Opposition Movements Research Articles

The american factor in the activities of the modern syrian political opposition

The difficult situation in Syria creates conditions for maintaining the activity of the political opposition, whose activities are considered in the context of its coordination by the leading states (Russia, the United States, Turkey and Qatar), ensuring their own national interests. As the participants of the Syrian political process come to a compromise, the opposition forces under their control will reduce their activity and political influence. Washington's national interests preclude reaching agreements with other interested states, primarily on the issue of the political status of territories uncontrolled by Damascus. It is predicted that with the loss of the protectorate of the patron states, the current main Syrian opposition movements will direct the vector of cooperation towards the United States or cease to exist.

Archives of/as resistance: On the justice potential of eyewitness image records documenting the Syrian conflict

What are the new possibilities of enacting justice through the vast archives of digital eyewitness images and self-representations produced since 2011 by the grassroots Syrian opposition movement amidst both a nascent revolution and a war entailing gross human rights violations? Based on in-depth interviews with 15 anti-regime Syrian video activists, my article considers how the image makers themselves narrate the role and meaning of these archival records in efforts to reckon with Syria’s tormented past and build a more just future. I thus seek to recognize the ongoing agency of the Syrian media activists who struggled, by centering them and their wishes in the current debate about the role that this new type of activist-fueled “human rights records” can play in helping to build roads to justice and healing in Syria.

PARTICIPATION OF THE TURKESTAN MILITARY DISTRICT IN THE COLONIAL POLICY CONDUCTED IN THE BUKHARA EMIRATE AND ITS CHARACTERISTICS

In the second half of the 19th century -the beginning of the 20th century, in order to end the opposition and resistance movements dissatisfied with the colonial system, and to prevent popular movements from spreading to the territory of the Turkestan General Governorate, the troops of the Turkestan military district constantly interfered in the political processes in the Bukhara Emirate and sent many military units to their placed in the area. The presence of the colonial armed forces in the territory of the emirate led to the fact that the independence of this state in internal politics became a relative concept.

Muslim Brotherhood Memoirs: Prison as a Link among Hostile Groups

AbstractIn Egypt's 2012 elections, the Muslim Brotherhood came to power after many years of repression, an unprecedented victory for the country's most active opposition movement. The Brotherhood's journey can be divided into several stages. One of the most important, which has not received enough attention, is the imprisonment of many of its major figures. Long before the coup that overthrew President Mohamed Morsi in 2013, the Arab nationalist President Gamal Abdel Nasser brutally put down the movement with mass arrests. The Brotherhood's members dominated Egypt's prisons, but they were far from the only activists in the system, which also held communists, Zionists, and other Jewish prisoners. This article uses the memoirs of the incarcerated enemies of the state to examine the struggles of these groups inside Egypt's prisons and show how the institutions served as platforms to promote the ideological struggle against the regime.

XX a. antros pusės pasipriešinimo judėjimas Sovietų Ukrainoje: esmė, mastai, formos ir metodai

The article highlights the general trends and features of the formation of the opposition movement in Ukraine from the late 1950s through the 1980s, and examines the forms and methods of the protest movement as well as the specifics of the information and communication activities of Ukrainian dissidents. The study focuses on the mecha­nism of political repression, the use of criminal legislation in the Ukrainian SSR to punish dissent, and the approximate number of citizens of the republic who were repressed for “anti-Soviet propaganda and activities” from the 1950s through the 1980s.

Anti-Regime Movement in the Second Half of the 20th Century in Soviet Ukraine: Essence, Scale, Forms and Methods of Resistance

The article highlights the general trends and features of the formation of the opposition movement in Ukraine from the late 1950s through the 1980s, and examines the forms and methods of the protest movement as well as the specifics of the information and communication activities of Ukrainian dissidents. The study focuses on the mecha­nism of political repression, the use of criminal legislation in the Ukrainian SSR to punish dissent, and the approximate number of citizens of the republic who were repressed for “anti-Soviet propaganda and activities” from the 1950s through the 1980s.

Polarizing figures of resistance during epidemics. A comparative frame analysis of the COVID-19 freedom convoy

ABSTRACT Using the 2022 Freedom Convoy in Canada as a case study, this article explores divisions between public understanding of resistance to health measures during epidemics and oppositional movements’ self-representations. It derives from a comparative analysis of five mainstream Canadian media (n = 516 publications) and of the Freedom Convoy’s Facebook page (n = 611 posts). The data were submitted to a rhetorical frame analysis and a thematic analysis, each factoring in a temporal dimension. Results show how this movement formed around a specific pandemic policy restrictions became increasingly understood from a binary logic concerning questions of identity. Protesters’ experience and analysis of COVID-19 mandates became peripheral in media and social media content, as the focus was instead placed on who was and was not acceptable in Canadian society. Results show that a dialogic relation between the frames used in Canadian mass media and in Facebook posts constructed increasingly dichotomous identities. The social implications of polarizing a political conflict around public health policies are discussed.

