scholarly journals Chained by one chain: Mechanisms of electoral mobilization at the local level in the Russian ethnic republics

Author(s):  
Stanislav N. Shkel ◽  

Introduction: researchers of the Russian elections have long noticed that in a number of ethnic republics the level of electoral mobilization and political conformism of voters is higher than the average in Russia. Despite the fairly numerous statistical evidence of the existence of this political phenomenon, we still know relatively little about the specific causal mechanisms for the reproduction of electoral activity in these republics. Objectives: identifying the factors bringing about a high level of electoral mobilization in ethnic republics in Russia. Methods: analysis of qualitative data collected through focus groups method in five regions: Republic of Bashkortostan, Republic of Tatarstan, Komi Republic, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and Chuvash Republic. Results: as the result of the study it is concluded that a high level of electoral mobilization is caused by the combination of three factors, each of which affects different categories of voters. The institutional factor in the form of political machines involves into the electoral process those employed in public sector and industrial enterprises. The density of social networks resulting from specificity of rural way of life influences the electoral behavior of entrepreneurs and self-employed people living in the countryside. Finally, the Soviet legacy continues to determine the high political activity of the older generation, acting as a significant cultural factor. At the same time, there has been no empirical proof to a number of explanations whereby religion or ethnic culture of non-Russian ethnic groups is viewed as factors that simplify electoral mobilization. Conclusions: evidence on the role of the solidarity norms in rural areas during elections makes it possible to conclude that the consolidation and high intensity of horizontal relationships do not always promote the reproduction of civil society institutions and grass-roots democratic practices. As it is shown in the experience of the Russian ethnic republics, this element of social consolidation may well be integrated into the design of authoritarian elections. Thus, informal networks of grass-roots solidarity can be used not only by the opposition, but also by local authorities to increase electoral mobilization, which, in the current political context, rather strengthens authoritarian orders and practices than creates threats to them.

2021 ◽  
pp. 5-14
Author(s):  
Viktor V. Borshchevskyy

The present stage of decentralization in Ukraine is characterized by the activation of the processes of harmonization of economic development priorities in many newly established consolidated territorial communities (CTCs). In the first place, it is about the CTCs that were established around large cities after last year’s local elections. Traditionally, rural areas are rather skeptical about the possibility of complete realization of their interests within such CTCs. It causes numerous conflict situations. A range of CTCs established in the previous years even refuse to join new municipal CTCs. Often the refusal contradicts economic logic but meets the social support of the local population. For example, Lvivska CTC didn’t manage to consolidate a range of adjoining areas around it due to the unfriendly disposition of management of surrounding CTCs and their residents. Consequently, its spatial location turns out to be rather asymmetrical. The city’s boundaries literally “encounter” the neighboring village CTCs on the South and East. Moreover, some part of municipal infrastructural facilities turned out to be at their territory (supermarkets, trade centers, traffic intersections, and communal infrastructure facilities). To overcome the described problems and prevent conflict situations, it is reasonable to change approaches to the implementation of economic policy on the local level in the future. In the first place, modern approaches to the implementation of large cities’ structural policy should be introduced at the present decentralization stage. Because currently manufacturing prevails in the structure of these cities’ economy in Ukraine. Moreover, the foundations of industrial capacity of the municipal economy were formed back in the Soviet period. In the first place, it is about industrial regions of Eastern and Southern Ukraine. Yet, even in the West, namely in Lviv, most currently operating industrial enterprises were founded in the 1960s (some of them even in the 1940s). It is hardly real to transfer the production capacities of such enterprises to the neighboring rural areas. So, increasing the capacity of innovative production in adjoining rural areas should be the major priority of large cities’ structural policy at the present stage of decentralization.


2016 ◽  
Vol 04 (03) ◽  
pp. 1650023
Author(s):  
Yuhong LI

Peri-urbanized rural areas are villages in which the non-agricultural population and industries are concentrated to a certain extent but rural administration is still practiced. It is an important factor affecting the quality of China's urbanization. On the basis of clarifying the characteristics and formation mechanism of peri-urbanized areas, the paper develops a method of identifying the peri-urbanized rural areas in China that is, the number of industrial employees in the village is not less than 900 and the grass-roots organization is the village committee. It makes an estimation of the peri-urbanization rate with the firm-level data of the first and second National Economic Censuses, and finds that the distribution of industrial employment at village level in China is “scattered” and “fat tailed”. While most of the industrial enterprises in rural areas are scattered, peri-urbanized rural areas centralize more than half of the industrial employees; China's peri-urbanization level is relatively high with a growing and deepening tendency, and it is closely related to the economic development.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19(34) (3) ◽  
pp. 23-34
Author(s):  
Yuriy Hubeni ◽  
Volodymyr Krupa

