Non-system opposition
In modern Russian political terminology, the non-system opposition or non-systemic opposition (Russian: внесистемная оппозиция) are oppositional forces which operate outside of the official political establishment. Alternatively, the systemic opposition operates in the form of registered political parties.[1][2]
There are two major reasons of the existence of the non-system opposition. First, the Russian Law on Political Parties was setting a high threshold for a political party to be registered for the participation in elections, the highest hurdle being the requirement to have at least 45,000 members.[1] Second, a number of activists, such as Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Bukovsky are in principle against registration, saying that the registration itself is a de facto a "vassal oath of allegiance to the authorities".[2]
The emergence of the "non-system" political activities (and the introduction of the term) followed the 2003 Duma elections notable for the new extremely restrictive law about political parties. The period of 2004-2012 witnessed waves of mass political actions organized by the opposition movements. The spectrum of political views of the non-system opposition is extremely broad, and attempts to create "suprapolitical" associations, such as The Other Russia, eventually failed.[3][4]
In 2012 Ivan Tyutrin and Aleksandr Lukyanov of Solidarnost movement wrote that the nonsystem/system dichotomy, i.e., based on a formal criterion, became outdated; the real dichotomy should be whether a political force is non-conformist or conformist with respect to Putinist political system. Their arguments are: radicalization of some "systemic opposition", decreased importance of registration during non-election time, expected alleviation of hurdles for registration by Dmitri Medvedev's reforms, and efforts of the current establishment to introduce discord into opposition. [2]
References
- 1 2 Russian opposition: inside or outside the system?, Grigorii Golosov, September 1, 2011 (retrieved February 8, 2015)
- 1 2 3 "Оппозиция: новая система координат", Иван Тютрин, Александр Лукьянов, February 24, 2012 (retrieved February 8, 2015)
- ↑ Aglaya Bolshakova, "Несистемно-бессистемная оппозиция", Osobaya Bukva, November 24, 2011 (retrieved September 27, 2016)
- ↑ "О тех, с кем и про кого говорил по телефону Немцов"
Further reading
- КОЗОДОЙ ВИКТОР ИВАНОВИЧ, "СТАНОВЛЕНИЕ ПОЛИТИЧЕСКОЙ ОППОЗИЦИИ В РОССИИ: ИСТОРИЧЕСКИЙ ОПЫТ" ("Formation of the Political Opposition in Russia: Historical Perspective"), Известия Российского государственного педагогического университета им. А.И. Герцена, no. 57, 2008, pp. 199–204
- МЕДВЕДЕВ Н.П., БОРИСЕНКО А.В., "НЕСИСТЕМНАЯ ОППОЗИЦИЯ В ПОЛИТИЧЕСКОМ ПРОСТРАНСТВЕ СОВРЕМЕННОЙ РОССИИ" ("Non-System Opposition in the Political Space of Modern Russia"), Научные ведомости Белгородского государственного университета. Серия: История. Политология. Экономика. Информатика, no 8, vol. 4, 2007, pp. 150–155