The consequences of trust and repression on the rise and fall of movements in authoritarian regimes

This article analyzes the relation between interpersonal trust, repression, mobilization, and demobilization in authoritarian regimes. Does interpersonal trust impact mobilization in authoritarian regimes? Does an authoritarian regime’s strategies of repression and cooptation fuel distrust among movement actors and consequently lead to demobilization? Through relying on qualitative analysis in Egypt in the aftermath of the January 2011 uprising, I argue that interpersonal trust plays a significant role in the mobilization process of opposition movements. Yet, when movement members’ interpersonal trust levels and mobilizational capacities are high, authoritarian regimes utilize excessive repressive strategies to fragment and demobilize them. However, repression is not the only strategy utilized by regimes to demobilize the opposition. Other strategies, mainly cooptation and movement infiltration, are used by authoritarian regimes to fuel distrust among opposition movement actors and between movement actors and the citizens at large. These three strategies add to opposition movement’s fragmentation and demobilization.

Urban foodways and social sustainability: neighborhood restaurants as social infrastructure

ABSTRACT The concept of social sustainability presents many questions for food studies, both about how communities sustain foodways, and how foodways sustain communities. Based on an ethnographic study of restaurants in a single Tokyo neighborhood, this research focuses on how commercial restaurant scenes in a busy area of Tokyo serve as social infrastructure, supporting community life. First, they are an economic resource for employers, workers, and customers, an accessible, though risky, point of entry into business ownership for disadvantaged or resource-poor people. Secondly, eateries are a resource for social organization and networking, that is, spaces in which varieties of social capital can be created and deployed. Thirdly, neighborhood eateries are infrastructure for political mobilization both in the formal organization of local merchant associations but also for informal and oppositional social movements. Overall, the research shows how urban neighborhood restaurant scenes may serve as a “place framing” device through which a community defines and spatially locates what is worthwhile in community life. (8497 words)

Algeria’s "Hirak" Movement (2019): Achievments and Faillures

The Hirak protest movement in Algeria began in February 2019, sparked by wide-spread anger and frustration over the government's handling of the country's economic and political situation. The protests were initially triggered by President Abd al-Aziz Boutef-lika's announcement that he would seek a fifth term in office despite his advanced age and declining health. The Algerian people had long been dissatisfied with the ruling elite and the govern-ment's perceived corruption, economic mismanagement, and lack of political freedom. The Hirak movement was a response to these grievances, and it quickly grew into a massive protest movement that brought together people from all walks of life, including students, professionals, workers, and retirees. The protesters called for an end to the Bouteflika regime and demanded an overhaul of the country's political system. The movement was peaceful and largely decentralized, with no clear leaders or formal organization. One of the important points of the paper is the position of the Algerian authorities, particularly the army, the structure that has real power in the country. Along with the progress and development of the opposition movement, the tactics of the authorities changed too. The Algerian political elite chose a tactic appropriate to the moment to maintain their position, influence and wishing to prevent the situation from escalating at the same time.

State Violence, Party Formation, and Electoral Accountability: The Political Legacy of the Marikana Massacre

Democratic governments sometimes use violence against their people, yet little is known about the electoral consequences of these events. Studying South Africa’s Marikana massacre, we document how a new opposition party formed as a direct result of violence, quantify significant electoral losses for the incumbent, and show that those losses were driven by voters switching from the incumbent to the new party. Three lessons emerge. First, incumbents who preside over state violence may be held electorally accountable by voters. Second, such accountability seemingly depends on the existence of credible opposition parties that can serve as a vector for disaffected voters. Where such parties do not exist, violence may create political cleavages that facilitate the formalization of opposition movements. Third, immediate proximity to violence is correlated with holding incumbents accountable.

Divided Opposition, Fragmented Statebuilding: Elite Bargaining in Pre- and Post-2003 Iraq

ABSTRACT Elite cohesion structures interethnic bargaining and institutional design in post-conflict divided societies. Although works have explored how interethnic elite bargaining affects institutional design and conflict and cooperation in multiethnic states, less attention has been paid to historical antecedents that precondition bargaining strategies and outcomes in post-conflict spaces. This article explores elite bargaining dynamics among Iraqi dissident and exiled elites prior to 2003 to explain fractionalization and incongruent institutional design following regime change. Treating elite interactions as antecedent conditions for explaining statebuilding outcomes, it situates Iraq’s informal consociational power-sharing institutional design, muhassasa, within preceding patterns of interethnic fragmentation of the anti-Ba‘thist opposition movement prior to 2003. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with dissident elites from Iraq’s pre-2003 opposition and exiled groups and American policymakers, this paper illustrates how ethnic elite competition for control and state capture impeded the adoption and design of consensual and durable power-sharing institutions following regime change. Thus, although collective grievances with Ba‘thist-era exclusion and repression facilitated interethnic mobilization among disparate elite, expedient statebuilding and the reliance on fractionalized opposition groups obstructed the development and evolution of a cohesive, durable, and inclusive conflict mitigating institutional design after 2003.

