POLITICAL OPPOSITION – AN OBJECT OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH IN THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA
POLITICAL OPPOSITION – AN OBJECT OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH IN THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA

Summary/Abstract: The article examines how the institution of political opposition has been conceptualized, analyzed, and evaluated in scholarly research published in the Republic of Moldova between 2009 and 2024. Based on a corpus of representative works, including conceptual and methodological studies, investigations into the institutionalization of opposition, analyses of government-opposition conflict, research on recent crises, and legal-constitutional approaches, the study identifies the major thematic and chronological dimensions in the research of the institution of political opposition in the Republic of Moldova: 1) a conceptual stage, in which opposition is treated predominantly as a relational characteristic of political power; 2) an institutional stage, in which opposition acquires the status of an indispensable institution within the democratic state; 3) an applied stage, focused on the analysis of political instability, electoral competition, and hybrid regimes and 4) an interdisciplinary stage, in which opposition is examined through the lenses of governance, crises (including pandemic-related ones), and constitutionalization. The main conclusion of the study is that the concept of political opposition has evolved from a secondary notion into a mature object of scholarly inquiry, while the recent trend points to a shift from general recommendations for institutionalization toward arguments in favor of constitutionalization, as a mechanism for protecting pluralism and limiting majority abuse.

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