Safronov V.V. Participation in the State Duma Elections: Social Inequalities, Motivations and Mobilization [Uchastiye v vyborakh Gosudarstvennoy Dumy: sotsial'nyye neravenstva, motivatsii i mobilizatsiya]. Vlast’ i elity [Power and Elites], 2023, 10 (2): 121–169. (In Russian)

Текст статьи на сайте журнала URL: http://socinst.ru/publications/powerelites/tom10-2/ (дата обращения 28.12.2023)

Abstract

The problem of the activity of Russian citizens in the elections of the State Duma in 2016 is considered. The study is based on theoretical ideas about the dependence of electoral participation of individuals on resources-motivation-mobilization, and increased turnout in administrative units – on the mobilization of voters by political machines. Empirical data collected in the Russian representative survey under the European Social Survey program (ESS, January-March 2017) are investigated using statistical methods of logistic regression analysis. The results are compared with patterns seen in a number of countries in Central Eastern and Western Europe, which also conducted national surveys under the ESS program (Round 9). According to the revealed facts, electoral activity in Russia, as in other post-communist European countries, is well explained with the help of key variables that make up the basic theoretical model formulated in studies of Western democracies. Thus, the activity in the Duma elections increases with age, decreasing among the oldest, and with an increase in the educational level, it is higher among voters with ties to voluntary associations. Political motivations play an important role, encouraging people interested in politics, confident in the openness of the political system to the influence of citizens and trusting the State Duma to participate. The strongest factor is party identification. Those who are able to single out an organization close to them among the political parties go to vote. In addition, in our country, increased participation in the Duma elections was characteristic of rural residents and employees of state enterprises, the public sector and government structures, which confirms the theoretical assumptions about the mobilization of the dependent population by the authorities. However, the supposed influence of the most important factor in the theory indicating belonging to ethnic minorities and regions could not be detected. At the same time, greater electoral activity in rural areas and in the state-public sectors can be found not only in some semi-democratic post-communist regimes, but also in developed Western countries, an explanation for which should probably be sought beyond the framework of ideas about the impact of machine mobilization on political behavior.