Don’t Steal Our Right to Vote! A Comparative Analysis of the Electoral Protests in Romania and Moldova

Autori:

Diana MARGARIT

Cod: ISSN: 1583-3410 (print), ISSN: 1584-5397 (electronic)
Dimensiuni: pp. 352-366

How to cite this article:

Margarit, D. (2018). Don’t Steal Our Right to Vote! A Comparative Analysis of the Electoral Protests in Romania and Moldova. Revista de Cercetare si Interventie Sociala, 62, 352-366.

Abstract:

When democratic norms and principles are challenged by fraud and abuse, the role of electoral protests usually consists in expressing the civil discontent, reprimanding political authorities and nevertheless re-enacting the confi dence into the democratic order. The most recent electoral uprisings from Romania in 2014 and Moldova in 2016 during the presidential elections made no exception. By using theoretical opportunity structure framework, this article seeks to provide a comparative analysis of these two episodes by focusing on the following aspects: a) the civil society’s reaction to the tensioned political environment; b) the defi cient organization of the elections and the accusations of fraud as incentives for the social mobilization both domestically and abroad, namely by the diaspora.