Civic Political Involvement in Post-Socialist Societies: Protest Readiness and Case of Ukrainian Euromaidan

• In Event: 463 - Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 17. Social Movement Participation and Civic Engagement

Abstract

On the basis of a sequence of surveys (by World Values Survey, ESS, Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, on a representative samples of the adult population of Ukraine) the preconditions and determinants of post-socialist protest behavior as well as dynamics of the (Euro)Maidan protest and shifts in its public support is examined. Civic political involvement/apathy in Ukraine differs from what we can find in “old democracies”. In Ukraine comparative level of protest activity is low, but doubled in 2013-2014 vs. 2012-2013 vs. 2010-2011. And while majority of protests are focused on economics, the biggest protests are not about economics in the first hand. Long-run economic decline, incongruence of the government promises and people expectations, life satisfaction decline and changes in foreign policy (EU association prerequisites), problems with elites loyalty, the crisis of legitimacy (dissatisfaction and distrust to social institutions and main authority domains) along with new technical infrastructure for communication, ideological vacuum and gradual shift in personal values determined occurrence of the main prerequisites of the deep political crisis which transformed into Maidan protest movement. As pre-conditions of the Maidan protest main individual-level determinants (values and attitudes) of the readiness to protest activity in Ukraine (compared to other post-socialist societies) are examined on the basis of the World Values Survey and European Social Survey. Is analyzed how important for the readiness to protest are the significance of the Traditional/Secular Rational Values, Post-Materialism, subjective importance of democracy, freedom of choice, political awareness, generalized trust, confidence with political institutions, gender and media-effect.

Author

• Svitlana Khutka, National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy