Citizen Attitudes Research Articles

Who wants technocrats? A comparative study of citizen attitudes in nine young and consolidated democracies

Technocratic cabinets and expert, non-political ministers appointed in otherwise partisan cabinets have become a common reality in recent decades in young and older democracies, but we know little about how citizens see this change and what values, perceptions and experiences drive their attitudes towards technocratic government. The article explores the latter topic by drawing on recent comparative survey data from nine countries, both young and consolidated democracies from Europe and Latin America. Two individual-level characteristics trigger particularly strong support for the replacement of politicians with experts: low political efficacy and authoritarian values. They are complemented by a third, somewhat weaker factor: corruption perception. At the macro level, technocracy appeals to citizens of countries where the quality of democracy is deficient and where technocratic cabinets are a part of historical legacy. Surprisingly, civic activism and, partially, satisfaction with democracy enhance technocratic orientation, indicating such attitudes are not expressions of alienation or depoliticisation.

Who You are and Who You Want to Be: Exploring Symbolic, Spatial and Cultural Levels of Identity in Contemporary Serbia/Belgrade

ABSTRACT This study focuses on the attitudes of Serbian citizens towards individual, local, national, regional, and supranational identity self-categorizations. Several layers of identification, grounded in history, politics, economics, spatial, and socio-cultural aspects of life are considered. The article aims to broaden and deepen the understanding what citizenship means for inhabitants that have faced important discontinuities since the break-up of Yugoslavia. 466 permanent Belgrade residents were surveyed. The results of the research show that national identity dominates, while being recognized as a human being plays a crucial role in addition to the identification with the city. The European identity and, to some extent, cosmopolitanism, are of much less importance. Participants also expressed very little nostalgic emotional attachment to the Yugoslav identity.

Peculiarities, factors and trends of financial behavior of youth (on the example of the Republic of Bashkortostan)

The object of this research is the youth of the Republic of Bashkortostan. The subject of this research is the financial behavior of youth. Based on the results of online pilot study carried out in the Republic of Bashkortostan via Google Form, the authors analyze the relevant questions pf financial behavior of youth. The survey included the questions that allowed determining the process of formation of financial literacy, degree and level of participation of the key social institutions in teaching the younger generation the fundamentals of financial literacy, as well as financial behavior practices that exist in the families of respondents. Emphasis is placed on the analysis of financial literacy of youth, as it is largely determined by the financial literacy of the population, which includes knowledge, practical skills and skills, and attitudes of citizens in the field of personal finance. The research interest is also focused on the differences in financial behavior of Z generation (zoomers) and Y generation (millennials). The author determines insufficient level of teaching financial literacy at all stages of education, which entails irrational (risky) financial behavior among youth. Half of the respondents can be regarded as poor people; however, they do not seek for solution to change the situation, such as getting themselves a job. As a positive trend, the author notes noted that in a certain way modern youth is concerned about the future and tries to develop the strategies of financial behavior (mostly medium-term and short-term).

Constitutional right of citizens to participate in the administration of justice: some problems of development in the Russian Federation at the present stage

This study is devoted to the implementation of the constitutional right of citizens to participate in the administration of justice in the Russian Federation. The relevance of the topic is seen in view of the continuing problems associated with the legal regulation of the mechanism for attracting citizens to such participation. The paper uses formal-legal, system-structural, predictive methods, as well as methods of analysis, synthesis, deduction, induction, dialectical method. The author examines the controversial issues related to the implementation of the constitutional right to participate in the administration of justice, the problems of its implementation by citizens of the Russian Federation at the present time.The novelty of the research is manifested in the identification of the main problems of the realization of the constitutional right of citizens to participate in the administration of justice, as well as in the author's proposals for their solution. In particular, the study analyzes the problems existing in the functioning of the institutions of arbitration and jurors, evaluates the proposals of the legal community on the possible expansion of the scope of jurors. The author comes to conclusions about the need to make adjustments to the legal regulation of the procedure for involving arbitration assessors in the judicial process, taking measures aimed at changing the attitude of citizens to participate in the administration of justice; about the need to make adjustments to the legal regulation of the procedure for the formation of a jury panel, the premature expansion of the jurisdiction of criminal cases to a court with the participation of jurors and the inexpediency of extending the scope of the activities of jurors in civil disputes.

