Political disengagement in post-communist Russia: A qualitative study

Europe - Asia Studies

Volumn 57, Issue 8, 2005, Pages 1121-1142

  White, Stephen ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

POLITICAL PROCESS; POST-COMMUNISM;

EURASIA; RUSSIAN FEDERATION;

EID: 31344455394     PISSN: 09668136     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/09668130500351134     Document Type: Article

References (39)

1. Further details are provided in the Appendix. Interviewed in the spring of 2004, equal numbers (25%) thought their influence on government was greater, or less, than in the Soviet period (for 44% it remained unchanged); 17% thought government treated citizens more equally and fairly, but 34% disagreed (for 37% there had been no change).
2. Mikhail N. Afanas'ev, Klientelizm i rossiiskaya gosudarstvennost', 2nd ed. (Moscow, MONF, 2000), p. 17;
3. A. V. Zinov'ev & I. S. Polyashova, Izbiratel'naya sistema Rossii (teoriya, praktika i perspektivy) (St Petersburg, Yuridicheskii tsentr Press, 2003), p. 8.
4. Indeed, '[i]t is rare within comparative politics', as Marvin Wattenberg remarks, 'to find a trend that is so widely generalizable': Where Have All The Voters Gone? (Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 2002), p. 29.
5. See Hans Oversloot, Joop van Holsteyn & Ger P. van der Berg, 'Against All: Exploring the Vote "Against All" in the Russian Federation's Electoral System', Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics, 18, 4, December 2002, pp. 31-50;
6. A. E. Lyubarev, 'Golosovanie "protiv vsekh": Motivy i tendentsii', Polis, 2003, 6, pp. 104-113;
7. and Derek Hutcheson, 'Disengaged or Disenchanted? The Vote "Against All" in Postcommunist Russia', Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics, 20, 1, March 2004, pp. 98-121.
8. See for instance Stephen White & Ian McAllister, 'Dimensions of Disengagement in Postcommunist Russia', Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics, 20, 1, March 2004, pp. 81-97;
9. Stephen White, 'Russia's Disempowered Electorate', in Cameron Ross (ed.), Russian Politics under Putin (Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2004), pp. 76-92;
10. V. Petukhov, 'Politicheskoe uchastie v grazhdanskoi samoorganizatsii v Rossii', Mirovaya ekonomika i mezhdunarodnye otnosheniya, 2004, 8, pp. 26-35.
11. Richard A. Krueger, Focus Groups: A Practical Guide for Applied Research, 2nd ed. (Thousand Oaks, CA, Sage, 1994), p. 238;
12. Lia Litosseliti, Using Focus Groups in Research (London, Continuum, 2003), p. 18.
13. Some of the methodological issues involved are considered further in Michael Bloor et al., Focus Groups in Social Research (London, Sage, 2001),
14. and Claudia Puchta & Jonathan Potter, Focus Group Practice (London, Sage, 2004).
15. The Russian-language literature includes S. A. Belyanovsky, Metod fokus-grupp (Moscow, Nikkolo-Media, 2001);
16. and Aleksei Levinson & Ol'ga Stuchevskaya, 'Fokus-gruppy: Evolyutsiya metoda', Monitoring obshchestvennogo mneniya, 2003, 1(63), January-February, pp. 46-55.
17. Among the few studies on contemporary Russian politics that employ focus group methods see for instance G. L. Kertman, 'Interes k politike po-rossiiski: Motivy yavnye i skrytye', Polis, 2005, 1, pp. 94-107.
18. This was a majority view, according to the survey evidence: 55%, interviewed immediately after the Duma election, thought it would be better to save money by not holding the presidential election, with 35% in disagreement [Richard Rose, New Russia Barometer XII: The Duma Election (Glasgow, Centre for the Study of Public Policy, University of Strathclyde, SPP 384, 2003), p. 28; fieldwork was carried out between 12 and 22 December 2003 and the number of interviewees was 1,601].
19. Moscow Times, 24 March 2004, pp. 1, 4.
