National Research University
Higher School of Economics
POLITICAL PROTEST UNDER HYBRID REGIMES
Course Instructor: Irina V. Soboleva
Higher School of Economics: Lecturer
European University at St. Petersburg: Visiting Lecturer
Laboratory for Political Studies: Research Fellow
Brief Description
The course analyses the political protest in East-European and Eurasian countries in and after
post-communism transition. The main goal is to explain the variation in opposition movement
within the former autocracies, which failed to build sustainable democratic institutions after the
collapse of USSR, but at the same time have not concentrated and centralized the power to
become isolated dictatorships. These semi-authoritarian regimes are characterized by limited
political freedom, high corruption level and lack of feedback from civil society. In some
countries like Georgia and Ukraine opposition became an integral part of the political process,
formed the parties and has been embedded to the political election cycles. In other countries the
political protest was isolated and forbidden by the party in power or ruling elite.
The course describes the scenarios of political protest, explaining the conditions which determine
whether the political protest will be successful in power bargaining and attracting popular
support.
The course begins with brief introduction to the contemporary political reality of the
unsuccessful democracies and unstable autocracies of the former Soviet bloc.
Then we gradually explore three basic explanation theories which help to understand the variety
of protest scenarios, taking into account economic, social and psychological argumentation.
First part of the course devoted to the political economy of protest. Based on the recent studies in
political economy literature, the course explains the protest in terms of opposition-elite
bargaining. It uses the examples from post-communist political history as the evidence. The
goals are:
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to explain the factors which make the participation in protest rational;
to discuss thee universal rules that drive the expansion of any political protest;
to find the most effective methods and technics of political protest;
to find the most effective methods and technics of pressing the opposition;
to understand the logic which underlies the power elite’s decision to communicate with
the opposition or to start the reaction.
Second part of the course is devoted to the sociological explanations of political protest. Basing
on the data set on value and opinion surveys, the course investigates the impact of social
networks and social capital on the political protest. This part of course is aimed
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to explain the role of social networks in 2011-2012 Moscow protest;
to define what types of social capital impact on the democratization;
to compare success and failure stories of collective action problem solution;
to describe the problem of alienation and atomization.
Third part of the course provides the insights to the symbolic politics of protest. Recent scholarly
literature focuses on the emotions and symbols as an integral part of political protest. The
symbolic politics could provide a clear explanation of the protest success or failure while the
economic or social interpretation fails to explain the logic of protest movement. Many
participants in protest talk about dignity or self-esteem as an impulse of participation. The course
gets at these core emotions.
Students interested in the course participation need to be familiar with basic political science
concepts and preliminary knowledge in political economy and sociology. The course is based on
an interdisciplinary research. The course assessment requires participation in class discussion
with reports and presentations and preparation of essay as a home task.