The Russian Election of 1993: Public Opinion and the Transition Experience

Abstract

Two British specialists on Russia report the results of a nationwide survey of 2,030 Russian adults, randomly chosen from each of 50 provinces of the Russian Federation. A survey instrument containing 300 questions was administered in faceto-face interviews during summer 1993, and explored attitudes toward the market, privatization, social order, minority rights, and nationalism. Testing three alternative explanations for the results of the December 1993 Russian elections, the authors present a nuanced argument that the Russian public has been drawing negative lessons about market democracy from the transition itself, as experienced since January 1992. A higher voter turnout, they find, would have augmented the strength of anti-government parties and candidates. Journal of Economic literature, Classification Numbers: H19, P29

Political Geographies and Cleavages in the Russian Parliamentary Elections

“…Like the left-parties bloc in 1995, the relationship with the change in turnout between 1995 (DIFFTURN) in European Russia is negative and significant, supporting the argument that the greater the turnout in Russian elections, the lower the percentage for anti-reform parties. In Asiatic Russia, the significant negative relationship with the education variable is consistent with the overall negative correlation, from both aggregate data and the polls of individual voters, of the LDPR vote and level of education (Whitefield and Evans, 1994;Clem and Craumer, 1995b). Voters with a higher level of education are more likely to have the necessary skills to help them adjust to the economic transition; the converse is also true and again, it appears that the economic "losers" in a time of severe economic dislocation have consistently supported parties and platforms that promise some redress of the dramatic disparities that have appeared as a result of the collapse of the old regime and the rapid switch to capitalism.…”

“…Hough (1994), Wegren (1994), Wyman et al (1994), Sakwa (1994), and Clem and Craumer (1995b) also conclude that one of the key differences between the parties in 1993 and 1995 was their respective urban and rural bases. A second, economic, element, related to the urban-rural split, was identified by these same authors, and by Medvedkov et al (1996), Zubov and Kolossov (1996), and Whitefield and Evans (1994). Looking at the economic fortunes of regions since 1991, it appears that more successful regions support reform parties, whereas declining communities support left and nationalist parties.…”

“…Although Russians generally offered broad support for democratic values, the fluctuations in the percentages were closely related to national economic trends (Gibson et al, 1992;Fleron, 1996). For respondents whose standard of living was rising, their positive evaluation of democracy was four times the level of those who suffered falling living standards (Whitefield and Evans, 1994).…”

Political Goals, Institutional Context, and the Choice of an Electoral System: The Russian Parliamentary Election Law

“…Previous analysis of the results of the 1993 elections has relied on voting data aggregated at the level of the subjects of the federation or on individual-level pre-and postelection opinion surveys (Clem and Craumer 1993;Hough 1994;Slider, Gimpel'son, and Chugrov 1994;Sobianin, Gel'man, and Kaiunov 1994;Whitefield and Evans 1994;Wyman et al 1994).' District-level data on both party list and district voting are required, however, to simulate the aggregate consequences of alternative electoral systems.…”

Yaroslavl’ Revisited: Assessing Continuity and Change in Russian Political Culture Since 1990

“…In his book on political culture in post Soviet Russia, James Alexander writes (Alexander, 2000, p.56) that: "There is considerable doubt whether surveys are the best means for carrying out this research" citing problems of attitudinal volatility, as well as the problems of writing good questions and of interpreting meaning (see also, Wyman, p.131;Whitefield and Evans, 1994 This brings us to more current research. Timothy J. that there is an emerging "narrative" about Russian political attitudes to the effect that Russians are "giving up on democracy."…”