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Euromaidan and the Role of Protest in Democracy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 April 2016

Celeste Beesley
Celeste Beesley*
Affiliation:
Brigham Young University
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Abstract

Protest can be seen as a highly democratic expression of popular opinion. However, protest is also a non-representative, extra-institutional process for political change. In hybrid regimes, such as Ukraine, the legitimacy of effecting change through mass protest is a subject of debate. Because of the influence of mass protests in Ukrainian politics, individual views on the democratic legitimacy of protest are potentially important in perceptions of government legitimacy. Using original survey data from December 2013, this article finds that, whereas satisfaction with the functioning of democracy, partisanship, and the oft-cited regional divide are important determinants of approval for the Euromaidan protests, they do not influence how Ukrainians perceive the role of protest in a democracy. However, among those less committed to democracy, protest is more likely to be seen as illegitimate.

Type
Politics
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 49 , Issue 2 , April 2016 , pp. 244 - 249
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2016 

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