06.12.2001, Presnyakova L.
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One of the main functions of any state holiday is mobilizing the people with the help of some national symbol. However, the upcoming Day of the Constitution, which symbolizes the essence of the state system, does not seem to fulfil its mobilizing function very well. For example, only 20% of those polled consider this day a holiday, and the majority of Russians (67%) see it simply as an additional day off work. Judging by what the participants in group discussions said, people do not have any special feelings about this holiday:
- "I regard this day only as a day off. There is no sense of elation, pride. There is nothing in the soul"
(DFG, Samara).
- "I take it as a day off. It's not like it used to be, when people felt patriotic on May 9, when they felt proud for their country. There was a time when my heart was touched when I heard the anthem. Now it's not like that"
(DFG, Samara).
It is no wonder that Russians have such an attitude towards this holiday. They have very mixed feelings about the Constitution itself. For example, 38% of the respondents said they are confident the Russian Constitution is bad (28% of those polled said they think it is good). Another 34% of respondents were undecided. Why is it that some people like the Constitution and some don't?
When interpreting these data, it is necessary to take into account that Russians often fail to base their judgements about the country's main law on knowledge of this law. More than half of the respondents (55%) said they do not know the contents and main provisions of the Russian Constitution. Only one-third of those polled (36%) said they know the contents of the Constitution. Basically, the number of people who really know the provisions of the Constitution is probably even lower. For example, none of the members of focus groups in Samara and Novosibirsk had read or knew the Constitution, and in the Moscow group there were only two respondents who reported having read the Constitution. Although the focus groups' results in no way represent the situation in Russia in general, they still show a lot.
In addition, the majority of the regional elite believes that ordinary Russians do not read the Constitution. For example, when asked what percentage of Russians, in their opinion, are familiar with the content of the country's main law, two-thirds of the experts said this portion is below the twentieth percentile. Only one-fifth of the regional elite assumed the percentage of Russians familiar with the Constitution was between 20% and 40%.
At any rate, when interpreting information about Russian attitudes towards the Constitution, one must consider the fact that over 50% of them are not familiar with its contents.
However, the lack of familiarity with the provisions of the Constitution does not prevent the Russians from making judgements about it. Sixty percent of those who were not familiar with the provisions of the Constitution stated their attitude on it, and the attitude of 35% of them was negative.
| |
Total |
Content of Constitution |
|
Familiar |
Not Familiar |
|
Good |
28 |
35 |
25 |
|
Bad |
38 |
46 |
35 |
|
Undecided |
34 |
19 |
40 |
|
Moreover, the majority of those polled (67%) said the Constitution should be amended. Only 8% of Russians believe that it should not be amended, and another 24% were undecided. And not only people who do not like the Constitution want it to be changed (although the number of respondents who favor changes is highest in this group: 83% against 67% in all other groups of respondents): some of those who find the Constitution good want it to be changed, as well (64%). Consequently, those who claim to like the current Constitution are not very sincere. In any case, they do not tend to treasure the stability of the Constitution.
Question: "Currently, the question of making various amendments to the Constitution is being discussed. Do you think the Constitution should be amended, or not?"
| |
Total |
Constitution |
|
Good |
Bad |
|
It should be amended |
67 |
64 |
83 |
|
It should not be amended |
8 |
14 |
5 |
|
Undecided |
24 |
21 |
12 |
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What causes the negative attitude towards the Constitution, whose content is not familiar to many people, including those who make judgements about it? Most probably, the respondents apply their attitude towards the state system to the Constitution, which symbolizes the socio-political and economic system of post-Soviet Russia.
It is not without reason that in focus groups discussions, the participants always ended up discussing issues relating to the pressing problems of life in Russia: unemployment, economic problems, free education and healthcare, etc., which make up the entire set of issues that Russians normally mention when asked open-ended questions about the main problems of Russia.
- "It is written there that a person has the right to work. But not every person can find a job"
(DFG, Samara).
- "How many people are waiting to get housing? But no one is giving it to them"
(DFG, Samara).
