Middle class, civic activism, and local politics: Evidence from Russia

Abstract This paper examines the mobilizing capacity of the middle class in fostering civic activism under authoritarian rule. In particular, we examine whether the middle class has the potential to recruit other strata in civic activism. We use a boutique N=2017 survey conducted in Moscow, Russia, in December 2021, with an embedded conjoint experiment that identifies the reaction of respondents to an invitation from a hypothetical neighbor to take part in a civic action. We find that self-reported willingness to engage in civic activism is positively associated with the share of the middle class in the respondent’s district of residence. Furthermore, middle-class individuals are perceived as more knowledgeable and thus have higher mobilizing capacity; however, we find no evidence that individuals are more likely to be mobilized by someone from a similar social stratum. In districts with a low middle-class share, middle-class individuals exhibit higher willingness to engage in civic activism, but this difference disappears in high-middle-class districts. Finally, for civic activism, unlike the anti-regime protests, we find no evidence that dependence on the state reduces the self-reported willingness to engage in civic activism. A survey-based measure of past civic engagement augments findings from the conjoint experiment. Our findings contribute to research on authoritarian politics by refining our understanding of state–society relations, the middle class, civic activism, and local politics in autocracies, as well as to the general studies of impact of social context on civic activism, with implications beyond the Russian case.