№ 3 - 2000
Strakhov A.P.
The Study of Russians’ Electoral Behaviour: Socio-Cultural Approach

The article describes socio-cultural method of studying electoral behaviour, and demonstrates the possibilities of its application as part of electoral technologies. The said approach allows political culture and the subcultures within it to be analyzed from the viewpoint of the system of values and norms that underlies the motivation of the citizens’ electoral choice. As to Russian society, the author singles out three main subcultural groups: «traditionalists», «modernists», and «the centre», each possessing its own social, cultural and economic characteristics. Electoral behaviour of these groups is traced in the article through the analysis of the voting at the parliamentary and presidential elections during the past 10 years. The author sees the merit of the socio-cultural approach in the possibility it affords, to objectively analyze political situation on the basis of sociological research and statistics, but he notes at the same time that there is the risk to overestimate the importance of social factors, and the need to take account of short-term fluctuations of public mood.