- "We have been provided with medical insurance policies. But with these policies, they say they will provide you with treatment only when they get the money. But if it is written that there should be free healthcare, then this is a violation"
(DFG, Samara).
This indicates that people tend to apply their dissatisfaction with the current situation in the country to their attitude towards the Constitution as the main regulator of political, economic, and social life in Russian society. In this sense, in the eyes of many respondents, the current Constitution is worse than the Soviet Constitution (just like the current political system is worse than the old one).
- "The previous constitution gave us some guarantees. I got my education free, a good education. I had good vacation time. And now my children and grandchildren can find themselves unable to afford an education, in spite of their talents and abilities. Instead of celebrating holidays we all go to our dacha. In general, I only have negative associations with the word 'constitution'"
(DFG, Novosibirsk).
Moreover, when one is talking about the Constitution, the issues of fairness and social justice are always brought up. Focus group participants often say that the current Constitution reflects the interests of the rich, not the people:
- "Moderator: Whose interests does the current Constitution protects?
- Participant: Not ours, that's for sure" (DFG, Moscow).
- "Moderator: And whose interests does the Constitution protect now?
- Participant: "It protects the interests of those who have more money" (DFG, Samara).
Thus, this complex of left-wing, "Soviet" orientations – paternalism, the need for equality (which is interpreted as equality of income, not equality of opportunity), the non-acceptance of a market economy, which is very widespread in Russian society and is aggravated by the Russian public's general lack of legal knowledge, obviously contributes significantly to the negative attitude towards the Russian Constitution.
By the way, those who ordinarily vote for Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov tend to negatively assess the current Constitution more frequently than representatives of other groups.
|
Russian Constitution |
Total |
Voters |
|
Vladimir Putin |
Gennady Zyuganov |
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Good |
28 |
35 |
17 |
|
Bad |
38 |
33 |
48 |
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Putin's voters, on the contrary, believe that the current Constitution is good. In actuality, this is not just an evaluation of the Constitution, but an evaluation of the socio-political situation in the country, which was brought about by the coming of Vladimir Putin.
- "But Putin is bringing order a little bit, which is nice. We hope that the people will get a "bright future," that they will have firm confidence in tomorrow"
(DFG, Samara).
Focus group participants also say good words about the Constitution, but very rarely:
- "In this situation, when it was written, it was considered to be the most liberal constitution in the world"
(DFG, Moscow).
- "Election issues there are described better in comparison with the pervious constitution"
(DFG, Novosibirsk).
- "I think we have a good constitution, no worse than any other country, and it declares the rights of all citizens. I think we should actually love this constitution, we should like it. It is up to the world standard"
(DFG, Novosibirsk).
Basically, it appears that when the respondents say "a good constitution," they mean it will ensure that people have a good financial situation and high living standards:
- "I believe that the constitution is better in those countries that have high living standards"
(DFG, Moscow).
- "I don't know which country has a perfect constitution, but I think it is a country where there are no poor, destitute people, where every person receives proper care. If a person cannot feed himself for whatever reasons, the state assumes responsibility for taking care of this person. In general, it is a country where the state can enable people to live
" (DFG, Samara).
These statements reflect the mechanism of constitution perception. Because the constitution is a formal legal document, the main goal of which is to regulate socio-political reality, the respondents see it as inseparable from the social reality it is supposed to regulate.
The opinions representatives of the regional elite hold on the Constitution are somewhat different from those of the general public. Three-fourths of the experts polled believe the Russian Constitution is good, and only one-sixth believe it is bad. Unlike ordinary Russians, experts are usually better informed about the contents of the Constitution. Probably they make judgements about it in a more rational way, separating the normative document that regulates the political reality from the reality itself. Over 50% of the experts polled said that amendments should be made to the Constitution, and only one-third said the Constitution should remain unchanged. At the same time, about half of the experts said they are convinced that less than 40% of Russian would support the idea of making amendments to the Constitution. One-fourth of the experts believe this number is from 40% to 60%, and only several said it would be in the range between 60% and 80%.
