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Quiet Resistance? Grievance Forums as Surrogates for Suppressed Public Protest in Autocracies

Governance
Internet
Protests
Aidar Zinnatullin
University of Kaiserslautern-Landau
Aidar Zinnatullin
University of Kaiserslautern-Landau

Abstract

We examine citizens’ complaints posted in Russia’s online grievance redress system operating under Regional Governance Centers—special offices designed to facilitate interaction between local and regional authorities and citizens. We position these interactions within Hirschman’s (1970) “exit” and “voice” framework. We argue that the scarcity of overt citizen protest in authoritarian wartime Russia should not be viewed merely as apathy or opportunistic behavior (Scott, 1990). Instead, it reflects the dismantling of key participatory tools and institutional infrastructures—like Navalny’s regional campaign headquarters—that previously enabled collective action (Dollbaum, 2020). Based on the corpus of 607,516 messages posted on the VK platform, we show that regional variation in the degree of utilization of online grievances redress system by citizens is explained by the pre-war protest activity in the region, controlling for other factors such as the economic situation in the region, the strength of the regional administrative-political machines, and the Internet access. Our findings suggest that, in the authoritarian context, when conventional protest action opportunities are blocked or repressed, citizens gravitate toward legal and semi-formal spaces to express dissatisfaction. This challenges the assumption that individuals under authoritarian regimes are passive free riders. Instead, it highlights how digital forums become proxies for political participation, enabling citizens to engage, negotiate, and influence governance despite an environment hostile to overt collective action. Additionally, our findings underscore the capacity of authoritarian regimes to strategically manage and redirect protest sentiments by establishing institutionalized channels for grievances to be vented and addressed within comparatively secure local governance domains. References Dollbaum, J. M. (2020). Protest trajectories in electoral authoritarianism: From Russia’s “For Fair Elections” movement to Alexei Navalny’s presidential campaign. Post-Soviet Affairs, 36(3), 192-210. Hirschman, A. O. (1970). Exit, voice, and loyalty: Responses to decline in firms, organizations, and states. Harvard university press. Scott, J. C. (1990). Domination and the arts of resistance: Hidden transcripts. Yale University.