Economies of Contention: Antecedents of Corporate-targeted Protest in U.S. States, 1972-1990.

Since the early 1970s, the U.S. has experienced a period of deregulation, increasing corporate political power, expanding income inequality, and declining political opportunities for many social movements. A growing body of studies ties these trends to the growth of corporate-targeted protest (CTP), arguing that such changes lead outside challenging groups to increasingly engage in attempts to disrupt corporations' resource flows and tarnish their reputations. However, no study to date has analyzed this question in systematic fashion. Using a unique data source of CTP events in U.S. states over the period in question, this study examines the impact of earlier economic, political, regulatory, protest, and civic conditions on the occurrence of collective claims-making against businesses using fixed-effects panel models. The study finds, first and foremost, that corporate-targeted protest declined significantly during the 1972-1990 period. Second, although certain factors associated with the political process model shape CTP, such explanations come up short. In accordance with the growing "multi-institutional" politics approach to social movements, the findings suggest that certain institution-specific factors significantly influence CTP, such as the presence of large business organizations. Further, the study finds that economic effects on CTP are conditional: anti-corporate marches, rallies, leafleting, and movement-initiated lawsuits are more likely in periods of economic expansion, whereas boycotts are more likely during downturns. Overall, the findings support the notion that CTP follows after state-targeted protest, although it appears to have little connection to either the changing regulatory climate or the growth of citizens' groups in recent decades. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]