Political disengagement in post-communist Russia: a qualitative study

Abstract

Nominally, Russia's post-communist institutions provide every opportunity for its citizens to choose the government they want, and to influence its actions. There are secret and competitive elections, held at regular intervals. The new constitution, adopted by popular vote in 1993, makes a formal commitment to multiparty politics. There is a separation of powers, and an independent judiciary. The classic liberal freedoms are all secured: there is freedom of speech, movement and assembly, and of conscience, and equality before the law. In the event of any disagreement, international norms take precedence over the laws of the state itself. There are freedoms that go beyond the practice of many liberal democracies, including the requirement that official bodies make available any information they hold on private individuals unless national security considerations are involved. And there are freedoms that have a particular resonance in post-communist conditions: freedom of entrepreneurship, and the right of private as well as other forms of ownership. The constitution even begins, in words that are hardly accidental, ‘We the multinational people…’.