Ideology and normative belief in new social movements

Abstract

Researchers often focus on unconventional political participation. Protest activities have been examined and it can be said that participation in legal activities is no longer unconventional, it is accepted widely nowadays. The primary focus presently is on goal-oriented protest participation, like new social movements. The main goal of this paper is to find factor solutions for the movements to establish patterns concerning overall attitudes towards new social movements. Causal models will be developed for Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, France and Great Britain. The normative belief in new social movements will be examined by using ideological variables like the left-right dimension, the materialist- post-materialist scale, a measurement of social change, education and age. The aim is to establish certain patterns among the countries and to find a model that fits all countries.