Political Opportunity Structures Through the Lens of Violence in Latin America

Abstract

The article discusses the concept of Political Opportunity Structure, central to the Political Process Theory, which emerged in the 1960s, in North America, and is essential to the study of social movements. Its objective is to nuance the use of this concept, after presenting its context of initial formulation and addressing the main criticisms, reformulations-internal and external-and a proposal to include the category of violence, notably from Latin American experiences. From a qualitative approach, with an extensive bibliographic review, it concludes that the neglect of the polysemical category of violence provided an often mistaken reading of the classic questions of this field, namely, how and why subjects mobilize. Furthermore, we come up with readings that definitely include the different uses of violent practices both in social movements and to repress them in the analysis of political opportunities.