A Fair Social State as a Value and as a Reality for Russian Citizens (Part 1. Social State)

The study was conducted in order to identify the ideas and opinions of Russian citizens about a fair social state and their priorities in the activities of this type of state. The field part of the study included online focus groups and an online mass questionnaire survey of citizens on an effective sample of 1003 respondents from residents of Russian cities with a population of over 100,000 people from all federal districts. For Russian citizens, the rule of law and the social state are unconditional values, according to their ideas; the Russian state cannot be different. But according to the estimates of the study participants’ majority the Russian state should still develop in the direction of the social, having solved many problems. Among such problems, the study participants pointed out the need to increase the level of pensions, benefits and other social payments, reduce the level of inequality in the well-being of different social groups, reduce poverty, overcome bureaucracy and corruption, and others. They also noted the need to improve the state interaction with citizens so that the state listens to its citizens and does what they need. At the same time, different generations of Russian citizens have different priorities in the development of the social state. Thus, representatives of the older, Soviet generation saw the Soviet state as an example of a social state, but, like other generations, without equality of welfare for all citizens, but ensuring their well-being according to merit. It seems obvious to Russian citizens that the state must be fair. But a mass questionnaire survey showed a significant discrepancy between respondents' assessments of the principles of fairness desired and actually applied by the state for several model situations. Correlation analysis based on the same data showed very weak statistical links between respondents' assessments of their expectations and reality in the application by the state of all the principles of fairness included in the study, without any exception. Under such conditions, it is almost impossible for both citizens and public authorities, based on the well-known expectations of citizens, to predict how the state should apply the principles of fairness so that they meet the expectations of citizens. If we add to this that support for the principles of fairness varies between generations and other social groups, then it is necessary to recognize this set of problems as very complex and, at the same time, necessary to solve in order to ensure fairness by the Russian state.