Organized protest actions of citizens have an increasing impact on the socio-political processes in Kazakhstan and Europe. The modern protest takes on new forms, and the opening technical opportunities are used to mobilize participants. In such conditions, the assessment of the protest potential, the identification of «points of instability» and the understanding of the possible negative public reaction to the decisions of the political elite become important tasks of modern political management. The article considers the main theoretical approaches to the study of protest behavior in foreign sociology.