New Trends in Russian Political Mentality by Elena Shestopal

Author:Elena Shestopal [Shestopal, Elena]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lexington Books
Published: 2015-03-04T05:00:00+00:00

6.3. The State and the Society

Below we examine the politico-psychological aspect of state-society relations. For this purpose, we analyze verbal and visual components of respondents’ political perceptions. The task is to detect the basic contradictions in public (collective) notions about the contemporary Russian state.

Verbal Components

To analyze the verbalized notions of the respondents, we will examine their concepts of the real and the ideal state. Apart from that, we will characterize their views on Russia’s future and state-society relations. For this purpose, it is necessary to consider citizens’ associations with Russia’s leaders.

The majority of answers about the real state testify to the oppression of society by authorities. The answers are diverse, but their meaning is identical: “it is based on security agencies,” “it is the executive body that regulates and coordinates social life; it has the right to oppress the society,” “an oppression body,” “security agencies,” “the suppression of political dissent,” “authority of the state over the nation,” and so on. Most of the answers indicate a close connection between the state and authorities. However, rank-and-file people are not involved in this connection. This makes us think that the state is isolated from the society: “the state which does not protect its own citizens,” “the source of money for the social elite,” “a system which is absolutely disconnected with the motherland and the nation,” and so on.

According to respondents, direct coercion of society is another distinguishing feature of the contemporary state. In other words, the state violates social freedoms and exploits the nation. Thus, it turns into a criminal group: “an oppression system,” “the machinery of coercion,” “legal violence,” “Collective Guilt (collective responsibility),” “exploitation of the nation,” and such. Many respondents note that the coercion of the society is exercised by a politically organized minority (i.e., the state): “authority of a minority over the majority,” “the power of the minority,” “we do not have a genuine state, because it only represents a mechanism adapted for satisfying the interests of the unknown minority,” “the power of dictators,” “at present the state is a group of ruling clans,” “the power of oligarchs,” “strong power of an isolated group of politicians,” and so on.

In general, citizens hardly identify themselves with the Russian state at the rational level of perception. This is because the nation and the state are alienated from each other. Another reason is a poor sense of national identity, which stems from citizens’ indifference to politics and the general apathy of society. Also, many respondents are concerned about acute sociopolitical issues. However, the wordings of their answers suggest that they consider themselves victims of state manipulation: “exploitation of people,” “the prison of nations,” “instability,” “lack of national unity,” and so on. This contributes to social alienation from the state as well.

The next important peculiarity in perception of the state is the focus on social stratification. Moreover, citizens think that the state is to blame and that it directly increases social stratification and poverty: “the state which robs people,” “a tool for pumping

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