This book investigates how social movements form their political strategies in their quest for social change and -when they shift from one strategy to another- why and how that happens. The author creates a model which distinguishes between two different roads to social change: one that passes through the seizure of state power and one that avoids any relationship with the state. Comparing the cases of two Latin American social movements, the Zapatistas in Mexico and the Bolivian Cocaleros, the volume argues that strategic choices are often decided upon through similar mechanisms. Ideal for a scholarly and non-specialist audience interested in Mexican and Bolivian politics, revolutions, and Latin American and social movement studies.

Leonidas Oikonomakis is currently teaching at the Department of Sociology, University of Crete.