Сivic activism in modern Russia: forms, factors, and social base

The article highlights Russian practices referring to civic activism. The objectives of the study were to reveal the links between political and non-political aspects of activism, to define the scale of the civic participation, and how deep its roots are; to analyze the social base of the civic engagement; and to determine the key factors of its development. To provide the social base of the civic activism the author proposes a typology based on the indicators of public involvement in political and non-political practices and readiness of public institutions to support public movements. Such a readiness refers to finding the major activist groups: the core, the periphery groups, those who are well-disposed, and those who are distant. The scale and social portrait of the major activist groups are defined during the study. The author concludes that modern civic activism in Russia is driven by socially advanced, successful mobile groups. The degree and the character of the civic activism are tightly connected to the character of the goals in life (level of education, self-realization, and social communication), social well-being, and general vision and basic values. According to the findings of the study, non-political activism and political activism are not opposed to each other; the higher the degree of activity is, the deeper their interaction is. The empirical basis of the study is nationwide public opinion survey of Russians conducted by the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2014.