The Crisis Reality and Prospects of Political Transformation of the Russian Society
Petukhov V.V.,
Cand. Sci. (Philos.), Head of the Center for Comprehensive Social Studies, Institute of Sociology, Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, petuhovvv@mail.ru
elibrary_id: 664339 |
DOI: 10.17976/jpps/2016.05.02
Petukhov V.V. The Crisis Reality and Prospects of Political Transformation of the Russian Society. – Polis. Political Studies. 2016. No. 5. https://doi.org/10.17976/jpps/2016.05.02
On the basis of results of the sociological monitoring study held by the Institute of Sociology, Russian Academy of Sciences, the author analyzes the features of the “new crisis reality” and its influence on the political process in contemporary Russia. The author also pays attention to the citizens’ perception of activities of the authorities of different levels and of the key public agencies. It is noted in the article that the reorientation of the mass attention from the foreign policy agenda to the problems of the everyday practices substantially reduced the level of confidence in the majority of the state and public institutions to the one of the “Crimean period”. At the same time, in accordance with the sociological data, social reaction to the crisis is “childish”: Russian society seeks no economic or political changes and associates all its hopes for coming out of the crisis with the head of the state. In this context, the author focuses on the prospects for the evolution of the political regime and for the possible reaction of the Russian society to one or another way of this evolution. The author particularly tries to answer the question whether there are social preconditions for the rebirth of the “super-presidential republic” to an authoritarian personalized regime. Building his analysis on the sociological data, the author gives a negative answer to this question, noting that most Russians associate the future of their state with the type of organization of public life that ensures human rights, freedom of expression of the individual, i.e. with democracy. They do it even in spite of the critical attitude to the “Russian version” of democracy. It is also noted in the article that one can observe contours of a future coalition that is interested in the “Russian version” of democracy. This coalition of the so-called “self-sufficient Russians”, on the one hand, focuses on stability and on constructive dialogue with the authorities, and on the other hand, these “self-sufficient Russians” do not need government patronage.