Protest public as a source of civic initiatives: on the example of mass protests in Russia 2011-2012

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Abstract: The subject of this research is the phenomenon of protest public in the context of its effect the establishment of public civic initiatives in Russia. In the modern society, one of the causes for public gathering is protest. It is the correlation between public gathering and protest activity, with emergence of public civic initiatives within it that becomes the object of author’s research. On the example of mass protests in Russia during 2011 and 2012, the author makes an attempt to characterize Russia’s protest public and determine the level of its effect upon the formation of new or support of the old civic initiatives. The methodological base for this work consisted of neo-institutional approach, and systemic analysis of the theoretical sources. Empirical foundation for this research is built on the data from social polling and materials of applied research on the protests of 2011-2012. Emergence of the public allowed realizing the attempt for basic request of solution to pressing issues. Despite the certain level of the diversity in its participants and inconsistency of this public, we can still underline the important result of its actions – civic initiatives that have formed within the protest public, which allowed to partially get around the closed nature of Russia’s political system. The author comes to a conclusion that in the conditions of lack of channels for influencing policy, realization of alternate initiatives that are formulated based on the realistic request of the citizens, rather than the will of the branches of government, remains one of a few mechanisms of public politics within the country.

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