Political opportunity structure, economic structure, and ideology: Peasant uprisings in 19th-century Japan

Abstract

Social movement studies employing the concept of political opportunity structure have so far left ambiguous its conceptual boundaries as well as the extent of its applicability to a range of collective action. This study, by examining its conceptual origins and characteristics, argues that the timing of the mobilization by the movement group segmented from the dominant political arena of the society is not determined by the change in political opportunity structure. This claim is examined using time-series data of Japanese peasant uprisings, 1800-1877. The examination results support this contention. It reveals that economic structural change, rather than political opportunity structure, determined the timing of the peasant political protest in premodern Japan.