Information disclosure and political trust during the COVID-19 crisis: experimental evidence from Ireland

ABSTRACT The implementation of unprecedented crisis management policies in response to the spread of COVID-19 has attracted the attention of scholars interested in exploring the link between pandemic politics and political trust. However, while the disclosure of information about the pandemic constitutes an important aspect of crisis management policies, the effect of the level of information disclosure on political trust has not yet been investigated. As part of a larger nationally representative survey experiment on the role of transparency on political trust, we collected data from 618 respondents in the Republic of Ireland in May 2020. The pre-registered study manipulated the level of the disclosure of government information about the status of the pandemic (high and low information conditions). We do not find any direct effects of information disclosure treatments on political trust. However, we find that the high information condition significantly increases political trust among individuals with higher levels of prior trust in government, while it leads to a backfiring effect among those with lower levels of prior trust. These findings are relevant for both public opinion and public policy researchers who are interested in the effect of openness on citizen attitudes.

Consumer Attitudes towards Microalgae Production and Microalgae-Based Agricultural Products: The Cases of Almería (Spain) and Livorno (Italy)

The production of microalgal biomass and products derived thereof for a wide variety of applications is a hot research topic, with the number of facilities being built and products and biologically active molecules launched into the market increasing every year. The aim of the current study was to identify the attitudes of citizens in Almería (Spain) and Livorno (Italy) towards the construction of a microalgae production plant and a biorefinery in their cities and also their opinions about the microalgae-based products that could be produced. Overall, in Almería (Spain), a NIMBY (not in my back yard) attitude towards the construction of a microalgal production facility and especially towards a microalgal biorefinery was observed, despite the strong microalgal industry in the region and the higher knowledge of citizens about microalgae. In both locations, but especially in Livorno (Italy), microalgae-based biostimulants, biofertilisers, and aquafeeds were well accepted. Proximity was the main factor affecting the acceptance of a microalgae producing facility. Consumer knowledge about microalgal biotechnology and the health and environmental benefits of this valuable raw material are scarce, and opinions are based on drivers other than knowledge. After gaining more knowledge about microalgal biorefineries, most of the responses in Almería (47%) and Livorno (61%) were more positive.

Project RISE: Recognizing Industrial Smoke Emissions

Industrial smoke emissions pose a significant concern to human health. Prior works have shown that using Computer Vision (CV) techniques to identify smoke as visual evidence can influence the attitude of regulators and empower citizens to pursue environmental justice. However, existing datasets are not of sufficient quality nor quantity to train the robust CV models needed to support air quality advocacy. We introduce RISE, the first large-scale video dataset for Recognizing Industrial Smoke Emissions. We adopted a citizen science approach to collaborate with local community members to annotate whether a video clip has smoke emissions. Our dataset contains 12,567 clips from 19 distinct views from cameras that monitored three industrial facilities. These daytime clips span 30 days over two years, including all four seasons. We ran experiments using deep neural networks to establish a strong performance baseline and reveal smoke recognition challenges. Our survey study discussed community feedback, and our data analysis displayed opportunities for integrating citizen scientists and crowd workers into the application of Artificial Intelligence for Social Impact.

Corruption and Political Mobilization: Evidence from a Natural Experiment

How do voters react to news of political corruption? Information about corruption may mobilize citizens to demand political and institutional reform, but existing empirical evidence is mixed. We argue that the effects of information about corruption on citizen attitudes and voting behavior is moderated by political efficacy (perceived influence of activism on political outcomes), which varies considerably across and within emerging democracies. To test the argument, we draw on survey data from Afghanistan collected during the 2010 Kabul Bank crisis, which revealed corruption in the formal banking system. The unanticipated scandal unfolded midway through the collection of the survey, allowing us to adopt a novel quasi-experimental approach. The scandal led to an increase in perceived corruption in government and heterogeneous effects on voting via a political efficacy mechanism. Our argument and results clarify an important puzzle in the cross national literature on corruption and voter mobilization.

Court performance and citizen attitudes toward fighting corruption

AbstractThis article investigates the relationship between court performance and citizen attitudes toward corruption. We develop a framework inspired by signaling theory that focuses on the need for institutional actors to send credible signals about their commitment against corruption if they seek to engage citizens. We suggest two channels that link court signals to citizen attitudes, an “institutional channel” linking signals to trust in courts and attitudes about state‐driven anti‐corruption measures and a “citizen channel” linking signals to citizen efficacy and norms about bribe paying. We investigate these channels with a survey experiment about a fictional court case in low income areas in South Africa and Tunisia. We find evidence that impartiality and efficiency by courts in corruption cases activate the institutional channel. Our findings suggest that courts can play an important role in the fight against corruption, not just by acting as deterrents but by affecting citizen attitudes toward corruption.

