Out of Order: Russian Popular Support for Democracy in a Chaotic World.

Some of the best explanations for the rapid collapse of communist regimes focus on disintegrative processes unintentionally set in motion by the Soviet system. The persuasiveness of these explanations rests on their ability to uncover the internal chaos behind the façade of communist power. With communist power now gone, that chaos has emerged into full view. But the systemic dysfunction of Soviet-style communism or of the ‘bandit capitalism’ that followed it has received little attention in studies of Russian public opinion. Many public opinion scholars seem to assume that, as long as the Soviet Union existed, Russians inhabited a system that lived up to its hype: a system that provided order, security, and a predictable if not free existence. Presumably, this system successfully inculcated a set of popular attitudes supporting a paternalistic, authoritarian state. Hence the implicit question of many studies of Russian public opinion is whether Russians really can be democrats, given their past. In this paper, I argue that the key to understanding ordinary Russians’ apparently imperfect support for democracy lies not in the past but in the present conditions of their lives, conditions characterized by significant amounts of disorder and unpredictability. I show that the more Russians are troubled by the chaotic conditions of their daily lives, the less consistent they are in their support for democracy. I demonstrate this through analysis of intensive interviews I conducted with ordinary Russian citizens in 1998 and 2000 in cities and towns across Russia. Unlike mass surveys, intensive interviews permit respondents to articulate their concerns at length and in their own words. This provides a more detailed account of what respondents find troubling about democratic institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]