Trust in Russian political institutions: sociological monitoring case study

Abstract

The article provides analysis of the sociological measurement of trust toward political institutions. This social problem is important as this phenomenon maintains social order. Trust can be described as a stable emotional attitude of individuums towards institutions and other individuums by supporting or identifying with certain individual or a social group and treating them as insiders. The study is based on the Russian population opinion polls and highlights the dynamics of trust of Russians in Russian president, government, State Duma, elections et cet. According to the author the tools should be multifunctional, and the object of the study should be extended, as not all political institutions are in the focus of Russian and foreign social monitoring studies. The data is open and it is possible to compare the data of opinion surveys spanning twenty years. However in practice one can encounter problems referring to different tools used in the surveys. The research scope should also be enlarged. Most of companies tend to measure the trust in federal institutions (president, government, State Duma), rarer in regional and municipal authorities, and very rarely in the institution of elections.