Subjects
Youth -- Russia (Federation) -- Social conditions, Youth -- Russia (Federation) -- Attitudes, Youth -- Political activity -- Russia (Federation), Post-communism -- Social aspects -- Russia (Federation)
Abstract
What explains support for democracy among Russian youth? Studies in political socialization conducted in the early 1990s, incorporating generational change, suggest that Russia’s main obstacle to the consolidation of democracy was nostalgia for the Soviet Union. The passing of time now allows for the inclusion of the post-Soviet generational cohort, also referred to as the Putin Generation. The post-Soviet youth are a byproduct of political instability and economic turmoil with little or no direct personal experience of the Soviet period. These developments allow for new theoretical mechanisms related to government legitimacy to be included in the analysis. Drawing upon 2011 survey data conducted by the World Values Surveys, this article seeks to advance our understanding of why generational change affects attitudes toward democracy. It extends the literature in two ways: firstly, by adding a new political generation; and secondly, by incorporating government legitimacy into the analysis explaining support for democracy.
DOI
10.15760/mcnair.2016.1
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.
Persistent Identifier
http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/17441
Recommended Citation
Castaneda, Anthony D.
(2016)
"Why Are Russian Youth Less Supportive of Democracy than Older Generations?,"
PSU McNair Scholars Online Journal:
Vol. 10:
Iss.
1, Article 2.
https://doi.org/10.15760/mcnair.2016.1
Minor edits