Comparing Citizen and Elite Belief Systems in Post-Soviet Russia and Ukraine

No previous research has systematically compared the policy preferences and attitudinal constraint of elites and ordinary citizens in societies undergoing a fundamental change in the form of the government and the economic system. This article utilizes directly comparable survey questions asked of a representative sample of citizens and their parliamentary representatives in two post-Soviet countries, Russia and Ukraine, to determine the degree of similarity that existed in the attitudinal preferences and ideological consistency of these two sets of political actors 6 months after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The level of attitude consistency and ideological thinking among ordinary citizens was found to be unexpectedly high, thereby reflecting the degree of politicization occurring during the period immediately preceding the Soviet disintegration. Relative to other studies of elites, however, the attitude constraint among the elites was unexpectedly low. This unexpected finding is explained by the absence of various institutions and arrangements that promote consistent attitudes among elites in western democracies, such as functioning political parties, lobby groups, and an investigatory media.