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Beyond the Borders of the Everyday: a Sociological Analysis of Lukashenka's Authority

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Beyond the Borders of the Everyday: a Sociological Analysis of Lukashenka's Authority MASARYKOVA UNIVERZITA FAKULTA SOCIÁLNÍCH STUDIÍ Beyond the borders of the everyday: a sociological analysis of Lukashenka's authority Diplomová práce BC. DMITRII KOPYSOV Vedoucí práce: doc. Mgr. Pavel Pospěch, Ph.D. Katedra sociologie Program Sociologie Brno 2021 MUNI FSS BEYOND THE BORDERS OF THE EVERYDAY: A SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF LUKASHENKA'S AUTHORITY Bibliografický záznam Autor: BC. DMITRII KOPYSOV Fakulta sociálních studií Masarykova univerzita Katedra sociologie Název práce: Beyond the borders of the everyday: a sociological analysis of Lukashenka's authority Studijní program: Sociologie Vedoucí práce: doc. Mgr. Pavel Pospěch, Ph.D. Rok: 2021 Počet stran: 67 Klíčová slova: Legitimacy, power, authority, protests, Aleksandr Lukashenka, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the Republic of Belarus, authoritarian regime, social institutions, post-soviet countries 2 BEYOND THE BORDERS OF THE EVERYDAY: A SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF LUKASHENKA'S AUTHORITY Bibliographic record Author: BC. DMITRII KOPYSOV Faculty of Social Studies Masaryk University Department of Sociology Title of Thesis: Beyond the borders of the everyday: a sociological analysis of Lukashenka's authority Degree Programme: Sociology Supervisor: doc. Mgr. Pavel Pospěch, Ph.D. Year: 2021 Number of Pages: 67 Keywords: Legitimacy power, authority, protests, Aleksandr Lukashenka, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the Republic of Belarus, authoritarian regime, social institutions, post-soviet countries 3 BEYOND THE BORDERS OF THE EVERYDAY: A SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF LUKASHENKA'S AUTHORITY Anotace Diplomová práce je venovaná sociologické analýze autority Lukašenkova režimu. Výzkum se zaměřen na analýze konceptu autority které jsou po­ psané Maxem Webrem, Ivanem Szelenzim a Pertti Alasuutari. Výzkum je věnován specifickému příkladu Běloruské Republiky a analyzuje moc au­ toritářského režimu. Autor zkoumá základy autoritářské moci při po­ moci metody obsahové analýzy akademických textu a materiálů z masmédia. Klíčovou otázkou výzkumu je "Jak autoritářský režim určuje svou autoritu a jaké jsou podmínky jí legitimity?". Počet znaků práce: 132 360 4 BEYOND THE BORDERS OF THE EVERYDAY: A SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF LUKASHENKA'S AUTHORITY Abstract The master's thesis focuses on the sociological analysis of Lukashenka's authority. The thesis is dedicated to analyzing the concept of authority studied by Weber, Szelenyi, and Alasuutari. The work presents an analy• sis of the domination of the authoritarian power based on the specific case of Belarus. Through content analysis of the academic researches and mass media, the author observes the basis of the authoritarian power. The critical question of the research is "How the authoritarian regime es• tablishes the authority and proves its legitimacy?". 5 BEYOND THE BORDERS OF THE EVERYDAY: A SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF LUKASHENKA'S AUTHORITY Declaration Prohlašuji, že jsem práci na téma Beyond the borders of the everyday: a sociological analysis of Lukashenka's authority zpracoval sám. Veš­ keré prameny a zdroje informací, které jsem použil k sepsání této práce, byly citovány v textu a jsou uvedeny v seznamu použitých pramenů a li­ teratury. Brno May 19, 2021 BC. DMITRII KOPYSOV 7 BEYOND THE BORDERS OF THE EVERYDAY: A SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF LUKASHENKA'S AUTHORITY Acknowledgements I want to thank my supervisor, doc. Mgr. Pavel Pospěch, Ph.D. who has been incredibly helpful. I am appreciated to doc. Mgr. Pospěch for his mentoring reading drafts, and all suggested recommendations, which he made during the work. I want to thank the Faculty of Social Studies, and especially the Depart­ ment of Sociology, for the opportunity to obtain a Master's degree and write this thesis. Šablona DP 3.2.0-FSS-anglicky (2021-03-18) © 2014, 2016, 2018-2021 Masarykova univerzita 9 TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents 1 Introduction 13 2 Theoretical frameworks 15 2.1 From the concept of institutionalization to power 16 2.2 The concept of power and legitimacy 21 2.3 The alternative perspective of the theory of authority 25 2.4 Symbolic capital as evidence of the state power 28 2.5 The authority in post-communist countries 29 3 Belarusian protests as a representation of the extraordinary situation 32 3.1 The Lukashenka presidency: context and formation of legitimacy 32 3.2 The crisis of legitimacy and formation of the opposite institution 41 3.3 The presidential election 2020 and the Lukashenka presidency during the protests 47 4 Conclusion 53 Bibliography 60 Name Index 65 11 INTRODUCTION 1 Introduction The presidential elections in Belarus in 2020 established