Trends and Perspectives in Studies of Protest Moods and the Public Demand for Political Stability in the Regions

Abstract

The analysis of history of development of the social and economic relations confirms stability of protest moods out of time and localization frames. Protest as a response to socio-political and economic changes was studied and predicted as early as by the classics of political thought. Modern science has a broader inventory. So, conflict scientists use a wide range of tools of the humanities, social and political sciences, and offer a technique for analysis, forecast, and prevention of conflicts having protest character. The relevance of this technique is justified by the fact that preventing political conflicts is much more efficient than working with them post factum. In the Russian Federation, there are a number of schools of conflict studies which focus on the analysis of protest moods. The Kazan school has a wide experience of interacting with political institutions in regard with studying protest moods. As a result, Kazan scientists and the public authorities of Tatarstan created a new institution — Advisory council on social, political, and ethno-confessional issues. Its purpose is research and analysis of the socio-political situation in the Republic of Tatarstan in terms of society’s demand for political stability in the region. The methodology includes monitoring in collaboration with the RT and Russian Federation research organizations and bodies of public administration; conflict audit in various areas of socio-political life of Tatarstan; assessment of rating and ranking of the region’s third-party (including foreign) research organizations; analysis and assessment of political stability and tension in Tatarstan; analysis of the cases causing socio-political tensions and the media. Kazan conflict scientists offer the scaling of methodology not only to colleagues from the Russian Federation, but also to foreign researchers of problems of socio-political stability in regions.