Opportunism is a term mainly used in politics and political science. It refers to:

• a political style of aiming to increase one's political influence at almost any price, or a political style which involves seizing every and any opportunity to extend one's political influence, whenever such opportunities arise.

• the practice of abandoning in reality some important political principles that were previously held, in the process of trying to increase one's political power and influence.

• a trend of thought, or a political tendency, seeking to make political capital out of situations with the main aim being that of gaining more influence or support, rather than truly winning people over to any principled position or improving their political understanding.

Most politicians are "opportunists" to some extent at least, but the controversies surrounding the concept concerns the exact relationship between "seizing a political opportunity" and the political principles being espoused.

If the term "opportunism" is often used in the pejorative sense, the main reason is that it connotes the abandonment or compromising of political principles, if not formally, then in reality. Thus, the implication is that opportunist behaviour is unprincipled behaviour of some kind, in which political means to an end have become ends in themselves. A word or phrase is pejorative or derogatory (sometimes misspelled perjorative) if it expresses contempt or disapproval; dyslogistic (noun: dyslogism) is used synonymously (antonyms: meliorative, eulogistic, noun eulogism). ...

In politics, it is sometimes necessary to insist on political principles, while at other times it is necessary to insist on political unity among people who may differ or conflict to a greater or lesser extent in their beliefs or principles.

If all one's political principles were defined in a fixed way that is completely non-negotiable, a likely result would be sectarianism since few people could support a political practice based on that stance. Normally, there must be at least some freedom in how political principles are formulated, interpreted and applied in practice. Sectarianism (or sectism) is an adherence to a particular sect or party or denomination. ...

On the other hand, political principles can also be "watered down", twisted around or ignored unjustifiably, purely for the sake of promoting political unity among people who could not all identify with a given set of principles as stated.

Thus, political integrity always demands an appropriate combination of principled positions and political flexibility, so that a morally consistent behaviour results. Whereas it may be necessary to seize a political opportunity when it presents itself, it should ideally be seized also with an appropriate motivation, and on a principled basis. For the RTOS by Green Hills Software, see Integrity (operating system). ...

But this ideal may be difficult to honour in practice, with the result that opportunistic mistakes are made.

Typically, opportunist political behaviour is criticized for being short-sighted or narrow-minded. That is, in the urge to make short-term political gains or preserve them, the appropriate relationship between the means being used and the overall goals being aimed for is forgotten. The result might well be, that "short term gain" leads to "long term pain".

Some political analysts find the source of opportunism in a specific political methodology that is applied to maintain or increase political influence. An example might be so-called suivisme (a French word for tail-ending) where people try to follow and infiltrate any movement that shows signs of being popular.

Other analysts see opportunism as originating in perceptions of the relative magnitudes of risk associated with different policies. Here it is argued that the larger a political organisation grows and the more influence it has, the less likely it is that it will pursue policies that could potentially result in the loss of all the gains it previously made. It would be more likely that an organisation will compromise its principles, in order to maintain its position, than to continue pursuing its principles regardless of consequences. Or, at the very least, greater political influence would create more pressure to compromise political principles. Risk is the potential harm that may arise from some present process or from some future event. ...