Duka A.V. Political regime and opportunities for protest activity. Current problems of Europe. 2023. No.3. P. 32-54. DOI: 10.31249

Текст статьи на сайте журнала URL: https://upe-journal.ru/article.php?id=2529 (дата обращения 28.09.2023)

Abstract

The success of protest (and, more broadly, social) movements is determined by a number of internal and external conditions for these movements. The latter are analyzed within the concept of political opportunity structure. The implementation of the requirements, as well as the emergence of new groups in power, is possible not so much because these groups strive to implement their program or find themselves in power structures, but with the opportunity to do so. These opportunities are associated both with intra-elite relations and with the intentions of elite groups; institutional sensitivity to change; resources of groups challenging the existing political course. At the same time, they determine the forms of activity, setting restrictions on the ways and methods of action. It is important to distinguish between the political systems in which social activity takes place. Open political systems are receptive to the demands of social groups and the general population. In them, the political opportunity structure is not only a characteristic of the conditions of social activity, but also a structural characteristic of the mechanism for ensuring the reproduction and stabilization of the system itself. (Semi-)closed systems, correlated with semi-democratic, hybrid and authoritarian regimes, the stabilization and reproduction of basic relations is ensured by authoritarian consolidation. In this case, power groups will seek to close opportunities. By creating restrictions and / or prohibitions on organized activities unauthorized by government institutions and elites aimed at changing (correcting) the political course.