For the past ten years, a concept such as the color revolution has taken root in political life. What is it? How does this form of protest arise? What is it manifested in? Who finances, prepares and inspires it? Let's talk about everything in order.
Today, under color revolutions it is customary to mean mass riots and protests of the population of a country, which are carried out with the support of foreign non-governmental organizations. Usually the result of such actions is a change in the political regime, but without military involvement. At the same time, there is a change in the ruling elite.
Remarkably, the Iranian coup of 1953, when Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddyk was overthrown as a result of actions authorized by the States, can be called the primordial image of color revolutions. At present, there is no consensus on what kind of events can be attributed to the type of political technology considered in our article. So, the official right to be considered colored was received: “Bulldozer Revolution” (Yugoslavia, 2000), “Pink Revolution” (Georgia, 2003), “Orange Revolution” (Ukraine, 2004), “Tulip Revolution” (Kyrgyzstan, 2005 ) Some researchers are trying to look deeper and classify the “Carnation Revolution” (Lisbon, 1974), which resulted in a bloodless coup and the fascist dictatorship replaced by a liberal democratic system. But this example still should not be mistaken for a color revolution, since the Portuguese coup was organized by the military. The main protagonists of the remaining protests under consideration are civilians, and in the first place, active, opposition-minded youth.
Color revolution: reasons
1. The deepest internal crisis (economic and political) of the new independent state in which events took place.
2. The undivided aspiration of a superpower and other forces that are interested in influence and division, in the advancement of their interests.
3. Problems in the economic sphere, especially in the social economy, leading to destabilization in the state: poverty of a large mass of the population, lack of a middle class.
In addition, such a problem as the government’s unwillingness to cooperate with the opposition, its ignorance, and sometimes even suppression, also stands out as a prerequisite for the color revolution. Allegorically, one can imagine the threat of revolution in the country as a human disease, the symptoms of which indicate that something is wrong with the body. Well, if you do not pay any attention to these signs, then the ruling power will not cure the “ailment”, but, on the contrary, will drive it even deeper, where it will develop and progress. At one perfect moment the “disease” will break out, but then it will be much more difficult to stop it.
But color revolutions can be not only a consequence of the fact that not everything is in order within the state. Someone may need them, not only to those who implemented them, but also to those who organized them, “paid”. As a rule, such interested parties provide political and financial support to the protest from afar - they are not present on the streets and squares directly, but carefully monitor the reports of the performers and the actions of the striking masses.
Color revolution: structure
Any revolution, especially color, has a structure. Conventionally, it can be represented as a three-tier pyramid. At the very top are the "sponsors" of the protest - senior patrons of the masses of revolutionaries. These are individuals, and more often groups of people who are involved in training, directing, financing and creating optimal information support for the protest. Directly, this tier never acts, despite all its influence, but only through intermediaries, which allows them, “sponsors”, to maintain a worthy face in the eyes of world society.
The middle tier is composed of the immediate organizers of the coup. The color revolution here has, as a rule, a group of young active people of a pro-Western orientation. On the one hand, experts in the field of public relations and propaganda (journalists, professional psychologists) fall into this category, who help create the background, the revolutionary mood, so that the masses have a sharply negative vision of the existing government. The second category of organizers is a “showcase” (young politicians who are distinguished by eloquence and charisma).
On the third, lower and most numerous tier are ordinary people, the people who are needed to create mass protests in city squares and streets. At the same time, some of them become revolutionaries solely for ideological reasons, while others are ready, day and night, in any weather, to go to rallies with slogans and banners for a considerable amount of money.