THE POLITICAL CONSTRUCTION OF THE NUCLEAR-ENERGY ISSUE AND ITS IMPACTON THE MOBILIZATION OF ANTINUCLEAR MOVEMENTS IN WESTERN-EUROPE

This paper investigates the relation between objective conditions and grievances and the construction of the nuclear energy ''problem'' and the mobilization of anti-nuclear movements in Western Europe. Using da ta on protest reactions to the Chernobyl disaster in Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, we first discuss the effects of so-c alled ''suddenly imposed grievances.'' We then turn to the frame align ment model, which emphasizes the importance of processes of definition and interpretation for the mobilization of social movements. We confr ont this model with data on public attitudes towards nuclear energy an d anti-nuclear movement mobilization in Western Europe. Our analysis i ndicates that objective conditions as such have little explanatory pow er, and that similar events and conditions have led to widely divergin g interpretations and levels of anti-nuclear mobilization in different countries. We find that the differential success of the interpretativ e efforts of and-nuclear movements does not depend on the nature of th e discursive struggle itself, or on the evidential base for the anti-n uclear movement's claims. Our data show that the movements' political opportunities, and the resulting cross-national variations in the degr ee to which anti-nuclear movements have been able to block or slow dow n the expansion of nuclear energy, have been crucial determinants both of the movements' impacts on public opinion and of the movements' lev els of mobilization. We conclude that a combination of the political o pportunity and framing perspectives is most fruitful in making sense o f the differential careers of the nuclear energy conflict in Western E urope.