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Extant research suggests that radical or disruptive tactics are more effective, more likely to garner media attention, and likely to alter the dynamics of interactions with police. However, the literature lacks an empirically-based structural understanding of the position of radical protest tactics in the tactical repertoire. This paper analyzes the position of radical tactics by applying social network analysis methods to data on the tactics and claims of over 7,000 protest events reported in the New York Times from 1960 to 1995. We examine the centrality of radical tactics, the extent to which radical tactics are structurally equivalent, and the extent to which radical tactics hang together with each other and with radical claims. Our findings challenge previously unexamined assumptions about the structural position of radical tactics, and have important implications in particular for future studies of the impact of tactics on media coverage, protest policing, and movement success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on political repression by state actors is an important area of inquiry for social movement scholars and law and society scholars alike. This paper addresses this broad topic by examining quantitative and qualitative data on arrests made during the 2004 Republican National Convention (RNC). Data are used to: (1) challenge conventional thinking that suggests that police violence is a more severe form of repression when compared to arrests; (2) test arguments made in recent work that applies Feeley's The Process is the Punishment to the use of arrests in controlling political protest, such as examining the relative severity of pre-trial "punishment" when compared to conviction rates and sentencing averages upon conviction; (3) explore the factors that affected defendants' decisions on whether or not to and/or how to proceed with their defense; and (4) understand the impact of arrests and pre-trial detention experiences on the willingness of arrested individuals to participate in future protests. Quantitative data include arrest level data on all arrests made during the 2004 RNC. Qualitative data include interviews with a small, random sample of arrested individuals, published accounts of the RNC and RNC arrest experiences, press coverage, and internal NYPD and NYC documents. This research concludes by demonstrating that during the 2004 RNC, law in action was able to accomplish what constitutionally permissible law on the books could not: criminalizing protesters as a class. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large debate has erupted in recent work on social movements about the role of the state in protest, with some advocating alternative approaches to the study of social movements, such as a focus on institutional authorities. Using data on four types of online protest (petitions, boycotts, and letter-writing and e-mail campaigns), acquired using an innovative new methodology that produces a generalizable sample of online protest actions, this paper addresses this debate. We find that, while the state is a frequent target of online protest, a significant portion of protest activity targets other institutional authorities. Our analyses disaggregate the state and distinguish between types of institutional authorities, further deepening the understanding of both state and non-state actors. In addition to informing the existing debate over the definition of social movement activity, our data suggest an association between tactical forms and their targets. Finally, by using Internet data, this paper contributes to an under-studied area of social movement research: online protest. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an attempt to make sense of shifts in the social movement sector and its relationship to conventional politics over the past 40 years, some have proposed that Western nations are increasingly becoming "movement societies." Accordingly, there are four key characteristics of the movement society: (1) over time expansion of protest; (2) over time diffusion of protest; (3) over time institutionalization of protest; and (4) over time institutionalization of state responses to protest. Using newly available data on over 19,000 protest events occurring in the US between 1960 and 1986, we evaluate these four claims. Our findings suggest that movement society scholars are correct in some respects: the size of protest events has grown over time, the percentage of events at which at least one social movement organization is present has increased over time, the number of distinct protest claims has increased over time, and violent forms of protest policing have decreased over time. However, our findings call into question other movement society claims: the number of protests has declined over time, fewer organizations are present at each protest event over time, fewer new groups initiated events over time, fewer new claims emerged over time, and there was more significant activity by groups on the right in the 1960s and 1970s than expected. We suggest potential explanations for some of the negative findings in an attempt to refine the movement society arguments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing explanations of repression and the policing of protest have focused on the interests of political elites, with research indicating that one of the chief predictors of state repression is the level of threat protesters pose to elite interests. However, these approaches fail to theoretically grapple with the principal-agent dilemma that exists (to varying degrees by polity) between political elites and the agents charged with on-the-ground protest control. In doing so, prior research also overlooks how the institutional and organizational characteristics of local law enforcement agencies may shape the character of protest policing. We address this significant theoretical gap by developing a police-centered, or ?blue?, approach to protest policing. Using data on public protest events and policing in New York State between 1968 and 1973, this paper finds support for the blue approach. Specifically, in federated nations, such as the United States, the situational threats posed by protesters to those agents who actually perform repression?local police?are critical predictors of police action. Results also show little support for the claim that police are more likely to repress (or more heavily repress) weak groups, such as ethnic and racial minorities. Finally, results indicate that scholarship on repression should move beyond merely examining police presence at protest events and should also look at the varieties of police response, once present, at events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]