The Institutional Foundations of Contentious Politics

This paper proposes to address the question of what capitalism does to contentious politics from the standpoint of neo-institutionalism in political sociology and comparative politics. Instead of assuming that Capitalism, as an abstract entity with a capital C, shapes mobilization and protests, it contends that we need to situate and ground welfare capitalism and relate it to distinct ideal-types that have different implications (cf. Amable 2005, Esping-Andersen 1990, Hall and Soskice 2001). On the basis of a comparative analysis of three countries (France, Ireland, and Spain) that embody different types of welfare capitalism and employment regimes, this paper will identify the main processes through which the institutional nuts and bolts of the political economy shape the form and scope of contentious politics.