Political Views of the Youth: Loyalty or Protest?

Abstract

The article analyzes the state of mass political consciousness of Russian youth based on the results of the study conducted in the spring of 2019 in four regions of the Russian Federation: Altai Kray, Leningrad and Novosibirsk Regions, and St. Petersburg. As a result of the analysis, the authors were able to identify several groups of young people that significantly differ in their attitudes regarding their potential political activity and the methods they actually use to realize the interests of their socio-demographic group, as well as trust in political and social institutions. Young people are differentiated into 8 groups according to the dominant type of political behavior and into 4 groups according to their level of institutional trust.

Keywords

• youth
• trust in social and power institutions
• methods of protecting one’s interests
• political behavior
• political loyalty
• political protest