Endogenous Contentious Politics.

This paper develops a model of social movement emergence and political change that is not critically dependent on either active elite support or limited rationality. Social movements involve, rather, strategic interactions among movement actors as they are impacted by exogenous shocks---such as those experienced during a financial crisis---and moderated by the social relationship effects that exist in participating groups. We introduce two separate mechanisms involved in driving social change: Social movement emergence premised on inter-group formation under a political entrepreneur, and intra-group dynamics based on a system of endogenous contract enforcement. Our framework is also flexible enough to incorporate multiple contracting mechanisms, informational imperfections, as well as potential interactions with elites.We then consider the historical validity of the model with case studies of Indonesia during the crisis and conflict in the Congo. These studies suggest that features that we highlight in our model, such as strategic interaction among movement actors, the importance of exogenous shocks, as well as the existence of political entrepreneurs, were both necessary and important in the genesis and perpetuation of these social movements. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]