Коррупция, как препятствие к экономическому росту и развитию Российской Федерации

Review paper on the reasons for the emergence of corruption in Russia. To resolve the current situation, it is necessary to improve the anti-corruption policy pursued by the state, to form the mindset of the irreconcilability of corrupt actions among the citizens of the Russian Federation. Corruption poses a threat to the country's economic security. Analyzing the main approaches to the problem, they make it possible to form a classification of types of corruption. An anti-corruption policy is developed and improved every year, but the level of corruption in Russia remains quite high. For a long time, the peculiarities of the attitude of citizens to this negative social phenomenon have been manifested in Russia. International effective anti-corruption policies are considered, of which the Asian model and the Scandinavian model can be distinguished. Today, in order to implement an effective anti-corruption policy in the Russian Federation, attention should be paid to automated information technologies, which will not only simplify the activities of state bodies, but also make anti-corruption policies vital for citizens.

Модели коммуникации органов местного самоуправления как субъекта современной российской политики (на примере органов местного самоуправления Республики Татарстан)

Introduction. The article presents the results of a study of communication in the system of local self-government of the Republic of Tatarstan as a subject of the Russian Federation conducted by the authors in November – December 2019. The study included a survey of representatives of regional media and press services of local authorities of the Republic of Tatarstan in order to determine the model of communication in the local government system and the role of PR-activities in the regulation of social interaction in the region. Methods and materials. The main method of studying was the method of expert survey. The authors developed a questionnaire, which was used during an interview with experts. When choosing an expert – a media representative for the interview – the authors took into account three factors: the rating of the represented media, the experience of the respondent in the regional media (at least five years) and the authority to make a key decision on the publication of the material. In order to identify the experts who are representatives of local self-government bodies, the authors of the article determined the following criteria: implementation of information and analytical activities in the structure of local self-government bodies, at least 5 years of experience as a head of a structural unit (public relations / media relations department) of local self-government bodies. Analysis. The analysis showed that the development of social media accelerates the process of establishing a two-way model of communication between the government and the public. Social media have become a full-fledged source of information both for the journalistic community and for the press services of local governments. Moreover, with the help of the content posted in posts on official accounts on social networks, local governments can attract residents of the municipal territory to participate in solving local issues. Constant monitoring, responding to comments, tracking negative content on social media are becoming everyday practices in the work of press services. Results. The results of the study indicate that over the past decade in the Russian Federation the necessary prerequisites have been formed for the formation of a bilateral symmetrical model of communication between local authorities and the population. This model is aimed at providing effective feedback that allows the local government to quickly respond to the aspirations and needs of the population, monitor their dynamics, constantly monitor the attitude and assessments of citizens of decisions made on the development of the city or region.

English

The article is exploratory in nature and uses descriptive statistical tools to describe the attitudes of Sudanese people towards certain policy issues faced by the Transitional Government in Sudan, which has emerged after the popular revolution of December 19, 2019, that ousted Bashir’s Islamite military regime. The new Transitional Government is now less than two-year-old. Hence it is difficult to evaluate its policies in a credible manner. Thus, the paper hopes to help future researchers to develop more meaningful hypotheses about the performance of the new Transitional Government in Sudan. The major theme of the article is to investigate the attitudes of the Sudanese citizen's attitudes towards the performance of the new Transitional Government regarding certain pressing policy issue area inherited from the previous regime which includes the issues of policymaking, economy, bread shortage, as well as oil and cooking gas shortage, the issues of peace security and corruption. Key words: Sudan, transitional government, revolution, policy, politics, crises.

Интерсубъективность правовой культуры молодежи.

Introduction: from the perspective of a synergetic approach, the article attempts to reflect the conditions for the formation of the legal culture of young people, as a state of legal awareness, legality, perfection of legislation and legal practice, expressing the status of law as a certain social value realized in the process of modern education in a pedagogical university, which allows us to implement a system of legal attitudes that reflect the attitude of Russian citizens to the current law, to legal practice, to human rights, freedoms and duties. Materials and methods: the use of the method of humanitarian expertise determines the direction of human activity in modern society, clearly identifies the main discourses of the assignment of the subject of education to the norms of legal culture; legal ideology; types of legal consciousness according to the degree of their generality and content. Results of the study: as a result of the rapid examination, which includes the generalization and systematization of reflexive knowledge about the state of legal culture of Russian students, their ideas about the rule of law and legality, lawful and illegal behavior, updated law enforcement acts, conclusions are drawn about the unfolding of certain aspects of public and individual consciousness, the object of which is legislation as a whole, from the standpoint of intentionality, performativity, media; on the identification of risks in the organization of training of modern pedagogical personnel-the main translators of law, freedom and duties of the individual; on the actualization of the norms of legal psychology that express the attitude of various social groups to the law, to the system of legal institutions operating in society; on the formation of a different legal ideology from the existing legal phenomena of public life; on the generation of samples of purposeful activities of state bodies and the public to form a legal culture among citizens.

