The Objectives of the March 1 March: Analysis by a Political Scientist

The March 1 march has both propaganda and technological objectives. Political scientist Stepan Danielyan wrote about this on his Facebook page.

We present the full post below:

Propaganda Aspect

1. Any government must have a basis of public legitimacy. The foundation of public legitimacy can take two forms: unifying the public around positive objectives or unifying a segment of the public against an enemy, which is a negative unification. After the April revolution, Pashinyan had significant public resources to rally support around a positive goal; however, he chose the second option: negative unification against an enemy. In such cases, the enemy cannot be an individual. The enemy can be a group, a social stratum, or even an ethno-genetic sub-community. It is unclear why he chose the second option, perhaps due to an inability to articulate the first.
2. In such a case, the important thing is not the neutralization of that group, but the injection of a sense of danger—the threat must be long-term.

Information Space

1. It is vital for any government to secure events in the information space. Shaping public discourse and dictating "news" is essential for any government—if you do not dictate the flow of information and direct the sequence of events, political opponents will. In this context, negative events have been chosen, especially when there are no economic or political achievements.

Technological Aspect

1. Ensuring team unity is the most critical issue for any government, especially in parliamentary systems. One of the main reasons for Serzh Sargsyan's downfall was the 2017 parliamentary velvet elections—there was no external enemy, and internal team unity was not ensured. For Pashinyan, one challenge is to create the image of a serious enemy and delineate a Rubicon that team members cannot revert beyond. The political struggle must turn into a fight for "survival."
2. For any government, the image of the enemy is crucial for placing the responsibility for failures on conspiratorial forces.