Support for Political System and Democracy in New Independent States

Abstract

The paper analyses core elements of political culture in post-Soviet Eurasia in the two decades between 1991 and 2010. It compares political transformations in transition countries along the continuum between authoritarian and democratic regimes in the years since the collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991. The conceptual framework of the paper is based on the concept of political support by Easton and its further development by Norris, Klingemann, Dalton, Rose, Mishler and Haerpfer. The conceptual lineage overlaps with the distinction between ‘realist’ and ‘idealist’, as well as ‘intrinsic’ and ‘instrumental’ forms of political support. The paper provides a general overview of findings on political support across certain post-communist nations by ordering them from most basic to more specific form of support. The broadest base of support is support for the political community; the next considered level is support for the democratic regime. The last two more specific levels are confidence in parliaments and confidence is expressed for political parties. Post-Soviet countries considered in the paper are Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Moldova and Georgia. World Values Survey 1995, 2005 and European Values Study 2000, 2008 surveys are used as empirical basis of the analysis.