Maidan Success

In order to assess how successful the Maidan was, it is necessary to define success. In my paper I will be defining Maidan as a social movement, and therefore I need to identify what success is in regards to social movements. To better understand the very concept of what success is, it is also necessary to find out what the key factors to achieve it are. Considering readings on other social movements that took place in the past, I will try to apply the outcomes and their interpretations to my own research. It requires extracting the pieces of analyses of success that would be applicable to my own project. My ultimate aim will be to detect which social movements can be called successful and find out main prerequisites for a successful social

According to him, social movements are driven by goals, which may seem general and shared by the whole body of a given movement. However, there always is a variety of different views within the context of a single social movement, and the participants are very likely not to agree upon those of each other’s. Second Andrews’ observation constitutes that goals “change over the course of a movement” (Andrews 72). There is never a one solid set of goals, which a given movements goes through from beginning to the end. This is especially true concerning the Ukraine’s Maidan, as there too goals of the movement and demands of the participants changed very quickly, mainly as reactions to government’s actions. Andrews identifies five implicit determinants of a successful movement. They are: gaining access to the decision-making process; altering current system’s priorities; securing changes towards favorable policies; ensuring implementation of those changes, and shifting the distribution of democratic will to benefit the movement 's constituents (Andrews

He states that Gamson’s book offers critical evidence about the connection between different structural variables and the success of social movements. According to Giugni, Strategies of Social Movement after more than twenty years is still “perhaps the most systematic attempt to inquire into the impact and effectiveness of social movements” (Giugni 375). Gamson’s analysis of the successes of 53 American challenging groups in the period of 1800-1945 brought him to various conclusions with regards to success of social movements. First of all, he claims that groups with single-issue demands were more successful than groups with multiple-issue demands. Secondly, the use of selective incentives is useful tool to achieve success. Thirdly, the use of disruptive tactics and violence makes the success of a movement more probable. Finally, successful groups inclined to be more centralized, unified and bureaucratized (Giugni 375). Giugni also unravels Gramson’s claim that “political crises seemed to have an effect on the outcomes of the challenging groups examined” (Giugni