: To the network as a rally

The state apparatus on the eve of the elections has already reached a fairly significant scale. In the suburbs, officials, for example, were obliged to agitate for Putin on the Internet. The logic of officials is understandable, only Putin does such “support” does not give anything. United Russia already fought for dominance on the network - so what?

Officials are actively connected to campaign for Vladimir Putin. At least in the suburbs. “At regular working meetings, where representatives of all ministries of the Moscow Region are present - the Ministry of Health and Social Development, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Public Sports, the Ministry of Sports, etc. - the issue of agitraBot for candidate No. 5 became the main one,” the Novaya Gazeta told an employee of one of the departments. According to the interlocutor of the newspaper, bureaucrats also ordered to register pages on social networks, where they were also ordered to leave comments regarding the elections.

The practice is actually understandable. What is the competitive advantage of the candidate from the authorities? The fact that he is already in power and at his disposal there is a considerable bureaucratic apparatus or, according to another phraseology, an administrative resource.

Moreover, it is not necessary that the candidate personally manages to connect the bureaucracy to the campaign process. His subordinates, working to win the chief, quite independently generate a request for the lower steps of the device. And it turns out a game of “spoiled phone” and conquering various administrative-command peaks. Common meaning, logic of the campaign, positioning the candidate or real problems recede to the desire of the bureaucrats to make for a large boss what they are really strong in.

And they are strong in the preparation of instructions and conducting sealing events.

What good will it turn out from the fact that all the country's officials suddenly lead to themselves in social networks and begin to agitate for Putin there? For Putin - exactly nothing. If the official did not have an account to the election pore, then there will be no effect: after all, many people are unlikely to learn about the page. If he was, but he did not write about the elections there, then it is unlikely to be convincing. It is unlikely that the theses formulated at the top will convince someone-bureaucratism are rarely perceived for pure coin.

Another thing is that in the long run, this kind of activity of managers of different levels can cause known complaints from citizens. At least with active citizens. The rest, including the officials themselves, who are already suffering from strange bossy initiatives, this kind of “support” is also unlikely to cause a reverentwe. But deaf irritation can cause very much.

This is unlikely to lead to any mass protest voting, but in the future it works for sure not for the benefit of power and its legitimacy. After all, “everyone knows,” how exactly rallies gathered in the support of Putin. Even he himself “does not exclude” the use of an administrative resource in the process of their preparation. And those who were directly convinced to go there know what they were motivated, for sure. And these were hardly considerations of the "struggle against the Orange Revolution."

The quality of such support of the authorities does not add extremely low and sincere love. However, in addition to administrative methods, the authorities of different levels seem to have nothing to offer the closest candidate to her.

For the sake of maintaining the posts, officials try to hold as many some mass events as possible with might and main. What is there on the agenda today? Social media? All urgently instructed to agitate “for our candidate” on social networks. It doesn’t matter how the Internet works, what a lot is there, if not everything is based on confidence in the source of information, and in other social networks, activity will not be visible at all, but it will be possible to write in the report that “campaigning measures have been carried out, including the Internet”. It will look beautiful, and the effectiveness of the higher authorities is unlikely to analyze very much.

United Russia once also announced that they are striving for dominance on the Internet.

For what purpose, numerous party members and other pro -government young people made accounts on social networks, as well as organized whole detachments of “bots”. Popular units of pro-government blogs became Popolar (say, LJ spokesman for Rosmolodezh Kristina Poddchik). Most party members did not even really conduct them, others were limited there by the publication of press releases. The Mladokomosomol residents were rarely able to give out anything even interesting, but simply meaningful, and the texts for ordering were out of their dreary and “under the carbon copy”.

For power, this activity was hardly useful. At least in the last elections, the Party of Power lost 15 percent and no “dominance on the Internet” helped her. Putin. I must think, such a technique will not help either.