This book explores the question of why organizations change their protest strategies over time. It draws hypotheses from three standard models of contentious political action – POS, resource mobilization theory, and identity – and subjects them to a series of qualitative and quantitative tests to see whether they can explain organizational tactics. Because the evidence comes from only two specific contexts, the answers I reach must be considered preliminary and subject to further testing. Nevertheless, the results are strongly encouraging that work on this question will pay off: protest strategies vary across organizations and across time in regular and predictable ways. Table 8.1 summarizes the results of the analysis.

RESOURCE MOBILIZATION AND IDENTITY

The single most powerful explanatory factor is a previous history of protest. Organizations that protest a lot in one year are more likely to protest a lot the next year, and the year after that, and the year after that. Tilly (and Tarrow) are right: protest repertoires are fairly sticky characteristics of movement organizations. The question is, why? Are organizations just slow learners, mindlessly repeating the same tactics over and over regardless of changes in the external context? The evidence presented here suggests that far from endangering group goals, protest can be a rational and intelligent mechanism for improving the odds of group survival, provided that a few conditions are met.