The Consistency of Policy with Opinion in the Russian Federation, 1992–2006

This article draws upon hundreds of surveys of Russian public opinion conducted from 1992 to 2006 to assess the responsiveness of the Russian state to citizens' policy preferences. Patterned after studies of US opinion, this study finds levels of opinion–policy consistency in Russia to be surprisingly high. Opinion–policy consistency is assessed over time and across policy domains, with extended discussions of how opinion affects (and fails to affect) policy, using the “shock therapy” policies of the early 1990s and the first and second Chechen conflicts as examples.