36 EXPLAINING CONTENTIOUS POLITICS: A CASE STUDY OF A FAILED THEORY DEVELOPMENT AND A PROPOSAL FOR A RATIONAL CHOICE ALTERNATIVE Karl-Dieter Opp University of Leipzig, Germany S ince the beginning of the seventies a series of new theoretical per- spectives 1 has developed that aim to explain contentious politics, in particular protest and social movements. The question this article addresses is to what extent these perspectives can be considered a cumulative theory development. It is shown that this is definitely not the case. The article traces this failed theory development and suggests an alternative. 2 HOW IT ALL BEGAN: THE RESOURCE MOBILIZATION PERSPECTIVE The starting point of the new theoretical development was the resource mobilization perspective (RMP) with the first basic article by McCarthy and Zald in (1977). 3 The authors begin with a critique of previous theory and then provide some orienting hypotheses. That is to say, they mention factors that are supposed to influence “the dynamics and tactics of social movement growth, decline, and change” and the success of movements (1213, 1216). Among the factors are a movement’s external support, existing resources that can be mobilized, the extent of social control by authorities, and political freedom in a society. Then the authors develop eleven explicitly stated “illustrative hypotheses.” Most of them consist of one dependent and one indepen- | 303 | From: Raymond Boudon: A Life in Sociology, volume 2, edited by Mohamed Cherkaoui and Peter Hamilton. Oxford: The Bardwell Press, Pp. 303-317.