Institutional Analysis as a Promising Direction for the Evaluation of Social Movements (An Analytical Overview)
This article highlights certain aspects of the institutional analysis of social movements.The author defines institutional analysis as a promising way of evaluating social movements.Utilizing instruments of the new institutional economic theory, social movements are examinedas institutionalized practices in a certain institutional environment. The author defines the roleof formal and informal rules for forming and developing movements. An algorithm for evaluatingsocial movements is devised within the framework of the neo-institutional theory, the former beingcomprised of the following important aspects: examining movements as rules of play, defining theinstitutional design of movements, studying institutional capabilities of movements, describingthe dynamic of movements. With attention mainly being focused on the institutional dependenceof social movements, defined during the course of the institutional analysis is the organizationalactiveness of movements in time and space. The author emphasizes the fact that the key role in the dynamics of movements is placed upon institutional environment. Formal and informal norms structure movements and form the mechanism of interaction between government bodies and civil society institutions. The article highlights the political, social-economic and organizational capabilities which are provided to social movements by the institutional environment. Increased capabilities can help those who partake in movements solve several of those problems which ordinary citizens of Russia encounter. The author concludes that in modern Russian society a considerable role is played by those institutional conditions which the government provides to its citizens in order to articulate their interests.