RUCHY SPOŁECZNE. POMIĘDZY OPOREM I OPOZYCJĄ?

The paper attempts to find the answer to a question for the opposition nature of so-cial movements. The main question is: can we call social movements the opposition? If yes, are all types of movements deserving of this name? Consequently, issues of this paper are regarding the non-institutional politics which is becoming at present more and more significant. Used argumentation in the paper allows for the formulation of the statement that in accepting the appropriate definition of both politics and a social move-ment, we can treat every social movement as an entity belonging to the institutional politics; an entity which meets the conditions of being an opposition. This statement is trying to meet contemporary understanding the politics, and is a response to the ongoing changes in the womb of democratic systems.