在晚近的社會運動研究中，政治機會結構的概念經常被用來解釋社會運動的興起與衰退。本文是以文獻評述的方式探討政治機會結構的概念。主要有兩個目的，第一，回顧理論的形成過程，第二，回應當前諸多批判的意見。關於第一點，本文回顧政治機會結構概念如何從不同的研究領域中逐漸匯流而成。其次，在九○年代以來，由於政治機會結構概念的濫用，許多批評的聲音出現。針對這一點，筆者提出下列的建議：1、更小心地劃分其適用範圍；2、政治機會的研究應重視國家中心論的預設，以分辨資源與機會之差異；3、開放性與封閉性是相對說法，影響社會運動發展的機會存在多種的變遷方向；4、放棄決定論的立場，改採互動論的觀點，並且更注重短期事件、機會製造與中層因果機制的分析。

Recently, political opportunity structure, or the degree of openness of political system for collective actor, is a key concept in the study of social movement. This paper takes a critical analysis of this concept by first reviewing the diverse research trends leading to the discovery of political process theory, and secondly, meeting contemporary criticism by clarifying some misunderstandings. For the former goal, this paper reviews the early theoretical development in order to bring into picture how different research areas facilitated the discovery of politics in social movement. Regarding the current theoretical challenges, this paper puts forward the following suggestions. First, researchers should delimit its application range in advance and specify the dimensions that are going to be explained by this concept. Second, the statist assumption is central in defining political opportunity structure, and helps to distinguish resource and opportunity. Third, the degree of openness is a relative term to describe the political opportunity structure. Social movement is suggestible to multi-dimensional influences. Last, research on political opportunity structure should avoid determinist stand and focus on the interaction in stead. Short-term events, making opportunity, and middle level of causal mechanism should be re-integrated in to the research agenda.