ڕۆڵی ژن لە ململانێی نێوان فیرەقەکانی ئۆپۆزسیۆن و دەسەڵاتی عەباسیدا(132- 232ك)

During the Abbasid reign, compared to the previous eras, women had more freedom and came forward in many fields. As a result of that, they were able to play their roles politically. One of the movements which were in strong conflict with Abbasid authority was the Kharijites movement. On both eastern and western Islamic sides, women carried out their activities publicly and secretly and supported the movement considerably. Due to their easy comings and goings and lack of censuring on them, they had the task of transferring political and military messages. The Alawites, as an opposition movement of the Abbasid authority, since the beginning of the establishment of the state stood against the authority and considered themselves worthy of the Caliphate. In this arena, Alawite women had a remarkable role in politics and in delivering political messages among Alawite leaders, and consequently, they encountered imprisonment and violence. Another opponent group of the Abbasids was the Barmakids. Although they were initially supporters of the Abbasid authority and held high positions, eventually, due to a lot of interference and some wrong steps, for instance; secret marriages with girls in the Abbasid family, their relations deteriorated, and this is known as the disaster of the Barmakids fall. Regarding the Zandiqs, after their leader’smurder, some Zandiqi women were threatened by the Abbasids, and even the sources have talked about how some relatives of Zandiq leaders died as a result of their intimidation. Another prominent role of women in the conflicts between the authorities and the opposition was the action of spying by women. Even during the reign of Caliph Al-Ma'mun, about 1,700 old women were used for being aware of people’s conditions. Despite that, women were sent, in the guise of business people, employers, and doctors, to areas where opposition parties had hegemony to be aware of the movements and activities of the Abbasid opposition movements.

Ibrahim Yazdi: His Life and Political Activities in Iran until 1979

Ibrahim Yazdi is considered one of the most mysterious revolutionary figures in Iran, as he worked with the movements opposing the Shah's regime early in his life. His political activity emerged since 1946 when he joined the "Servants of God Socialist" movement, and then became a prominent member of the National Front after the fall of the government. Dr. Muhammad Mossadeq in 1953, after which he emigrated to the United States of America in 1961 and led the opposition movement abroad until 1979, the year in which he returned to the country after a trip of absence that culminated in political activity opposing the Shah's regime. His name was associated with Mr. Khomeini in France and he returned with him to Iran, and although he assumed the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs of the country in the interim government formed by Mehdi Bazarkan, he soon resigned from it following the attack on the American Embassy on November 4, 1979 and its repercussions on Iran and its international isolation. The strongest opponent of the policy of what was known at the time as the "revolutionary government", because he believed that it contradicted the principles of human rights and international treaties.

Rebel group formation in Africa: Evidence from a new dataset

Theories of internal armed conflict onset often conceptualize an eruption emerging from pre-existing, non-violent opposition movements or organizations. This paper argues that this is not the most common pathway to armed conflict in Africa. It introduces new data on rebel group formation in 47 African states (1997–2015) that offers a more complete picture than existing conflict datasets; about two-thirds of the groups in the new dataset are not named in standard conflict datasets. The strong majority of these rebel groups formed in rural areas; did not emerge from nearby protest movements or civil society organizations; and initially did not benefit from substantial material resources nor commit large-scale violence. Analyses suggest that rebel groups forming in rural parts of African states draw less often on pre-war, public, non-violent contestation than those of urban areas. The paper highlights the need for more theory on the varied pathways to internal armed conflict, and the importance of – and challenges of collecting – systematic evidence on armed group formation.

