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Resisting the Irresistible: ‘Failed Opposition’ in Azerbaijan and Belarus Revisited

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 February 2018

Sofie Bedford  and
Laurent Vinatier
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Abstract

In recent literature on post-Soviet electoral revolutions in places where attempts at regime change through popular protest did not succeed, opposition groups are often simply regarded as ‘failed’. And yet, opposition actors exist and participate in the political life of their country. Building on the Belarusian and Azerbaijani cases, we argue that opposition actors are maintained in a ‘ghetto’, often virtual, tightly managed by the ruling authorities who exert monopolistic control over civic activities. Opposition actors adapt to the restricted conditions – accepting a certain level of dependency. They thus develop various tactics to engage with the outside, striving to reduce the ghetto walls. To this end this article proposes a typology of what we call oppositional ‘resistance models’: electoral, in the media, lobbying and through education. The models highlight what makes ‘opposition’ in authoritarian states and are a step towards a more comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon in this context.

Keywords

oppositionactivismresistance modelsauthoritarianismAzerbaijanBelarus
Type
Articles
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 54 , Issue 4 , October 2019 , pp. 686 - 714
Copyright
© The Author(s). Published by Government and Opposition Limited and Cambridge University Press 2018 

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Footnotes

*

Sofie Bedford is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM), Vienna, Austria and a Researcher at the Institute for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Uppsala University. Contact email: [email protected].

Laurent Vinatier is a Researcher at the Institute for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Uppsala University. Contact email: [email protected].

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