The trust as a social capital of civil society in contemporary Russia

Abstract

Sociological analysis of indexes of institutional trust and indexes of development of civil society (structured interview, n = 2400, age of participants 18-70 years in six regions of Russia revealed the condition, problems and tendencies of development of the trust in regions, different by social-economic status. The generalized trust of Russian citizens corresponds to average level and less important than trust to surroundings and readiness to help to the people. We note in particular high level of the trust of Russians and potential cooperation with non-commercial organizations. During the research we revealed a number of factors influencing all types of the trust – generalized one, trust to the institutes of civil society – gender (women more often demonstrated trust, than men), type of place of residence (level of trust higher among rural inhabitants), material condition (rich respondents gave significantly higher values in all types of trust). Representations about importance of civic self-organization, sense of belonging to national, regional and local communities and sense of responsibility are positive characteristics of development of civil society. However, the level of civic activity is not so high (45%) and often reduces to one-time charity actions or membership in professional or local territorial unions. Values of indexes, connected with levels of the trust and civic activity considerably differ in different in social and economic status Russian regions.