The effects of social media on contemporary democratic and authoritarian regimes

The article analyzes the effects of the influence of social media on political processes and illustrates the variability of the effects of social media in democratic and authoritarian regimes. The author substantiates the expediency of studying the phenomenon of social media through the relationship of political power, symbolic power and political regime. The research is based on the social theory of action and types of power of J. Thompson and the concept of social media effects by G. Schleffer and B. Miller. The article contains the hypothesis that symbolic power depends on the type of political regime, and social media, being an immanent resource of symbolic power, act as a mechanism for the realization of political power. In order to illustrate and substantiate the effects of social media influence, a sample of countries was made based on the Freedom House Global Freedom Assessment rating and the V-Dem Institute typology of world regimes. The USA was selected as a liberal democracy, Brazil - as an electoral democracy, Ukraine, Egypt and Belarus - as electoral autocracies. The study demonstrates that in the selected countries, the practices of using social media by state institutions, internal opposition and external forces lead to the following four effects: weakening or radicalization of democratic regimes, strengthening or destabilization of autocratic regimes. The results of the study are useful for the theoretical study of social media as a socio-cultural phenomenon. From a practical point of view, the study will help governments predict what may happen in similar countries where the role and consequences of social media in the political process are not clear yet.