Do Russians Dislike Democracy?

Abstract

Judging by their answers on public opinion surveys, many Russian citizens favor democracy, at least as long as the stakes are not too high or rights are not being extended to people they do not like (e.g., Tikhonova 2005, 39; Colton and McFaul 2001; Gibson 1998). But Russians' behavior at times belies those findings. Ordinary Russians expressed little outrage when the first president of independent Russia, Boris Yeltsin, bombed the parliament in 1993. Nor did they forcefully protest the actions of their second president, Vladimir Putin, when he restricted personal freedoms, strengthened executive power, and undermined the electoral process. Indeed, Russians continue to give Putin high approval ratings (Fond Obshchestvennoe Mnenie 2006). Russians' electoral choices also have not tended to favor democrats. In many local elections and in elections to the State Duma throughout the 1990s, significant numbers of Russians chose Communists, near-fascist nationalists, or others of questionable democratic credentials to represent them. Liberal democratic parties fared poorly in a number of elections and in the 2003 Duma elections failed to win a single seat. Since 2003, support for liberal parties declined still further (Levashov 2006, 10).