Introduction Contentious politics is a form of political activity, which is beyond institutional bounds. The process starts when different social groups form and demand changes through petitions, riots, protests, revolutions, and other extra-institutional activities. Many years ago, politicians viewed such activities as a dangerous threat to political order. Nowadays, it has become an essential part of civil society (Tilly 95). Besides, contentious politics is a form of political activity and participation that shapes the regime and molds its way. Generally, such politics emerges as a result of changes in political opportunities and restrictions, while the activists respond to various incentives, bother ideological and material. Tracing back the history, it is possible to find out the examples of contentious politics in countries with democratic and authoritarian regimes (Lust and Davis 164). However, the process is also vital during the transitional state within the country, as it may determine the direction of further development. With specific political opportunities, people with restricted resources can act sporadically. There are different forms of contentious politics, including social movements, cycles of contention, revolution, and others. When the actions of groups are based only on connective structures and social networks, the notion of social movement may be used. However, when such form of contention expands all around the society, it is possible to talk about a cycle of contention. The moment a cycle is united around several sovereignties, a revolution may burst out (Peterson 83). The solution to the problem depends mainly on connective structures, dense social networks, shared understanding, as well as the use of culturally accepted actions. The processes are more complicated when it comes to a specific, transition state of the country when one regime is being changed to another. The purpose of this paper is to discuss social reasons for the occurrence of contentious politics, its mechanisms, and processes, as well as an influence on the further relationship between social and governmental sectors. Political Struggle and Social Processes For many years, political scientists have been investigating the reasons, processes, and outcomes of contentious politics. The concept is known as a political opportunity structure that represents people who perceive themselves outside the limitations of formal institutions and seek legislative changes. Tilly (97), in his work, first started analyzing collective actions and mobilization of people that presupposed facilitation-repression by government and opportunity-threat to protesters. These notions are connected with mass opposition to the state. It is inevitable to analyze the movements only in combination with politics, paying attention to their structures, strategies, success and other dimensions in various states (Scott 195). Even though facilitation-repression and opportunity-threat were constituents of the original synthesis, the theorists of political processes paid more attention to opportunities (Nolan et al. 357). Through different studies, the idea of contentious politics was considered more as an opportunity provided by institutions to insurgent groups. Political Opportunities and Restrictions Political opportunit