Gene Editing for Improved Animal Welfare and Production Traits in Cattle: Will This Technology Be Embraced or Rejected by the Public?

Integrating technology into agricultural systems has gained considerable traction, particularly over the last half century. Agricultural systems that incorporate the public’s concerns regarding farm animal welfare are more likely to be socially accepted in the long term, a key but often forgotten component of sustainability. Gene editing is a tool that has received considerable attention in the last five years, given its potential capacity to improve farm animal health, welfare, and production efficiency. This study aimed to explore the attitudes of Brazilian citizens regarding the applications of gene editing in cattle that generate offspring without horns; are more resistant to heat; and have increased muscle tissue. Using a mixed-methods approach, we surveyed participants via face-to-face, using in-depth interviews (Study 1) and an online questionnaire containing closed-ended questions (Study 2). Overall, the acceptability of gene editing was low and in cases where support was given it was highly dependent on the type and purpose of the application proposed. Using gene editing to improve muscle tissue growth was viewed as less acceptable compared to using gene editing to reduce heat stress or to produce hornless cattle. Support declined when the application was perceived to harm animal welfare, to be profit motivated or to reinforce the status quo of intensive livestock systems. The acceptability of gene editing was reduced when perceptions of risks and benefits were viewed as unevenly or unfairly distributed among consumers, corporations, different types of farmers, and the animals. Interviewees did not consider gene editing a “natural” process, citing dissenting reasons such as the high degree of human interference and the acceleration of natural processes. Our findings raised several issues that may need to be addressed for gene editing to comply with the social pillar of sustainable agriculture.

PyeongChang, Pyongyang, or Pyeonghwa (peace in Korean) olympic games? An exploration of partisan media and framing effects

ABSTRACT The PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games held in South Korea drew much political attention due to its potential to resolve the ongoing political and military tensions on the divided Korean Peninsula. Given the divisive South Korean public discourse on warming ties with the North, this study uses framing theory to compare the frames employed by two partisan South Korean newspapers to cover the mega sporting event. Our analyses reveal significant framing differences between conservative and liberal sources, suggesting their potential effect on citizen attitudes and beliefs about the role of the Olympics. Theoretical and methodological implications are discussed.

Пенсионеры на рынке труда: вторичный анализ социологического исследования ВЦИОМ

Modern trends in the field of social and labor relations, and, above all, aspects of pension reform, have significantly affected the position of citizens of late working age in the labor market. Given that the right to work is an inviolable civil right, the desire of many thousands of people to work should be considered as an important aspect of state and demographic policy, and employment policy, and in general — the socio-economic policy of the state. The article presents data reflecting the results of a secondary analysis of the results of a large-scale sociological study of A-RCPOR on the prospects of employment of citizens of retirement age. The study shows the attitude of citizens to work after reaching retirement age and their willingness to continue to perform their work duties.

Az LMBTQ turizmus kínálati oldalának vizsgálataa magyarországi egyetemisták körében

The following research aims to focus on the local touristic offerings for LGBTQ tourists in Hungary. The degree of social acceptance, the analysis of tourism infrastructure, and supra structure—including the issue of security—will be the main focal points. Furthermore, different results of previous studies on the issue of social acceptance will support the present investigation. The conducted survey about LGBTQ-tourism was submitted predominantly to a straight audience. The questions intended to be answered are: What is the connection between marketing strategies of LGBTQ tourism in Hungary and the general attitude of citizens with university qualification towards homosexuals? Why did Budapest not develop into a typical LGBTQ destination like other European capital cities such as Madrid or Berlin? In this sense a touristic perspective is being added to existing investigations about the general social acceptance of LGBTQ people. Overall, the reader gains insight into the present situation in 2020 concerning LGBTQ-tourism and its supply side elements. A list of influencing factors such as politics, state involvement, marketing strategies and social attitudes are analyzed. A possible forecast is represented concerning future developments of LGBTQ-tourism in Hungary.

