TY - JOUR
T1 - Russian public assessments of the Putin policy program
T2 - Achievements and challenges
AU - Willerton, John P.
N1 - Funding Information:
1 This study is grounded in the October 2014 romir all-Russia survey of 1007 respondents, with this survey and resultant database part of the neporus Project, “New Politics Groups and the Russian State”, funded by the Research Council of Norway. I thank Jacob Cramer for sta-tistical research support, and Mikhail Beznosov, Geir Flikke, Patrick McGovern, Daniel Pel-tin, and the two anonymous reviewers for incisive analytical suggestions.
Publisher Copyright:
© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2016
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - Attention is given to Russian public assessments of President Vladimir Putin, important political actors of the Putin period, and major policy areas that are at the heart of the governing Putin team's programmatic agenda (as of the second Putin presidency, 2012-18). The intention is (1) to assess the level of support for President Putin, key political actors comprising the Putin team, other governmental institutions and a leading rival, (2) to determine the level of congruence between the preferences of the Putin team and the Russian public regarding major policies intended to strengthen the Russian state and to modernize the Russian society, and (3) to evaluate Russian public assessments of the work of the Putin team in actually addressing these overriding goals. It is found that Russians' positive assessment of Vladimir Putin, Russia's paramount leader, is juxtaposed with more middling assessments of all other actors, excepting opposition figure Aleksei Navalny, who is poorly viewed. A strong congruence is found between the Putin team's policy priorities and those of the Russian public, but public assessments of the Putin team's performance across specific policies are mixed and reveal areas where that team has been both successful and come up short. Results of the October 2014 romir public opinion survey indicate that Putin and his team are well-positioned and that their overall policy performance is acceptable, but policy soft spots and points of concern are revealed: this suggests continuing challenges for the Putin team in delivering a program accommodating the preferences of an aware domestic public. It is argued that Putin's position as a paramount leader redounds to his governing team's advantage, but this position also represents a profound dilemma for the Russian political system.
AB - Attention is given to Russian public assessments of President Vladimir Putin, important political actors of the Putin period, and major policy areas that are at the heart of the governing Putin team's programmatic agenda (as of the second Putin presidency, 2012-18). The intention is (1) to assess the level of support for President Putin, key political actors comprising the Putin team, other governmental institutions and a leading rival, (2) to determine the level of congruence between the preferences of the Putin team and the Russian public regarding major policies intended to strengthen the Russian state and to modernize the Russian society, and (3) to evaluate Russian public assessments of the work of the Putin team in actually addressing these overriding goals. It is found that Russians' positive assessment of Vladimir Putin, Russia's paramount leader, is juxtaposed with more middling assessments of all other actors, excepting opposition figure Aleksei Navalny, who is poorly viewed. A strong congruence is found between the Putin team's policy priorities and those of the Russian public, but public assessments of the Putin team's performance across specific policies are mixed and reveal areas where that team has been both successful and come up short. Results of the October 2014 romir public opinion survey indicate that Putin and his team are well-positioned and that their overall policy performance is acceptable, but policy soft spots and points of concern are revealed: this suggests continuing challenges for the Putin team in delivering a program accommodating the preferences of an aware domestic public. It is argued that Putin's position as a paramount leader redounds to his governing team's advantage, but this position also represents a profound dilemma for the Russian political system.
KW - Elite-mass relations
KW - Paramount leader
KW - Political elites
KW - Putin
KW - Putin policy program
KW - Russian public opinion
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85028940986&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85028940986&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1163/2451-8921-00102002
DO - 10.1163/2451-8921-00102002
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85028940986
SN - 2451-8913
VL - 1
SP - 131
EP - 158
JO - Russian Politics
JF - Russian Politics
IS - 2
ER -