From History to Theory

Abstract

We began with a survey of three major theoretical approaches to the study of social movements and have used themes and selected hypotheses from the approaches to collect information about four movements that flourished during the 1980s and 1990s. We explored each movement’s economic and political background, nonelite political antecedents, and evolving goals and strategies. Let us compare some findings and then evaluate the theoretical traditions’ strengths and weaknesses on the basis of our new knowledge.