Public Opinion Formation and Group Identity: The Politics of National Identity Salience in Post-Crimea Russia (original) (raw)
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2024
In the evolving landscape of communication technology, the interplay between media and collective identity becomes crucial due to its ability to shape the socio-political dynamics of nations. This article aims to address the role of collective identity construction in Russian state media, arguing that it is a highly manipulated process in the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine that aims to shape the way the events are perceived by the Russian population. Through narrative analysis, the article aims to explore how the subject of Russian collective identity is constructed in the political talk show Evening with Vladimir Solovyov during the timeframe of one and a half years starting from the beginning of the full-scale war in Ukraine on February 24, 2022. The identified narratives constitute a complex structure that contributes to the construction of a particular Russian collective identity. While addressing different themes, overall, they shape public perceptions towards uniting individuals around particular ideas beneficial to the state and legitimising the actions of the Russian regime.
The Russian Collective Social Identity as a Platform for a Special System of Power: “Putinism”
2020
This article attempts to contextualize the reasons for the emergence and subsequent evolution of Putinism in contemporary Russia. The authors argue that Putinism as a system will definitely outlive Putin whose presidency expires in 2036, taking into account the changes to the Constitution made in 2020. The survival of Putinism will hinge upon an algorithm affected by a range of domestic factors. They include unconditional support of the current system and Putin as the President by the majority of Russia's populace, a tame and disciplined elite, as well as tight governmental control exercised over media, elites, and masses. The authors argue that the so-called "deep people" represent one among many Russian collective identities. The authors conclude that a current system obtains enough potential to see Putinism thrive long after Putin.
PERTANIKA JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES, 2017
Since the Ukraine crisis in 2013, citizens of Russia have improved their attitudes toward the foreign and domestic policies of their government. This process culminated in an 89% approval rating (according to Levada Center) of President Putin in 2015. In particular, Russian citizens gave unusually full support to Russian authorities in the area of foreign policy. President Vladimir Putin and his foreign policy regarding the Ukraine crisis, which became the focus of Russian mass media, took firm control of the situation to a degree unprecedented for contemporary political regimes. This study examines effects of agenda-setting in the contemporary political process of Russia. The authors claim that public opinion in Russia has changed in favour of President Vladimir Putin after the Ukraine crisis as a result of agenda-setting. The findings suggest that public support was one of the main reasons for Russian foreign policy with regards to the Ukraine crisis.
East European Politics and Societies: and Cultures, 2018
How does the role of ordinary citizens change in the interpretation and production of national identity under an authoritarian political system? Exploring the discursive role of authoritarian political stability on perceptions of national identity, this study examines how categories of “national” are appropriated and internalized in identity talks among Belarusians. It offers a bottom–up perspective on national identification, drawing on analysis of six focus group discussions with Belarusian citizens. The main objective was to observe everyday language and how people construct symbolic significance for certain practices as “national” and what are the meanings invested in replicating and re-enacting different identity markers, given the contingencies of everyday life in an authoritarian political context. I evaluate cross-group and intergroup discursive variations in responses and repertoires of volunteer participants in terms of agreement and disagreement. Public conformity with regime ideational practices does not appear to equate with political allegiance to the current regime. Even when identity repertoires echo the identity discourses of official state ideology, people attach their own meanings and interpretations to these identity markers. However, I find that the authoritarian context affects how identity repertoires are enacted and talked about. Integrating performative aspects of identity talks into the analysis, I note how participants consciously reflect on the sensitivity of political topics, and prioritize politically neutral narratives.
