Character of Protest Political Mobilization in the Regional Public Space of Volgograd Region
Authors: Gavrilov Sergey , Makarenko Kirill 
Published: August 2020

Introduction. The article is devoted to the analysis of the protest political mobilization in the regional political space of Volgograd region. Particular attention is paid to the study of the main conditions and causes of protest activity in the context of implementing public policy in Volgograd region. The relevance of the problem field is due to the need for a political analysis of the characteristics of the population mobilization at the regional level, including their comparison with federal trends.

Methodology and methods. The authors conceptualize political mobilization on the basis of the theoretical principles of the theory of collective behavior of G. Blumer, E. Hoffer, T. Garr and the rational basis for the mobilization of D. Gupt. The methodological basis of the study is the theory of collective action (Ch. Tilly), on the basis of which it is concluded that political mobilization is defined as a combination of institutional and social conditions that allow actors to rationally evaluate transaction costs and possible gains from mobilization actions. The analysis of the regional public policy system is based on the conclusions contained in the works of Yu.O. Gaivoronsky, S.I. Morozov, S.A. Pankratov. The empirical basis of the study is the public opinion polls of the Levada Center, expert and analytical materials on the state of protest activity of the Institute of Regional Expertise, as well as the results of monitoring data from Internet resources obtained with the direct participation of the authors in March 2020.

Analysis. The modern Russian socio-political system is a synthesis of two opposites: a hermetically “closed” institutional political structure, which is determined by the situation of internal uncertainty, and an active social component. At the same time, the specifics of the regional public space of Volgograd Region is a combination of the subject composition of the institutional design of the regional political regime based on copying the features of the federal regime, as well as the diversity of the regional themes of socio-political protest. Based on the results obtained by the case-study method, it was found that the protest dynamics in Volgograd region show a downward trend, however, any manifestations of public protest activity in the region implicitly imply a political nature in direct proportion to the number of participants: the greater the number of participants in the protest stocks, the higher the degree of its politicization.

Results. According to the results of the study, it was revealed that the protest political mobilization in the public space of Volgograd region is characterized by: firstly, the prevalence of regional problems over federal ones in the protest discourse; secondly, the lack of strong institutional structures that can mobilize material and organizational resources; thirdly, a critically low number of protesters; fourthly, the spontaneous nature of mobilization. A special feature of political mobilization in the regional dimension is the low social potential of the protest and the lack of effective mechanisms for political and communicative interaction between government institutions and the population of Volgograd region on a specific range of problems of a public nature. In order to overcome the shortcomings of dialogue communication, within the framework of representative democracy, the authors propose recommendations for the main actors of the public political space (regional authorities, expert community and civil society institutions).