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Thinking about Democracy: Interviews with Russian Citizens

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

Abstract

Using new evidence from forty-seven formal in-depth interviews conducted with Russian citizens in 1998 and 2000, this article dissects Russian popular attitudes toward democracy. Rather than asking the usual question—are Russians democratic enough for their new institutions—Carnaghan examines what Russians find troubling or difficult about their new political institutions and what they would change. Listening to Russian voices makes it clear that much of what looks like flawed support for some aspects of democracy, particularly the operation of legislative institutions and the role of law in organizing society, can be better understood as a fairly nuanced critique of the flawed operation of those institutions. Carnaghan's respondents like democracy in the abstract better than they like the version they have at home. Yet their disillusionment regarding the ability of ordinary citizens to influence officials also means that they are unwilling to work very hard to improve those institutions or to deepen the democracy they have.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 2001

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References

Research for this project was supported by Fulbright-Hays, the International Research and Exchanges Board, and the American Political Science Association. Additional support from the Saint Louis University Beaumont Research Fund and the Dean's Office in the College of Arts and Sciences covered the cost of transcribing audiotapes. I wish to express my gratitude to the various people who helped me set up interviews: Polina Kozyreva, Mikhail Kosolapov, Nina Rostegaeva, Natal'ia Peshkova, and Ol'ga Iastrebova in Moscow; Tat'iana Bogomolova in Novosibirsk; Valentina Pervova in Krasnoiarsk; Arbakhan Magomedov in Ul'ianovsk; and Ol'ga Shcheglova in Voronezh. I am also beholden to some extremely capable transcribers: Felicia Wertz and the International Language Center in St. Louis and Zinaida Peikova in Moscow. Interpretations and translations, as well as mistakes, are my own. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association in Atlanta, Georgia, 2-5 September 1999, and was included in the Studies in Public Policy series of Strathclyde University. Donna Bahry, Steve Puro, and Lisa Pohlman provided valuable comments on earlier drafts.

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40. I am less concerned here with notions of minority rights, another common focus of opinion surveys, partly because protecting the rights of unpopular groups is not usually the job of the people as a whole; rather, it is the job of courts, constitutions, and other counter-majoritarian institutions. I leave the connection between democracy and free markets for another work because the relationship is too complicated for adequate treatment here.

41. All interviews were conducted in Russian. Most were conducted by the author; four, by a Russian colleague, Ol'ga Iastrebova. Interviews ranged in length from a minimum of about forty-five minutes to a maximum of over three hours. The interviews were taped, with the permission of the respondent. I also took copious notes, both as a backup in case the tape recorder failed and to distract the respondent from the tape recorder. The tape recorder did not seem to influence the respondents’ willingness to talk. The only times respondents asked me to turn it off were when they offered me food or were interrupted by phone calls, visitors, or wayward children. The tapes were transcribed in Russian by a native speaker, except for two cases where recording difficulties made that impossible. In those cases, I rely on the notes I took during the interview. Translations are my own. Volunteers for the interviews were solicited from among my acquaintances and by a variety of local researchers: Polina Kozyreva, Mikhail Kosolapov, Nina Rostegaeva, and Natal'ia Peshkova in Moscow; Tat'iana Bogomolova in Novosibirsk; Valentina Pervova in Krasnoiarsk; Ol'ga Shcheglova in Voronezh; and Arbakhan Magomedov in Ul'ianovsk. Most interviewees were offered a small stipend, although many of them refused it in 1998. Most accepted the stipend in 2000.

42. In any case, most of the attitudinal differences between urban and rural Russians can be explained by differences in education, age, and economic situation, attributes on which there is considerable variation in my sample. See Reisinger, William M., Miller, Arthur H., and Hesli, Vicki L., “Political Norms in Rural Russia: Evidence from Public Attitudes,” Europe-Asia Studies 47 (September 1995): 1025-42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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57. A word on quotations. All quotations are direct translations from the taped interviews. In translating, I attempted to recreate the original idea in conversational English, which, given the peculiarities of conversational Russian, meant changing word order and sometimes sentence structure as well. I did not attempt to capture every oral hesitation, and I have sometimes smoothed disjointed phrases into a more grammatical form. I also add words in the English translation where the precision of Russian grammar conveyed more meaning than did the exact English equivalent. Occasionally, I have turned partial responses into complete sentences, adding in enough of the question to make the response have meaning by itself. Transcripts of quotations in the original Russian can be obtained from the author.

58. By contrast, many respondents were more willing to see city dumas abolished, at least in smaller cities where it was not obvious that conflicting interests existed.

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60. Except in Voronezh, where the water supply is erratic, interviewees outside Moscow tended to have better things to say about their mayors than they did about El'tsin, but the contrast was not nearly as sharp as for Luzhkov.

61. Khoziain can mean master, manager, or host. When the respondents wanted to convey a more authoritarian relationship, they tended to use barin. This word was used regularly in reference to authorities in the abstract but not to refer to Luzhkov.

62. The person whose job is to keep sidewalks around buildings clean and clear of snow and otherwise manage public spaces.

63. Throughout the interviews, the respondents often talked about “order” as a condition where laws functioned normally and things worked. A more complete discussion of what Russians mean by “order” is the topic for another article. See also Reisinger, William M., “Survey Research and Authority Patterns in Contemporary Russia,” in Eckstein, , Fleron, , Hoffmann, , and Reisinger, , eds., Can Democracy Take Root? 163-73Google Scholar; Ries, Russian Talk, 72.

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73. See similar views in Ashwin, Sarah, “'There's No Joy Any More': The Experience of Reform in aKuzbass Mining Settlement,” Europe-Asia Studies 47 (December 1995): 1376.CrossRefGoogle Scholar