Political Scientists at an International Roundtable in the Public Policy Department, Put Public Protest under the Microscope

The Department of Public Policy at the Higher School of Economics organised a roundtable on "Problems of Global Governance in Modern Political Science" at the VI Congress of Russian Political Science, held at Moscow State University of Foreign Affairs on 22-24th of November. The round table was co-chaired by D.G. Zaytsev, Associate Professor of the Public Policy Department and A.N.Potsar, Associate Professor of the Public Policy Department.

The Department of Public Policy at the Higher School of Economics organised a roundtable on "Problems of Global Governance in Modern Political Science" at the VI Congress of Russian Political Science, held at Moscow State University of Foreign Affairs on 22-24th of November. The round table was co-chaired by D.G. Zaytsev, Associate Professor of the Public Policy Department and A.N. Potsar, Associate Professor of the Public Policy Department.

Speakers were Jenni Rinne with a presentation entitled; “Deliberation in  Representative Democracy”, D.G.Zaytsev who delivered a paper “An Actors-centered approach in social sciences”, A.N.Potsar who delivered “The Rhetoric of Russian Protest in a Global Context” and J. Dgibladze, a Master’s student  at the Public Policy Department, who presented his research on the "public" as a "social actor" vs the "public" as a "target audience", under the academic supervision of N.J. Belyaeva, head of the department.

7 Master’s and PhD students at the Public Policy Department participated in the discussion.

Prof. Jenni Rinne (Finland)

Guy Lachapelle (Canada), Secretary General of IPSA, Ilter Turan (Turkey), Professor of Bilgi University in Istanbul, Giorgio Dominese (Italy), Professor and Coordinator of Transition Studies World Research and Richard Sakwa (UK), Head of School, Rutherford College, University of Kent also made valuable contributions to the general discussion.

While Jenni Rinne explained the concept of deliberation in representative democracy based on the case of Finland, participants from the Public Policy Department focused mostly on the contemporaneity of Russian public policy in general and the Russian protest movement in particular.

D.G. Zaytsev presented an interdisciplinary research project “Global Participation and Global Governance”, conducted by a group of academics, Master’s and PhD Students from different HSE faculties (economics, sociology and public policy). The research combined the tools of economics, political science and sociology to create the most adequate and convincing model of global governance and global participation based on an actors-centered approach. The point was that we can combine the views of economists, sociologists and political scientists on actors, institutes and institutions. The synthetic approach provides us with three necessary dimensions for the actor: the level of actors' consolidation; the degree in which actors are independent and influential; the capability for actors to build and create institutions and institutes.

Jonny Dgibladze, PPD master student making presentation

J. Dgibladze focused on “re-defining the public” interpreting this key notion of public policy and describing the difference between two possible approaches to the public - as a passive audience or as an actor and equal participant in  public dialogue. Starting with a view of the “public sphere”, that was formulated in the middle of the 20-th century, observing “the public of the 19-th century”, J.Dgibladze claims that by the end of the 20-th century public space and the public itself had changed dramatically – together with changes in society from “modernity” to post-modernism, driven by the mass media and dominated by mass culture, turning the “responsible public” into the “target audience”. But nowadays, the public sphere is changing rapidly due to the development of modern communicative technologies. Recent events in Russia totally transformed the public space of a seemingly-controlling political regime. Looking into the specific case of the“White Revolution” in Russia, J. Dgibladze demonstrated the behaviour of a “protesting public” and its major characteristics.

A.N. Potsar delivered the results of a rhetorical approach to understanding  the Russian protest movement, mostly focusing on protest slogans all over the world, which are considered to be the signifying components of a world-wide public debate. While Russian “Occupy Abai”, “White Revolution” and the various rallies of discontent of  2011-2012 have been categorised as a continuation of the global process, their slogans speak for themselves, pointing out the differences. Russian protesters (not leaders of the so-called non-systematic opposition, but ordinary “people in a crowd”) also aim to restore fairness, as well as their American, or Spanish, or Arabic colleagues, but the concept of fairness has a different meaning in different languages, thus shaping the minds of speakers and forcing them to think and express themselves within the limits of their native language. So, western protesters mostly appeal to law and justice, according to a traditional sense of the concept of fairness, while Russian protesters appeal to morality and emotions, being ironical and sarcastic at the same time. Suggested understanding was arguable but still supported by Guy Lachapelle, who confirmed this rhetorical analysis by his personal impressions of expressions of discontent in Spain, Great Britain and other countries he visited during the rise of global protest movements.

The questions posed during a free exchange of opinions mostly brought the discussion back to the latest incidents of public protest activity, which showed that the phenomenon of protest movements is still topical for many countries around the world.