Identity and political preferences in Ukraine – before and after the Euromaidan
Post-Soviet Affairs, 2018
Taking advantage of a panel survey in Ukraine before and after the Euromaidan, we analyze the relationship between ethnicity, language practice, and civic identities on the one hand and political attitudes on the other. We find that while ethnic identities and language practices change little on the aggregate level over the period, there has been a significant increase in the proportion of people thinking of Ukraine as their homeland. There has also been a large fall in support for a close political and economic relationship with Russia and some increase in support for joining the European Union. Nevertheless, we find that identities in general, and language practice in particular, remain powerful predictors of political attitudes and that people are more likely to shift attitudes to reflect their identities rather than modify their identities to match their politics. Ukraine won its independence from the USSR in 1992 on the back of a referendum in which 90% of voters supported independence. Moreover, support for independence was above 80% in all but two regions-Crimea and the Crimean city of Sevastopol-and even there more than 50% of voters (though less than 40% of the electorate) supported separation. This extraordinary moment of national unity did not last, however. Already by the 1994 presidential elections, Ukraine was sharply divided between an ethnically Ukrainian, and largely Ukrainian-speaking, west and center and a south and east that had large ethnic Russian minorities, was largely Russophone, and supported candidates promising closer relations with Russia. These deep differences have been a staple of Ukrainian politics in the democratic era, as the divide extended from support for particular candidates to views of domestic political upheaval (such as the Orange Revolution) and preferences over foreign policies such as European integration and relations with Moscow. Nevertheless, during the 2014 "Euromaidan Revolution" that overthrew then President Viktor Yanukovych, a key claim of the revolutionaries was that what they called the "Revolution of Dignity" was not about sectional interests but rather represented people from all across Ukraine. Moreover, the aftermath of the revolution, which involved war and the annexation of Crimea by Russia, led some scholars to argue that what we are seeing now is the emergence of a new and much stronger sense of identity in Ukraine and a greater sense of political unity (Alexseev 2015; Kulyk 2016). The extent to which this is indeed the case and the details of this new identity and its political implications are crucial questions for Ukraine in the post-Maidan era.
Social Identities in the Policy Process of Authoritarian Systems
Politische Vierteljahresschrift
The integration of the social–psychological social identity approach to policy process research has recently generated new insights on policy-making. Empirical applications for established democracies and multilevel settings such as the European Union have identified five general types of social identities that are relevant for the preferences and behavior of policy actors and their stability and change over time. Social identities are based on joint memberships in social groups, such as organizations, demographic/biographical identities, sectors, locations, and informal opportunities for exchange (which may result in programmatic groups and identities). Some of these social groups, above all pluralistic interest associations and political parties, are directly related to the settings of embedded democracies. This article sheds light on the traveling capacity of the Social Identities in the Policy Process (SIPP) perspective by applying it to the Russian political system. An analysis...
Competing for a citizen:“Visible” and “invisible” forms of state identity in Russia
Journal of Eurasian Studies, 2012
This paper is dedicated to the characteristics of phenomenon of state identity in the modern Russian society which has been affected for last 20 years by the processes of virtualization, informatization and political transformation. Today, the Russian Federation, like any other state in the world, is closely connected to non-local events and ideas; the "title nation" and "strong state" ideas are routinely confronted by challenges from multiple agents including immigrants, the mass media and especially the Internet. In the present study, empirical findings from several studies developed with methods of visual sociology, expert interviews and public opinion research are used to understand how people in Russia tend to realize their desire to be the unit of the state forming so-called "invisible" state identity, which is not absolutely loyal to the government institutions and is very stable. This type of identity has been formed under alternative institutional logic which isn't preordained by acting of the state but is shaped as well by cultural, social, and cognitive processes in "real", but especially in "virtual" spaces of communication. And despite "Russia as a state" is still a way of maintaining the symbolic power of political leaders, there are some strong but hidden tendencies forming "Russia as a community of citizens" under the influence of information technologies, global values, norms and outlooks.
Generating Data: Studying Identity Politics from a Bottom–Up Approach in Crimea and Moldova
2015
This article argues that bottom–up, people-centered research which uses ethnographic and everyday approaches is crucial but underutilized in research on identity politics in Eastern Europe. In order to understand what concepts such as ethnicity and citizenship mean in the context of people’s everyday lives, it is vital to understand whether taken-for-granted political concepts are appropriate and the make-up of data such as census data. The article first introduces the methods of political ethnography and bottom–up interviews by discussing how they can be applied and their value within political science. The paper uses data gathered from interviews in Moldova and Crimea (when it was still a de jure and de facto part of Ukraine) to demonstrate the value of this approach. It shows how interview data can add significantly to the understanding of kin-state relations within political science by adding a richness of context and a bottom–up perspective that quantitative and elite-level interviews fail to provide. Lastly, the paper draws on experiences gained from research design to discuss how bottom–up research in political science can be conducted rigorously. The article argues that this approach can deepen the understanding of identity politics and kin-state relations or, more broadly, important post-communist questions such as democratization and Europeanization.