Самоидентификация жителей непризнанных Республик Донбасса: по материалам общения в Интернете

The article describes the transformation of the Donbass population identity in the course of the current armed conflict. The subject of the research is the self-positioning of the unrecognized Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics (LDNR) residents, and its correlation with a number of categories marked with the pronouns we, ours, everyone and you. The structure reflects regional society the division into “friends and foes”, in accordance with the attitude of citizens to the conflict as a whole and its various aspects. The object of study is the Internet communication, dialogues and speech manifestations. Internet-resources affiliated with the LDNR make up the research source base, the main method of collecting information is monitoring and a continuous selection of language material by keywords. The work belongs to the sociolinguistic paradigm and embraces ethnolinguistic theory. In the course of the research the author found out that the leading theme of the self-consciousness transformation taking place in Donbass is the rejection of the Ukrainian national-political identity and the strengthening of the regional Donbass identity with the development of such a variant as Donetsk / Lugansk Russians. On a broad basis of the community of fellow countrymen united by cultural, linguistic and ideological priorities a group of “true” Donetsk residents is being formed. They have jointly experienced all the years of the tragedy of war on their land.

Analyzing Indian general public’s perspective on anxiety, stress and trauma during Covid-19 - A machine learning study of 840,000 tweets

Background and aimsEver since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by WHO in late March 2020, more and more people began to share their opinions online about the anxiety, stress, and trauma they suffered because of the pandemic. However, very few studies were conducted to analyze the general public’s perception of what causes stress, anxiety, and trauma during COVID-19. This study focuses particularly on understanding Indian citizens. MethodsBy using Machine learning techniques, particularly Natural language processing, this study focuses on understanding the attitude of Indian citizens while discussing the anxiety, stress, and trauma created because of COVID-19 and the major reasons that cause it. We used Tweets as data for this study. We have used 840,000 tweets for this study. ResultsOur sentiment analysis study revealed the interesting fact that, even while discussing about the stress, anxiety, and trauma caused by COVID-19, most of the tweets were in neutral sentiments. Death and Lockdown caused by the COVID-19 were the two most important aspects that cause stress, anxiety, and Trauma among Indian citizens. ConclusionIt is important for policymakers and health professionals to understand common citizen’s perspectives of what causes them stress, anxiety, and trauma to formulate policies and treat the patients. Our study shows that Indian citizens use social media to share their opinions about COVID-19 and as a coping mechanism in unprecedented time.

Emotional Attitudes of Chinese Citizens on Social Distancing During the COVID-19 Outbreak: Analysis of Social Media Data.

BackgroundWuhan, China, the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, imposed citywide lockdown measures on January 23, 2020. Neighboring cities in Hubei Province followed suit with the government enforcing social distancing measures to restrict the spread of the disease throughout the province. Few studies have examined the emotional attitudes of citizens as expressed on social media toward the imposed social distancing measures and the factors that affected their emotions.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was twofold. First, we aimed to detect the emotional attitudes of different groups of users on Sina Weibo toward the social distancing measures imposed by the People’s Government of Hubei Province. Second, the influencing factors of their emotions, as well as the impact of the imposed measures on users’ emotions, was studied.MethodsSina Weibo, one of China’s largest social media platforms, was chosen as the primary data source. The time span of selected data was from January 21, 2020, to March 24, 2020, while analysis was completed in late June 2020. Bi-directional long short-term memory (Bi-LSTM) was used to analyze users’ emotions, while logistic regression analysis was employed to explore the influence of explanatory variables on users’ emotions, such as age and spatial location. Further, the moderating effects of social distancing measures on the relationship between user characteristics and users’ emotions were assessed by observing the interaction effects between the measures and explanatory variables.ResultsBased on the 63,169 comments obtained, we identified six topics of discussion—(1) delaying the resumption of work and school, (2) travel restrictions, (3) traffic restrictions, (4) extending the Lunar New Year holiday, (5) closing public spaces, and (6) community containment. There was no multicollinearity in the data during statistical analysis; the Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit was 0.24 (χ28=10.34, P>.24). The main emotions shown by citizens were negative, including anger and fear. Users located in Hubei Province showed the highest amount of negative emotions in Mainland China. There are statistically significant differences in the distribution of emotional polarity between social distancing measures (χ220=19,084.73, P<.001), as well as emotional polarity between genders (χ24=1784.59, P<.001) and emotional polarity between spatial locations (χ24=1659.67, P<.001). Compared with other types of social distancing measures, the measures of delaying the resumption of work and school or travel restrictions mainly had a positive moderating effect on public emotion, while traffic restrictions or community containment had a negative moderating effect on public emotion.ConclusionsFindings provide a reference point for the adoption of epidemic prevention and control measures, and are considered helpful for government agencies to take timely actions to alleviate negative emotions during public health emergencies.