Online mobilisation strategies: Increasing political participation in semi-authoritarian regimes

Abstract

Although the importance of weaker and no ties for political-information diffusion was established, previous research did not focus on their primary role in mobilization into low-cost political activities. This study examines online mobilization strategies that increase e-petition signing in semi-authoritarian regimes. The research question is approached by assessing mobilization carried out on Twitter, where communication takes place via weaker ties or no ties, and the Russian social networking service VKontakte, characterized by comparatively stronger ties. To examine how the benefits of participation affect the effectiveness of different mobilization steps, participation on the two biggest e-petitioning platforms in Russia, the Russian public initiative and Change.org, is compared. The significance of the information, persuasion and support effects on the petition signing is tested through linear regression and Bayesian network analyses. The results show that irrespective of the benefits of participation, information-sharing is the most important step for online recruitment into low-cost political activities. Meanwhile, persuasion and social support have no direct impact on e-petition signing.