Using examples drawn from many areas-G8 summit and anti-globalization protests, Hindu activism in 1980s India, nineteenth-century English Chartists organizing on behalf of workers’ rights, the revolutions of 1848, and civil wars in Angola, Chechnya, and Kosovo-Tilly masterfully shows that such episodes of contentious politics unfold like loosely scripted theater. Highly capable undemocratic regimes such as China’s show no visible signs of popular social movements, yet produce many citizen protests against arbitrary, predatory government. In Regimes and Repertoires, Charles Tilly offers a fascinating and wide-ranging case-by-case study of various types of government and the equally various styles of protests they foster. The means by which people protestthat is, their repertoires of contentionvary radically from one political regime to the next. Repertoire of contention refers, in social movement theory, to the set of various protest-related tools and actions available to a movement or related organization in a given time frame. Less effective and undemocratic governments like the Sudan’s, meanwhile, often experience regional insurgencies and even civil wars. This paper explores how the repertoires of contention strategized by the Bangkok youth-led movement manifested transnational inspirations and local adaptations. some scholars to speak of an additional repertoire of electronic contention.
The article introduces the paradigm of contentious politics to study. The means by which people protest-that is, their repertoires of contention-vary radically from one political regime to the next. CONTENTIOUS POLITICS AND REPERTOIRE OF CONTENTION.