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Regular version of the site

Do Russians choose socialism?

On October 13, there was held the second discussion of the series “Values scale” in club “March”. This debate was dedicated to free market and entrepreneurship in the value hierarchy of Russians.

The discussion was attended by senior researcher of the HSE International Laboratory of Socio-Cultural Research Alexander Tatarko, director of the Research Institute of Finance Vladimir Nazarov and Professor of Economic Sociology at HSE Alexander Chepurenko. Moderator and discussions author is Boris Grozovsky.




According to public opinion polls, 70-80% of respondents in Russia are convinced that “the majority will not be able to live without the tutelage of the state”, 50-60% say that “the state should provide a normal level of welfare of all citizens”, and Russians in general rely more on the state than on personal initiative. Moreover, 21% of respondents believe that activities of small and medium sized Russian businesses is not good for the country, not to mention big-sized businesses, which are claimed to be dangerous by 42% of respondents. During the talk participants discussed the reasons for such a thrust to paternalism among Russians, why Russians think so badly about business and entrepreneurs, and how much Russia in this respect differs from other post-socialist countries.

During debates of the series “Values scale” leading sociologists, psychologists, economists engaged in the study of values , discuss differences in the value structure of Russians and people of other countries: what are the reasons for these differences, how values influence the political, economic and social climate in the country, whether values are changing and how it happens.