Social movements and their effects on public policies: Balance of the debate and analytical propositions

Abstract:

How to study the effects of social movements on the public policies? The question is relevant because in post-transition Brazil many social movements have engaged in institutionalized politics. It is also a challenging question as far as the theoretical and analytical approaches do not offer yet consolidated causal propositions and have privileged protest as the social movement type of action. The article faces these challenges. It discusses critically the existing analytical models that propose to explain the political effects of social movements. It also suggests the complementarity between the political mediation model and the polity approach. The latter offers more robust categories to analyze the dimension of the state and the processes of mutual constitution of societal actors and political institutions thought the concept of institutional fit.

Keywords:
Social movements; Political effects; Public policies; Causal relations; Institutional fit