HSE Seminar on Political Economy: Julian G. Waller (George Washington University ) about the formation of political protests

Political protests are one of the effective ways for citizens to influence authority. Despite a widespread opinion about the preeminent role of opposition parties in the formation of protests, some research shows that the activity of ordinary citizens, activists is more valued in this matter. However, in his article a professor of George Washington University Julian G. Waller shows that everything is ambiguous. Perception of the impact of an opposition party on political protests depends on political beliefs of citizens as well as on demographic characteristics. On the presentation of the article «Popular Perceptions and the De Facto Role of Political Parties in the Euromaidan Protests of 2013-2014» this result was covered in more detail.

Topic: "Popular Perceptions and the De Facto Role of Political Parties in the Euromaidan Protests of 2013-2014"

Abstract:
Opposition political parties are often understood to be critical actors in supporting anti-regime protest in authoritarian and hybrid regimes. Yet popular accounts and newer, descriptive scholarly treatments of recent successful anti-regime protests tend to dismiss the role of opposition political parties in favor of grassroots mobilization by students, non-partisan activists, and everyday citizens. This paper engages this assumption in two ways: by looking at both popular perceptions of party activity and by tracing accounts of actual activity from party actors and their interlocutors. Firstly, using survey evidence from a representative sample of the Ukrainian population following the Euromaidan protests of 2013-2014 and the subsequent regime overthrow, this paper shows that certain demographic characteristics and political beliefs are associated with people believing opposition political parties played a larger or smaller role in the protests in general, as well as identifying variation in perceptions of party activities in regards to specific opposition parties. It suggests that regional differences, views on economic oligarchs and NGOs, prior voting for the former ruling party, and linguistic attributes all were important in framing popular perceptions of party role, and that these views were not uniformly distributed across opposition parties. Secondly, the paper develops a process-tracing account of the protest event, using qualitative evidence to provide a counterpoint to narratives preferencing total grassroots mobilization in favor of a more nuanced depiction.

the seminar of Higher School of Economics on political economy was held June 06.