THE HERALDS OF POLITICAL TERROR: VALERIAN OSINSKY AND THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE RUSSIAN SOCIAL-REVOLUTIONARY PARTY

Th e transition of the Narodniks to the terrorist tactics is still a very debatable issue in Russian historiography. One of the pioneers of the terrorist direction was V.A. Ossinsky (1852–1879). Th e Executive Committee of the Rus-sian Social-Revolutionary Party (henceforth EC RSRP) was established on his initiative in the spring of 1878. Th e history of this revolutionary group, which was active throughout the South of Russia in 1878 and early 1879, has not yet been suffi ciently studied, although it heralded the transition of most of the revolution-ary Narodniks to political struggle, including terror. Th e purpose of this study is to reconstruct the previously little-known or completely unknown pages of the history of the EC RSRP, its structure and composition. Th e author examines politi-cal views of V.A. Ossinsky and his entourage, contacts of the members of the EC RSRP with other opposition movements in Little Russia, including liberals and representatives of the Gromada, the eff ectiveness of the EC RSRP and its infl u-ence on the administrative spheres of the South of Russia. He concludes that the transition of the part of Narodniks to political terror in the late 1870s occurred largely due to the lawless and repressive policy of the authorities and the radicals’ awareness of the futility of peaceful ways of struggle. Th e systematic use of terror-ism by the EC RCRP together with an active propaganda campaign and other acts of defi ance against the authorities (armed resistance during arrests, proclamation campaign, jailbreaks, organization of demonstrations and riots, etc.) made this organization truly dangerous in the eyes of the government. Th e actions of the EC RSRP and the very death of V.A. Ossinsky had a signifi cant impact on the future of the entire Russian revolutionary movement. Th e EC RSRP was in fact a forerun-ner of the Executive Committee of the Narodnaya Volya, which subsequently car-ried out the assassination of Emperor Alexander II, and its activity undoubtedly infl uence the fate of the Russian monarchy.

State Concessions and Protest Mobilization in Authoritarian Regimes

Autocrats typically respond with coercion when citizens take to the streets demanding political reform. Sometimes, however, they tolerate mass protests and even give in to protesters’ demands. While the effect of coercion on mobilization is well-studied, we know less about the role of concession-making. We argue that accommodating demands is rarely an effective strategy in demobilizing opposition movements. Authoritarian rulers are usually neither willing nor able to fully address protesters’ dynamic demands, nor can they offer credible commitments. We conduct a quantitative analysis using multiple cross-national data sets to empirically assess the relationship between concessions by the government and subsequent mass mobilization. By analyzing protest events in temporal and spatial proximity, we estimate the effect of making concessions on protest mobilization at the subnational level in 18 autocracies from 1991 to 2012. Our results indicate that concessions are associated with a significant and substantive increase in subsequent protest activity.

Opposition Movement Against the Umayyad Dynasty's Rule (661-750)

The Umayyad dynasty or better known as the Umayyad dynasty was the first Islamic caliphate after the end of the Khulafaur Rashidin caliphate. The duration of the reign of the Umayyad dynasty lasted from 661 to 750 ruled in the Arabian Peninsula and around the city of Damascus, then its reign in Spain from 756 to 1031 stood as the Caliphate of Cordoba. The term Umayyad dynasty refers to Umayyah bin Abdu Shams great grandfather of Muawiyah bin Abu Sufyan. In the political realm, the term "opposition" is defined as a party that opposes the representative council and opposes and criticizes a political policy of the ruling group. The name opposition is absorbed from the translation of Opposition. So in this article, we will discuss about the groups that intensified the opposition movement against the Umayyad Daulah, these groups include; The Si'ah, Mawali, Sunni, Abbasid groups.

Policing the Mexican Past: Transitional Justice in a Post-authoritarian Regime

Policing the Mexican Past: Transitional Justice in a Post-authoritarian Regime

Oppositional Genealogy of Ḥanābilah towards al-Ma’mūn’s Miḥna Policy: Nomos and Authority Conflict

While consolidating democracy in Muslim-majority countries like many Arab countries today, the problem of opposition between the people and the rulers still leaves a latent conflict. The opposition is not new in the Islamic world. In this context, the Ḥanābilah oppositional movement against the al-Ma'mūn's miḥna policy finds its significance here. The article aimed to determine the genealogy of the Ḥanābilah opposition to the al-Ma'mūn's miḥna policy and to correct the Weberian perspective in reading socio-religious movements, mainly the movement carried out by the Ḥanābilah ulema community by offering a socio-convergent perspective. This article is more a religious research than research on religion. The data in this study were sourced from books written by Ibn Ḥanbal and other relevant books. Data were analyzed using data display, data verification, and conclusions techniques. The results show that Ibn Ḥanbal's opposition to the miḥna is motivated by maintaining theological orthodoxy and protecting the authority of the Sunni ulema. Ḥanābilah's oppositional actions are more related to the conflict of authority. This convergence thesis is in line with the blurred approach of Edmund Burke and Adonis or the double-edged sword theory of Alberto Melluci. Opposition as part of efforts to construct a civilized political system which is not only seen from an opposing side but also as a sparring partner in carrying out the function of amr ma'rūf nahy munkar 'commanding right and forbidding wrong' to the government to realize good governance.