Political opportunity structure and the institutionalisation of the environmental movement

Abstract

During the last 15 years, environmental movements in many western countries have developed into highly institutionalised mass membership organisations (Conservation associations, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, World Wildlife Fund). The degree of institutionalisation, however, differs from country to country and is largely determined by the political opportunity structure of a country. In this article, the different dimensions of political opportunity structure and institutionalisation are dealt with, and a number of hypotheses about the relations between these dimensions are developed and tested. A comparison of four countries reveals the differences between, on the one hand, the highly institutionalised environmental movements of Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland, and, on the other hand, the scarcely institutionalised French movement. Nevertheless, important differences can be found in the specific features of institutionalisation in the first three countries; these appear to be caused mainly by the differences in political opportunity structures.