The Role of Participatory Culture In The Armenia's "Velvet" Revolution

Abstract

In Armenia's political life the manifestations of participatory political culture have been observed since the 1990s. The civic activism conditioned by some events of various social and political significance and amplitude varied from low to high level and vice versa. Since the independence movement the cases of civic activism in Armenia, as an expression of participatory culture, were mainly directed against the current authorities and their policies, particularly they were characteristic of post-electoral processes in 1996, 2003, 2008, 2013 and other years.

The article explores the expressive political behavior of the Armenian society during 2018's revolutionary process in spring, based on the behavioral approach in political settings. Behavioral and comparative methods offer techniques for clarifying the theoretical meaning of concepts such as revolution and to make inferences that provide insights into the causes and consequences of revolutions.   

Summarizing the results of explored issues we concluded that the Armenian "Velvet" Revolution is a kind of revolutionary modernization with public large-scale support and civic participation based on expressive political behavior of citizens. It promoted the participatory political culture in the Armenian society raising it obviously to more stable level. This revolutionary process has created important prerequisites for Armenia's modernization, where civic participation became key factor. It is necessary to note that participatory culture consolidation must become the most important and sustainable precondition for political institutionalization and civic culture development in Armenia. To realize the values and ideals of revolutionary modernization in Armenia the political legitimacy institutionalization is needed.