Contentious politics is the use of disruptive techniques to make a political

Politics

Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...

 point, or to change government policy. Examples of such techniques are actions that disturb the normal activities of society such as demonstrations

Demonstration (people)

A demonstration or street protest is action by a mass group or collection of groups of people in favor of a political or other cause; it normally consists of walking in a mass march formation and either beginning with or meeting at a designated endpoint, or rally, to hear speakers.Actions such as...

, general strike action

Strike action

Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...

, riot

Riot

A riot is a form of civil disorder characterized often by what is thought of as disorganized groups lashing out in a sudden and intense rash of violence against authority, property or people. While individuals may attempt to lead or control a riot, riots are thought to be typically chaotic and...

, terrorism

Terrorism

Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...

, civil disobedience

Civil disobedience

Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of a government, or of an occupying international power. Civil disobedience is commonly, though not always, defined as being nonviolent resistance. It is one form of civil resistance...

, and even revolution

Revolution

A revolution is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time.Aristotle described two types of political revolution:...

 or insurrection. Social movements often engage in contentious politics. The concept distinguishes these forms of contention from the everyday acts of resistance explored by James C. Scott

James C. Scott

James C. Scott is Sterling Professor of Political Science, formerly Eugene Meyer Professor of Political Science and Anthropology at Yale University. He is also the director of the Program in Agrarian Studies. By training, he is a southeast Asianist.- Research topics :James Scott's work focuses...

, interstate warfare, and forms of contention employed entirely within institutional settings, such as elections or sports. Tilly defines contentious politics as:

• "interactions in which actors make claims bearing on someone else's interest, in which governments appear either as targets, initiators of claims, or third parties."

Contentious politics has existed forever, but its form varies over time and space. For example, historical sociologist Charles Tilly

Charles Tilly

Charles Tilly was an American sociologist, political scientist, and historian who wrote on the relationship between politics and society. He was the Joseph L. Buttenwieser Professor of Social Science at Columbia University....

 argues that the nature of contentious politics charged fairly dramatically with the birth of social movements in 18th century Europe.

The concept of contentious politics was developed throughout the 1990s and into the 21st century by its most prominent scholars in the United States: Sidney Tarrow

Sidney Tarrow

Sidney G. Tarrow is a professor of political science and sociology, known for his research in the areas of comparative politics, social movements, political parties, collective action and political sociology.-Biography:...

, Charles Tilly, and Doug McAdam

Doug McAdam

Doug McAdam is Professor of Sociology at Stanford University. He is the author or co-author of over a dozen books and over fifty articles, and is widely credited as one of the pioneers of the political process model in social movement analysis. He wrote one of the first books on the theory in 1982...

. Until its development, the study of contentious politics was divided among a number of traditions each of which were concerned with the description and explanation of different contentious political phenomena, especially the social movement, the strike, and revolution. One of the primary goals of these three authors was to advance the explanation of these phenomena and other contentious politics under a single research agenda. There remains a significant plurality of agendas in addition to the one these three propose.

Prominent scholars

• Doug McAdam
  Doug McAdam
  Doug McAdam is Professor of Sociology at Stanford University. He is the author or co-author of over a dozen books and over fifty articles, and is widely credited as one of the pioneers of the political process model in social movement analysis. He wrote one of the first books on the theory in 1982...
  
  
• Alberto Melucci
• Charles Tilly
  Charles Tilly
  Charles Tilly was an American sociologist, political scientist, and historian who wrote on the relationship between politics and society. He was the Joseph L. Buttenwieser Professor of Social Science at Columbia University....
  
  
• Sidney Tarrow
  Sidney Tarrow
  Sidney G. Tarrow is a professor of political science and sociology, known for his research in the areas of comparative politics, social movements, political parties, collective action and political sociology.-Biography:...
  
  
• Alain Touraine
  Alain Touraine
  Alain Touraine is a French sociologist born in Hermanville-sur-Mer. He is research director at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, where he founded the Centre d'étude des mouvements sociaux . He is best known for being the originator of the term "post-industrial society"...
  
  

Academic Journals

• Mobilization: The International Quarterly Review of Social Movement Research
  Mobilization: The International Quarterly Review of Social Movement Research
  Mobilization is an academic journal that publishes original research and academic reviews of books concerned mainly with sociological research on protests, social movements, and collective behavior....
  
  
• Social Movement Studies
  Social Movement Studies
  Social Movement Studies: Journal of Social, Cultural and Political Protest is a peer-reviewed academic journal that covers sociological research on protests, social movements, and collective behavior. The journal also published reviews of books on these topics. It was established in 2002 and is...
  
  

Further reading

• Gamson, William A. The Strategy of Social Protest, 2nd ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing, 1990.
• Goodwin, Jeff, and James M. Jasper, eds. Rethinking Social Movements: Structure, Meaning and Emotion. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004.
• Jasper, James. The Art of Moral Protest: Culture, Biography, and Creativity in Social Movements. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997.
• McAdam, Doug. Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency, 1930–1970, 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999.
• Melucci, Alberto. Challenging Codes: Collective Action in the Information Age. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
• Piven, Frances Fox and Richard A Cloward. Poor People‘s Movements: Why They Succeed, How They Fail. New York: Vintage Books, 1979.
• Tarrow, Sidney. Power in Movement: Social Movements and Contentious Politics, 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
• Tilly, Charles. The Contentious French. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1986.
• Tilly, Charles. Popular Contention in Great Britain, 1758-1834. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers, 1995b.