social movements

Explaining Local Protests in Taiwan (1992-2008): From the Perspective of Political Opportunity Structure

Social protests have played an important role in the process of political change in Taiwan. Although many studies on Taiwan's social movements are qualitative analyses focusing on specific cases, few explain the variation in the frequency of social protests within Taiwan. To fill this empirical gap, this paper draws hypotheses from the theory of political opportunity structure and subjects it to empirical tests using a unique dataset of subnational protest events.

The Legal Mobilization of Taiwanese Environmental Movements

There is a new trend in the Taiwanese environmental movements:using litigation to achieve their goals. There are several factors whichhave facilitated the new trend. They include the crisis of the legality of anEnvironmental Impact Assessment, the decline in the mobilization of socialmovements, judicial independence, and the appearance of environmentallawyers. Although environmental lawyers and social movementorganizations have won several lawsuits, the impacts of victories in courtsare limited.

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