Civil and Political Participation in the Conditions of Forming a Request for Change (on the Example Protest Actions Against Raising the Retirement Age)
How to Cite
Petuhov R.V. 2018. Civil and Political Participation in the Conditions of Forming a Request for Change (on the Example Protest Actions Against Raising the Retirement Age) — Sociologicheskaja nauka i social’naja praktika. Vol. 6. No. 4. P. 19-28. DOI: https://doi.org/10.19181/snsp.2018.6.4.6080
Abstract
The article analyzes the reasons why public discontent with pension reform did not grow into a mass political protest. Based on the results of public opinion polls, the author shows that dissatisfaction with the increase in the retirement age was truly widespread and had a significant impact on the social well-being of Russians, as well as their level of confidence in the main government and public-political institutions. However, irritation and disappointment of the population with the activities of the authorities did not escalate into mass political protest and were situational in nature. The main reasons for this are, first, the decline in the proportion of paternalistically oriented population, for whom state pension is relevant, and second, the lack of experience of social, civic and political participation among population groups interested in maintaining the old retirement benefit plan, and, third, the lack of interest of the active part of Russian society, first of all, of the urban middle class, in mainstreaming protest actions. Transformation of public discontent into mass political action, in the opinion of the author of the article, is possible only if an actor appears who is able to rise above the interests of certain social groups, and act as spokesman for the interests of society as a whole.
Keywords:
civic participation, political participation, grassroots social movements, request for change, protest, pension reform, trust
References
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Dvadtsat' pyat' let sotsial'nykh transformatsiy v otsenkakh i suzhdeniyakh rossiyan: opyt sotsiologicheskogo analiza. [Twenty-five years of social transformations in the assessments and judgments of Russians: the experience of sociological analysis]. Ed. by M. K. Gorshkov, V. V. Petukhov. M.: Ves' Mir publ., 2018. 384 p. (In Russ.).
Martynov K. K. Sliv po-libertarianski. «Antipensionnye» protesty okazalos' nekomu vozglavit'. [Plums are libertarian. "Anti-pension" protests were no one to lead]. [Elektronnyy resurs]. Novaya gazeta: [veb-sayt]. 31.07.2018. URL: https://www.novayagazeta.ru/articles/2018/07/31/77345-sliv-po-libertarianski (Data obrascheniya: 20.09.2018). (In Russ.).
Pensionnaya reforma. [Pension reform]. [Elektronnyy resurs]. Levada-Tsentr: [veb-sayt]. 27.09.2018. URL: https://www.levada.ru/2018/09/27/pensionnaya-reforma-4/ (Data obrascheniya: 28.09.2018). (In Russ.).
Petukhov V. V. Dinamika sotsial'nykh nastroeniy rossiyan i formirovanie zaprosa na peremeny. [Dynamics of social moods of Russians and formation of request for changes]. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya. 2018. № 11. P. 40–53. (In Russ.).
Petukhov V. V., Petukhov R.V., Barash R. E., Sedova N. N. Grazhdanskiy aktivizm v Rossii: motivatsiya, tsennosti i formy uchastiya. [Civic activism in Russia: motivation, values and forms of participation]. Vlast'. 2014. № 9. P. 11–19. (In Russ.).
Politika apolitichnykh: Grazhdanskie dvizheniya v Rossii 2011–2013 godov. [Politics of the apolitical: Civil movement in Russia 2011-2013]. Ed. by S. V. Erpyleva, A. V. Magun. M.: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie publ., 2014. 480 p. (In Russ.).
Protestnye nastroeniya. [Protest moods]. [Elektronnyy resurs]. Levada-tsentr: [veb-sayt]. 01.08.2018. URL: https://www.levada.ru/2018/08/01/protestnye-nastroeniya/ (Data obrascheniya: 28.09.2018). (In Russ.).
Referendum o povyshenii pensionnogo vozrasta. [Referendum on raising the retirement age]. [Elektronnyy resurs]. Levada-tsentr: [veb-sayt]. 03.09.2018. URL: https://www.levada.ru/2018/09/03/referendum-protiv-povysheniya-pensionnogo-vozrasta/ (Data obrascheniya: 28.09.2018). (In Russ.).
Skalaban I. A. Sotsial'noe, obschestvennoe i grazhdanskoe uchastie: k probleme osmysleniya ponyatiy. [Social and civic participation: to the problem of conceptualization]. Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Filosofiya. Sotsiologiya. Politologiya. 2011. № 1 (13). P. 130–139. (In Russ.).
Volkov D., Kolesnikov A. Samoorganizatsiya grazhdanskogo obschestva v Moskve. Motivy, vozmozhnosti i predely politizatsii. [Self-organization of civil society in Moscow. Motives, opportunities and limits of politicization]. M.: Moskovskiy Tsentr Karnegi publ., 2016. 40 p. (In Russ.).
Citation Formats
Other cite formats:
Harvard
Petuhov, R. V. (2018) ’Civil and Political Participation in the Conditions of Forming a Request for Change (on the Example Protest Actions Against Raising the Retirement Age)’, Sociologicheskaja nauka i social’naja praktika, 6(4), pp. 19-28. doi: https://doi.org/10.19181/snsp.2018.6.4.6080.
Section
MODERN RUSSIAN SOCIETY
Publisher: Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (FCTAS RAS)