20. Details of our Ul'yanovsk focus groups are provided in the Appendix; these remarks were derived from groups 5, 1 and 2 respectively. Local survey evidence indicated that voting 'against all' was most likely to be inspired by the 'crisis in the economy of the town/region' and the 'unsatisfactory performance of the local authorities' (both 41%), followed by 'poor living standards' (32%): Moskovskie novosti, 26 November 2004, p. 9.
21. Corrected figures for the final result appeared in Vestnik Tsentral'noi izbiratel'noi komissii Rossiiskoi Federatsii, 2004, 5, pp. 15-16.
22. As is traditional, a somewhat larger proportion (64.3%) was reported to have cast ballots in the presidential election (Ibid., 2004, 7, p. 113).
23. Calculated from constituency data reported in Vybory deputatov Gosudarstvennoi Dumy Federal'nogo Sobraniya Rossiiskoi Federatsii chetvertogo sozyva. 7 dekabrya 2003 goda. Itogi (Moscow, Ves' mir, 2004).
24. This was not, in fact, the conclusion of the largest group of observers, from the OSCE, who reported that 'While generally well-administered, the election failed to meet a number of OSCE commitments for democratic elections, most notably those pertaining to unimpeded access to the media on a non-discriminatory basis, a clear separation between the State and political parties, and guarantees to enable political parties to compete on the basis of equal treatment'. (Elections to the State Duma 7 December 2003. OSCE/ODIHR Observation Mission Report, Warsaw, 27 January 2004, p. 1, www.osce.org).
25. Kommersant Nechernozem'e, 27 January 2004, www.voronezh-media.ru.
26. Yabloko's share of the vote should have risen sharply, Yavlinsky insisted, once the results for European Russia began to be added to those for the eastern parts of the country, but it had stayed in the same place, apparently because the authorities had decided to raise the reported level of turnout from 47% to 56%. Yabloko Rossii, Spetsvypusk, January 2004, p. 2.
27. Rose, New Russia Barometer XII, p. 19.
28. See respectively the British Election study, post-2001 election survey, question BQ65a, www.essex.ac.uk/bes; and the (US) National Election Study, 2004, question V045202 M2b, www.umich.edu/~nes.
29. St Petersburg Times, 17 May 2002, internet edition.
30. For a fuller discussion, using focus group as well as other evidence, see Stephen White, 'Russians and Their Party System', Demokratizatsiya (forthcoming).
31. Litosseliti, Using Focus Groups, p. 19,
32. citing D. W. Stewart & P. N. Shamdasani, Focus Groups: Theory and Practice (London, Sage, 1990).
33. Litosseliti, Using Focus Groups, p. 17.
34. James Alexander, 'Surveying Attitudes in Russia: A Representation of Formlessness', Communist and Post-Communist Studies, 30, 2, June 1997, pp. 107-128.
35. The term is not listed, for instance, in the index to Timothy J. Colton, Transitional Citizens: Voters and What Influences Them in the New Russia (Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 2000);
36. Richard Sakwa, Russian Politics and Society, 3rd ed. (London, Routledge, 2002);
37. nor, it has to be admitted, Stephen White, Richard Rose & Ian McAllister, How Russia Votes (Chatham, NJ, Chatham House, 1997).
38. See however A. Vorontsova & V. Zvonsky, 'Administrativnyi resurs kak fenomen rossiiskogo izbiratel'nogo protsessa', Polis, 2003, 6, pp. 114-124.
39. A 'biddable (upravlyaemyi) electorate' was particularly characteristic of some of the ethnic republics, such as Bashkortostan and Dagestan, where a high level of support for Gennadii Zyuganov in the first round of the 1996 presidential election was succeeded by a high level of support for Boris El'tsin in the second round just over two weeks later: Vybory Prezidenta Rossiiskoi Federatsii. 1996. Elektoral'naya statistika (Moscow, Ves'mir, 1996), p. 197.