RUDN Journal of Political Science (Dec 2016)
Peculiarities of the Political Culture of Citizens in the Middle and Big Cities of Russia (the Republic of Bashkortostan’s Case)
Abstract
The article focuses on peculiarities of the political culture of habitants of middle and big cities in the Republic of Bashkortostan. Economic distinctions of the region, its multyethnicity and religious diversity allows to apply conclusions on the state as a whole. Based on sociological data and historical analysis the authors revealed the genesis of the subjective type of political culture in the middle and big cities of the Republic of Bashkortostan. The authors also examine such peculiarities of the culture of townsmen as low protest potential, political indifference, alienating type of behavior, absence of critical attitude to information. The authors analyze the principal problems that city’s habitants faced in the conditions of economic and political transformation and how the subjective type of culture impedes to resolve these problems in a positive way. Such problems of the cities are pointed out as deindustrialization, depopulation, the ageing of the population and decline in living standards. Despite the worsening economic and social situation of residents of the big and average cities of Bashkortostan, growth of protest moods among them it is not observed, and most of citizens as show data of sociological polls, keep loyalty to the government at the regional and federal level. The authors' point of view is that the type of the political culture of the habitants causes the loyalty. In the conclusion, the authors show the perspective of the cities, the contradiction in state policy that initiates the civic engagement on the one hand but demands on the political loyalty on the other hand.
