Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Against expectations - Political Apathy in Russia

Well, here's a depressing analysis that you could ask your students to evaluate. Does the logic make sense? Where are the opinions and how do you distinguish them from the facts? Does anyone else see the haunting shadows of late Weimar Germany in this analysis? And could your students explain why that shadow is likely to appear in a Russian analysis? (Forgive my history question.)

The whole article is worth considering as a writing prompt for your students (don't be satisfied with this excerpt), especially as the election approaches. This excerpt is from an article published by Novosti, Russian News and Information Agency.


Political apathy spreads over Russia


"The average Russian is paying less and less attention to politics and delving deeper and deeper into his or her own personal, everyday problems. The reasons for this attitude are not only economic; this political apathy is caused by narrowing political choices due to changes made to election legislation (such as the abolition of the 'against all' option) and the lack of an alternative, which has become the main attribute of current Russian politics.

"Sociological research shows that due to the absence of a dominant ideology and people's de-politicization, Russians are willing to accept a one-party system and the political dominance of the ruling pro-Kremlin party, United Russia. This is not because United Russia is seen as extremely good, but because ordinary Russians no longer care who controls politics: They want to be left in peace to work for their own survival or, on the contrary, enrichment. Ordinary people do not see a direct connection between politics and their prosperity. Surveys by the Levada Center show that people are inclined to blame the government for all negative developments. At the same time, they view the government not as a political institution, but as an economic body that is unable to cope with people's chief concerns, i.e. inflation (the biggest concern, according to polls), poverty and corruption. As many as 66% worry about low incomes, while 70% of Russians fear a price hike. The government's two main tasks, polls indicate, should be to fight corruption and reduce prices.

"Russians do not see a serious alternative to the incumbent president...

"Still, this apathy and de-politicization cannot last long. With all the relative predictability of the parliamentary and presidential elections in 2007 and 2008, respectively - and it is this predictability that causes apathy - Russians' future political preferences are unclear. For lack of clear ideological priorities and goals that unite the nation, populist doctrines and nationalist parties have a fairly good chance of succeeding. So far, complete apathy has played a paradoxically positive role, toning down the most radical and quasi-fascist sentiments. Yet this phenomenon has another side: the nationalist minority can become a majority because of most people's absolute indifference to what is going on in politics.

"For people to vote consciously and with interest, they need incentives. Perhaps, an adequate solution would be to democratize election legislation in the next political cycle. The first step could be to lower the 7% threshold in the parliamentary election. This measure could lead to a fledgling multi-party system appearing in Russia. Then even apathetic voters would suddenly be interested in the choices on offer."

1 Comments:

At 9:49 AM, Blogger Ken Wedding said...

Putin seems to have set up an "opposition" party, and it seems his allies are taking control of more and more media in advance of next year's election. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports on the latest development.

Russia: Kommersant Purchase Changes Media Landscape

"PRAGUE, September 1, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- The publishing house of one of Russia's leading business dailies, Kommersant, has been sold to Alisher Usmanov, a metals magnate with close ties to the Kremlin...

"Business daily Kommersant is widely respected for its independent analysis and has often been critical of the Kremlin...

"Oleg Panfilov, the head of the Moscow-based media watchdog Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations, says: 'I distrust such people [Usmanov], who a year before the parliamentary and presidential elections are buying media outlets. I don't think that it is just a simple [deal]. I also think that the Kremlin is concerned that to this point several newspapers are still not under its control.'...

"With the state controlling the three main television networks in Russia, newspapers are seen by some as one of the last bastions of media freedom in Russia."

 

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