Campaigns, skirmishes and battles: anti-nuclear movements in the USA, France and West-Germany

Probably never before in history has the introduction of a new technology induced such widespread and tenacious opposition as nuclear power. This pa­per offers a comparative analysis of the struggles over nuclear power in the western democracies of the USA, France and West Germany during the past two decades. It describes the courses, strategies, organizations, action reper­toires and outcomes of these struggles. It pays particular attention to an in­terpretive concept which focuses on political opportunity structures, and ar­gues that this concept, in its present form, is too simplistic to adequately explainthe diversity of oppositional movement actors, strategies and action reper­toires. Suggestions are offered for developing a more complex analytical concept. (author's abstract