The discussion of the Constitution naturally raises the question as to whether its main provisions get fulfilled, whether it is just a formal document or a document that really has an effect on people's lives. In focus groups, the respondents were almost unanimous that the provisions of the Constitution are constantly violated and that it does not have any effect on actual life.
- "Everything is only declarative. Society is absolutely not satisfied with how the Constitution works" (DFG, Samara).
- "I didn't look into it myself. But it is clear that it is not working"
(DFG, Samara).
On the whole, 47% of Russians believe that the Constitution does not determine the country's life, that it is a purely formal document. However, 41% of those polled have the opposite opinion. Another 12% were undecided on this matter. In addition, the overwhelming majority of the respondents evaluated the Constitution by whether it is observed or not. For example, almost half of those who said they consider the Constitution a formal document said they are convinced it is bad; a considerable percentage of those who think it is effective said they consider it good.
|
Russian Constitution |
Total |
Constitution |
|
Determines the country's life |
Does not determine the country's life |
|
Good |
28 |
41 |
20 |
|
Bad |
38 |
33 |
47 |
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This table clearly shows that the number of respondents who are capable of determining the content of the Constitution from the way this content is applied in practice is considerably lower than the number of those not capable of doing so.
By the way, DFG participants believe that the authorities violate the Russian Constitution more frequently than the general public does:
"Moderator: Who violates the Constitution more frequently: the authorities or the general public?
- Participant 1: The authorities.
- Participant 2: The authorities.
- Participant 3: They have more rights and maybe therefore they have something to violate more frequently. A common citizen observes the Constitution.
- Participant 4: The authorities, of course. There are more opportunities to do so" (DFG, Moscow).
This position reflects the people's general lack of confidence in the authorities, which has been so characteristic of Russian public opinion in the past few years. However, when Putin came to power, this lack of confidence started to decrease, at least as regards the federal authorities. For example, the respondents chalk it up to the current president that the laws and the Constitution have recently been observed more frequently than they were before:
- "
Moderator: Do the current authorities observe the Constitution or not?
- Participant: I think Kasyanov and Putin are trying hard""(DFG, Samara).
- Moderator: Has the authorities' attitude towards laws and law observance changed recently; have the authorities become more demanding?
- Participant: I think they have. Putin, for example, is doing his job. Take this banditry, for instance, he is doing something about it" (DFG, Moscow).
The focus group participants believe that the general public, unlike the authorities, observes the Constitution:
- "We are law-abiding people. Citizens don't violate the Constitution much"
(DFG, Novosibirsk).
- "Of course, we live and observe it. We have our duties and rights. We are very law-abiding people"
(DFG, Samara).
- "We were brought up this way to observe the Constitution"
(DFG, Samara).
Note again that these are people who have not read the Constitution. This means the respondents, even though they have no idea about the content of the Constitution, are absolutely sure they are observing it, and that the authorities are violating it. This means that the mass consciousness perceives the Constitution not as the norm that determines the rules of behavior for everyone, but as a kind of a code governing the authorities' behavior. By the way, the Russian general public tends to expect the authorities to start observing the laws and the Constitution first, thus setting a positive example for the public.
- Participant 1: "Because if the authorities observe the laws, the citizens will respect these laws more.
- Participant 2: I agree.
- Participant 3: I agree, everyone fully agrees " (DFG, Moscow).
Note that this position is caused not only by Russian infantilism and paternalistic expectations of the authorities, whom they expect to tell them how to behave. Ii is to a certain extent determined by the fact that in the past ten years, the Russian public has been forced to live under conditions of a normative vacuum, where there are no uniform and commonly accepted "rules of the game," which should be determined and declared, and whose observance should be observed by the authorities.
The opinion of the regional elite on whether the Constitution is a formal document or really determines the people's lives were distributed in a different way. Over 50% of the experts polled (many of whom are representatives of regional authorities) believe the Constitution determines life in Russian society, and only one-third said they consider the Constitution only a formal document.
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