Marco (1998). “Was if Worth the Effort? The Outcomes and Consequences of Social Movements.” Annual Review of Sociology 24: 371-393.
Giugni, Marco (1999). “Mobilitazioni su ambiente, pace e nucleare.” Quaderni di Sociologia XLIII: 45-67.
Giugni, Marco (2001). “L’impact des mouvements écologistes, antinucléaires et pacifistes sur les politiques publiques: Le cas des Etats-Unis, de l’Italie et de la Suisse, 1975-1995.” Revue Française de Sociologie 42: 641-668.
Giugni, Marco (2004). Social Protest and Policy Change: Ecology, Antinuclear, and Peace Movements in Comparative Perspective. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.