a field for researches of protests and authority. Massive demonstrations, which started on the 9th August 2020, created the basis for the political and social researches and interest for Western and Russian media. Analysts, experts, and scientists who analyzed the current situation in the Republic of Belarus and underlined that the last voting campaign varied from pre• vious election periods. The numbers willing to nominate challengers hailing outside the traditional opposition and polls suggested that the president commands very little public support. In addition, after the elec• tions became a period of protests which proceed for a much more ex• tended period than before (the paper is writing in May 2021, when pro• tests proceed for ten months) and occupied not only the capital city Minsk but also other regions of the republic (Challis, 2020). Many political types of research are dedicated to analyzing the Bel- arusian regime and events that follow its establishment. Political scien• tists like Hall, Marples, and Wilson presented an empirical analysis of Aleksandr Lukashenka's regime and highlighted in detail what mecha• nisms and events the current Belarusian president used for establishing and strengthening his authority. Belarusian authoritarian regime arouses the interest of various researchers, and specialist like Ivan Szelenyi underlines that Belarus is a unique case of a European post-so• viet country that did not move toward a democratic and liberal state; however, it established an autocratic type of power which is closer to Chinese or Vietnamese types (Szelenyi, 2016). The former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, describing the political and social situation in Belarus, listed the Republic of Belarus as an "outposts of tyranny" like Cuba, Iran, and North Korea. (Marples, 2009). Most empirical researches dedicated to the Belarusian regime describe the context of Lukashenka's presidency and how he accumulated the full range of state power in his hands as well as the support of the majority of the population. The following thesis presents the review of the theoretical princi• ples of the authority theories formulated by Weber, Szelenyi, Alasuutari, and other researchers. The thesis establishes the sociological analysis of the evolution of Lukashenka's authority and describes the specific char• acteristics of the authority in the authoritarian regime. The question of 13 INTRODUCTION the analysis is "How the authority develops in a post-soviet authoritarian country?". The theoretical chapters present the basis for the following empiri• cal analysis of the reasons for the current situation in Belarus. The sec• ond part of the work presents the analysis of the historical context of Lukashenka's presidency from 1994 until 2020. Lukashenka is an exam• ple of an authoritarian leader who adapts his policy according to the needs and requirements of society. He used public requirements to sup• port his authority and establishing an authoritarian regime. The second chapter of the thesis describes how Lukashenka created the political structure for retaining his own power as a president. Special attention will be given to the first presidential term, when Lukashenka won the election, earned the support of the majority, and created a basis for his power, on the other hand, to the presidential campaign in 2020 and the following massive protests, with the focus on consequences that it caused for Lukashenka's authority according to theories of authority by Weber and Alasuutari theories. The analysis describes the political and communication strategies of president Aleksandr Lukashenka and opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and connects it with socio• logical and political studies, which caused massive protests in Belarusian society and challenged the legitimacy of the Belarusian president Ale• ksandr Lukashenka. 14 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS 2 Theoretical frameworks The paper's primary purpose is to describe the mechanism of the legitimacy of uncommon situations of authoritarian power. Most studies focus on observations examples of the social fact of liberal power, while the authoritarian power is claimed as illegitimate. The thesis is dedicated to observing principles of authority in the authoritarian country and ana• lyzing its legitimacy. The term of social fact was determined by the French sociologist Emil Dürkheim, and according to his definition, the social facts are manners of acting thinking and feeling external to the individual, and which are invested with a coercive power by virtue of which they exercise control over the individual (Dürkheim, 1982). The crucial feature of social fact is the social character. The basis for the social fact lies out individual phenomena; the individual is not a substratum for the social fact so that they can have none other than society as a substra• tum, either political society in its entirely or one of the partial groups that it includes - religious denominations, political
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