Freedom, Not Institutions: How Russians and Indonesians Understand "Democracy".

This paper analyzes how citizens of two countries that underwent democratization during the past twenty years-Russia and Indonesia-understand "democracy." Evaluating both large-N public opinion surveys and open- and closed-ended questions from interviews with a quota sample of the population in Russia and Indonesia, this paper provides a comprehensive picture of popular conceptualizations of democracy in these two distinct societies. I find that while both Russians and Indonesians view democracy through the lens of freedom, Russians have expressed their freedom by not participating in politics, while Indonesians have increased their engagement in contentious activities. These differences may help explain Russians' general indifference to Russia's authoritarian backsliding and low levels of political participation, as well as Indonesians' unusually high levels of political activism. This paper further finds that measures of popular understandings of "democracy" depend heavily on how the question is worded and the scope of possible responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]