Why do citizens in democratic states allow governments to monitor them? Studies note that consent to surveillance to a large extent depends on trust in public institutions. But how is surveillance legitimised in states where this kind of trust is low, as in most of the European postcommunist countries? Using data from three former communist states, this study investigates the role of trust in close social networks. The results show that so-called 'particular social trust' may work as a substitute for trust in institutions. Particular social trust may produce legitimacy for policy measures, in this case, surveillance.
Building on Europeanisation scholarship, this article unpacks the instrumental rhetoric of Armenian genocide recognition in Bulgaria. In Bulgaria’s 2015 parliamentary hearings on the issue, diverse political actors—from liberal to nationalist political party members—formed unlikely coalitions and strategically instrumentalised Armenian genocide recognition as a way to signal ‘Europeanisation’ in pursuing very distinct ends.
Based on the urban experience of the Soviet Union, this article explores the value of the so-called priority approach for understanding the mechanisms that contributed to the creation of the spatial structure of the Soviet/socialist city. The changes in priority status that the various urban functions were subject to are highlighted. It is then proposed that these variations were instrumental in the formation of the internal functioning and social differentiation of the Soviet/socialist city and, to the extent that the pre-1991 urban fabric persists, of its post-Soviet successor. Finally, the authors propose a new model of the development of the Soviet/socialist city, fusing the priority approach with an extensive survey of previous scholarly work within the field.
The liberation of the family from the excessive control of the state, support of children's moral values, the improvement of childcare, and overcoming the demographic crisis have all influenced recent discussions on preschool education and care in Russia. The essay analyses how different, and often conflicting, formulations of public interests' influenced preschool institutions in Russia during the last 25 years. The essay also seeks to explore contemporary evaluations of preschools in the context of the interpretations offered by public discussions and parents of the Soviet practice of childcare.
Dramatic fluctuations have occurred in population health in Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Although many factors have been examined in connection with this, there has been little focus on the role of the family, despite evidence from Western studies linking family functioning to individual health. Using data from 1,190 respondents collected during the Moscow Health Survey 2004 we examined the association between family relations and health outcomes. Poorer family functioning was strongly associated with worse self-rated physical health and mental health. Our results suggest that the proximal social environment of the family is important for understanding health outcomes in contemporary Russia.
The aim is to present a conceptual and historical reconstruction of Gorbachev's notion of a ‘European home’, its underlying philosophy of history as well as its relation to Russian cosmism. The concept is contextualised within the convergence debate of the post-war period, in which a rapprochement between communism and capitalism was posited. The essay concludes with reflections on what the conceptualisation can tell us about the fall of communism and what impact the concept has had on today's search for a common European identity. An argument is advanced that the notion contained paradoxes that rather contributed to the dislocation of post-Soviet Russia from Europe.
This article argues that a new type of populism is emerging that combines entrepreneurial populism with centrist populism and takes as an example the success of the Czech party ANO and its leader Andrej Babis. Entrepreneurial populist leaders are businesspeople who claim that because they have been successful in running a business, they can run a government efficiently, like a business. Entrepreneurial populists lack a coherent ideology and instead take advantage of where the political opening is greatest in the political spectrum. In the Czech Republic in the 2010s the opening was greatest in the centre, as much of the population had social liberal attitudes, although there were no social liberal parties to represent them. To test these hypotheses, the article presents a series of regression models explaining party vote choice in the 2013 and 2017 Czech elections. The findings confirm a demand for a centrist social liberal party that did not exist at that time.
Levels of institutional trust in Russia are amongst the lowest in the world. As yet, however, little research has focused on this phenomenon at the sub-national level. The current study examines trust in social and political institutions among citizens in Moscow in 2004. Results showed that levels of institutional trust are extremely low and that there were only three institutions (the church, president and hospitals) that were more trusted than distrusted. Moreover, although the effects of some demographic and other independent variables on trust stretched across institutions, several variables had a unique impact in terms of trust in the president.
This essay examines the prevalence and the correlates of the use of contraceptive methods in Ukraine in 1999 and 2007. Between those years, the overall use of contraceptive methods decreased slightly. However, the use of modern contraceptive methods, and especially the use of condoms, increased considerably, while the use of traditional contraceptive methods decreased. Higher exposure to messages about family planning in the media was correlated with the use of modern contraceptive methods. It is posited that the results suggest that state policies influence individual behaviour in contraception.