#6
Novoye Vremya
No. 50
December 2001
WHOM SHOULD WE TRUST?
Political off-season: Russians don't know whom to vote for
Author: Nikolai Popov
[from WPS Monitoring Agency, www.wps.ru/e_index.html]
PARTY MERGERS ARE CAUSING NEITHER DELIGHT NOR AVERSION; WHAT'S MORE, THE MAJORITY OF RUSSIANS HAVE NOT NOTICED IT AT ALL. FOR INSTANCE, IF RUSSIANS HAD TO VOTE IN DUMA ELECTIONS RIGHT NOW, MOST PEOPLE WOULD EITHER NOT KNOW WHOM TO VOTE FOR, OR WOULD NOT PARTICIPATE IN THE ELECTIONS.
It is off-season in Russia, so Russian politicians have nothing to do but party-building: to merge all parties, or on the contrary, to form many small parties. So far, party merging has caused neither delight nor aversion; moreover, the majority of Russians have not noticed it at all. For instance, if at present Russians had to elect Duma deputies, 21% of people would not know who to vote for, 18% would not participate in the elections at all, and another 18% would mark "against all" box. The rest more active voters would vote for the new party, the united Unity and Fatherland- All Russia bloc - 16%; and 13% of respondents would vote for the Communist party. Yabloko would receive 6% of voters; the Union of Right Forces would receive 4%, and the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia would also receive 4%. In these terms, there would be only three parties in the Duma.
Another recent idea is prolonging of the presidential term from four to seven years. Perhaps, if at present Vladimir Putin is the president, the people will support this idea. However, over the past year and a half since the last presidential elections the attitude towards the prolongation of the presidential term was negative: 55% to 57% of respondents would not want the presidential term to be prolonged; 23%-25% of respondents support prolongation of the presidential term to seven years; and 20% were unsure of their opinion. Of all respondents, 73% of Yavlinsky supporters were and 66% of Zyuganov's electorate were against prolongation of the presidential term; however, 52% of Putin's supporters are also against prolongation of the presidential term; and only 27% support this idea. Overall, when people vote at the parliamentary elections or support some party, they supposedly send their elected representatives to serve in a worst and dishonest organization. The Duma is one of five the most dishonest organizations, the traffic police traditionally holds the first place. The Duma and political parties are on the second place: 28% of respondents called them "rather dishonest"; overall, the honesty anti- rating of the Duma and political parties totaled 65% and 67% respectively.
The Russian population does not like business tycoons - they are the third on the list: 61% of respondents consider private enterprise to be intrinsicalyy dishonest. Communal services are the forth on the list, 60% of people distrust them. The next are local authorities: administrations of towns, rayons, settlements - 20%, 35%, and 55% respectively.
The Federation Council, regional, territorial, and republican administrations and courts are in the same group.
The army and the media are neighbors on the 'dishonesty' list - 49% and 44% respectively. And the presidential administration is the most honest structure - 37% of respondents consider it an honest organization.
On the positive part of the list are social provision structures: 45% of respondents believe they are mostly honest, and 34% of people consider them dishonest. Sixty percent of people think school teachers are honest; social organizations, such as women's and veterans' are believed to be honest by 60% also; and 58% of people respect ecological organizations. The trust level of the church is also rather high: 52% of respondents consider it honest; although 17% of respondents think it is rather dishonest, and 7% of people believe it is "very dishonest".
After such a dishonesty rating, the rating of corruption of various institution in people's minds is understandable. Nineteen percent of respondents call the law enforcement bodies the most corrupt institution. The traffic police are in the second place - 12%; the Duma is third - 7% and the Cabinet is the fourth - 4%. Business, courts, and political parties are the least corrupt insitutions - only 3% of people think so.
(Translated by Arina Yevtikhova)
Next Article