Della Porta (1996), ‘Social Movements and the State.’
Citation: Della Porta, D. (1996), ‘Social Movements and the State: Thoughts on the Policing of Protest,’ in McAdam, D., McCarthy, J.D. and Zald, M. (eds.) Comparative Perspectives on Social Movements: Political Opportunities, Mobilizing Structures, and Cultural Framing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 62-92.
Della Porta (1996:62-63): Argues for protest policing as a barometer of political opportunities. Argues that using a single variable allows for more in-depth consideration of it and increases its specificity. [Policing has a major advantage in that it demonstrates attitudes precisely to non-systemic oppositin and the propensity of the state to apply legal and physical restrictions to public displays of opposition].
Della Porta (1996:63-64): Argues policing of protests “has the most direct impact on social movements. […] As part of the state response to social movements, it should be very sensitive to the relevant opportunities and constraints, and therefore represent a general expression of the state’s degree of openness or receptivity.” [Can also indicate the system’s receptiveness to non-violent opposition, with the obvious caveat that protests have the potential to turn violent].
Della Porta (1996:90): Proposes two hypotheses: “a more tolerant, selective and softer police behaviour favors protest,” and “more repressive, diffuse, and hard techniques of policing tend to, at the same time, discourage the mass and peaceful protest while fuelling the radical fringe.”