Political Opposition as a Subject of Electoral Process: Participation Factors, Types

Abstract

It is established that the specifics of politological approach to studying the phenomenon of opposition consists in the fact that it focuses on the main attributive features of opposition as the carrier of protest, “alternative” interests, namely, on opposition’s organization and its aspiration to acquire power. The connection of political participation and political opposition has a dual character. On the one hand, the political opposition acts as one of the institutes of participation, a sort of intermediary which gives citizens the opportunity to participate in political life of the country. On the other hand, the opposition is one of the group agents of participation. The main channel of acquisition of the political capital for oppositional subjects is electoral process as the period of the greatest intensification of political life of the country, manifestation of the political orientations by citizens. Thus, the authors base their study on the politological discourse in order to investigate the opposition as a political subject. They also reveal the determinants of political opposition’s participation in the electoral process (character of a political regime, a sociocultural context, a condition of the competitive environment, parameters of selfidentification of political subjects. It is proved that subjectivity of political opposition within the electoral process reveals in the formation of consolidated “negative consensus” in relation to the power for the purpose of mobilizing the protest moods of population. When forming a uniform electoral strategy of actions, the opposition uses information opportunities for the purpose of articulating the “new” agenda and organizing different street protests. E.V. Efanova has designated approaches to the operationalization of the phenomenon of opposition, systematized the types of political opposition. N.Yu. Veremeev has defined characteristics of opposition as a subject of electoral process, revealed the factors of participation of political opposition in elections.