| Abstract
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This dissertation examines why social movements elicit varying policy responses from states and why movements vary in their effect on the societies in which they occur. Additionally, in this project I illustrate how seemingly failed or inconsequential movements can nonetheless have enduring impacts. I explore these topics through comparative analysis of the British, American and Turkish labor movements. I suggest that the type of impact a movement has on state-society relations depends on whether or not a particular movement is able to sustain the mobilization of an alternative collective subjectivity. Alternative collective subjectivities involve three linked elements: First they have an identity component, which entails solidarity based on a collective identification of shared political views. Second, the formation of alternative collective subjectivities requires instances of collective action. Finally, alternative collective subjectivities involve the articulation of an alternative vision for society, politics, and or the economic system that fundamentally critiques prevailing values. I examine the importance of collective subjectivities by focusing on five indicators of a movement's impact: First, social movement impacts can be understood with reference to changes in public policy. I examine more broadly the way public policy changes are used by state actors to react to, control, appease, and even pre-empt movement activism. Second, movement impacts can be understood with reference to changes in political party platforms and electoral results; a movement's impact can be revealed through changes in party platforms that respond or seek to tap into movement activism, and the subsequent success of parties at the polls. Third, a movement's impact can be measured through the policing of protest, which reveals the extent to which a movement's activism is perceived as a threat or a critical challenge by state officials. Fourth, the presence, absence, and relative strength of counter-mobilization is indicative of the extent to which a movement's activism is perceived as a threat or a critical challenge by other social actors. Finally, a social movement's impact can be seen in the influence of a social movement on the emergence and trajectory of future movement activism.
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