The analysis of urgent problems of land relations transformation and of forming agricultural land market in Ukraine is carried out in the article. The general characteristic of main reform stages is given. The reasons of lasting action of the moratorium on agricultural land sale-purchase being the chief obstacle for complete market development are defined. Supporters' and opponents' arguments about moratorium canceling, population estimation of advantages and threats of land circulation are described. The results of the research project "Farmers' land expectation" made by the authors are given. The project purpose was studying population rational expectations concerning the directions of further land reform development and its results. The research was conducted on the local level in rural surrounding, which is characterized by high competition level among agrarian business subjects at agricultural land lease market. Landowners' and other interested group people' opinions concerning lease cost, potential sale price, inclination towards land sale, possibilities of farmers' common farming on their own land, leaseholders' participation in social and economic development of rural areas are examined. High level of farmers' uncertainty about land market indicators because of knowledge lack and low level of land reform information support is established.


Author(s):  
Kalaichelvi Sivaraman ◽  
Rengasamy Stalin

This research paper is the part of Research Project entitled “Impact of Elected Women Representatives in the Life and Livelihood of the Women in Rural Areas: With Special Reference to Tiruvannamalai District, Tamil Nadu” funded by University of Madras under UGC-UPE Scheme.The 73rd and 74th amendments of the Constitution of India were made by the government to strengthen the position of women and to create a local-level legal foundation for direct democracy for women in both rural and urban areas. The representation for women in local bodies through reservation policies amendment in Constitution of India has stimulated the political participation of women in rural areas. However, when it’s comes to the argument of whether the women reservation in Panchayati Raj helps or benefits to the life and livelihood development of women as a group? The answer is hypothetical because the studies related to the impact of women representatives of Panchayati Raj in the life and livelihood development of women was very less. Therefore, to fill the gap in existing literature, the present study was conducted among the rural women of Tiruvannamalai district to assess the impact of elected women representatives in the physical and financial and business development of the women in rural areas. The findings revealed that during the last five years because of the women representation in their village Panjayati Raj, the Physical Asset of the rural women were increased or developed moderately (55.8%) and Highly (23.4%) and the Financial and Business Asset of the rural women were increased or developed moderately (60.4%) and Highly (18.7%).


Author(s):  
Katarzyna Zatońska ◽  
Piotr Psikus ◽  
Alicja Basiak-Rasała ◽  
Zuzanna Stępnicka ◽  
Maria Wołyniec ◽  
...  

(1) Background: Alcohol is a leading risk factor of premature morbidity and mortality. The objective of this study was to investigate the patterns of alcohol consumption in the PURE Poland cohort study baseline. (2) Methods: A Polish cohort was enrolled in the baseline study in 2007–2010. The study group consisted of 2021 adult participants of urban and rural areas from the Lower Silesia voivodeship in Poland (747 men and 1274 women). (3) Results: In the overall study population, 67.3% were current drinkers, 10.3% were former drinkers, and 22.4% were abstainers. Current use of alcohol products was more prevalent in men (77.2%), people living in urban areas (73.0%), and people with a higher level of education (78.0%). The percentage of current drinkers decreased with increasing age (from 73.4% in 30- to 44-year-olds to 48.8% in participants aged 64 and more). The majority of participants (89.2%) declared a low level of alcohol intake. The chance of high level of intake of alcohol was four times higher in men than in women (OR 4.17; CI 1.64–10.6). The majority of participants (54.6%) declared most frequent consumption of low-alcohol drinks (beer, wine) and 21% declared most frequent consumption of spirits. Current drinkers had almost 1.5-fold higher odds of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases (CVD) than never drinkers (OR 1.49, CI 1.03–2.17; OR 1.66, CI 1.27–2.18, respectively). Former drinkers had higher odds for hypertension and CVD than never drinkers (1.73, CI 1.05–2.85; OR 1.76, CI 1.22–2.53, respectively). (4) Conclusions: In our cohort study, we observed several socio-demographic factors differentiating the patterns of alcohol consumption. The preventive programs should focus predominantly on men, people aged <45 years, and those with a higher level of education.


Vaccines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 678
Author(s):  
Julio Jaramillo-Monge ◽  
Michael Obimpeh ◽  
Bernardo Vega ◽  
David Acurio ◽  
Annelies Boven ◽  
...  

We investigated the COVID-19 vaccination acceptance level in Azuay province, Ecuador through an online survey from 12th to 26th February (before the start of the COVID-19 vaccination campaign in Ecuador). Overall, 1219 respondents participated in the survey. The mean age was 32 ± 13 years; 693 participants (57%) were female. In total, 1109 (91%) of the participants indicated they were willing to be vaccinated with a COVID-19 vaccine, if the vaccine is at least 95% effective; 835 (68.5%) if it is 90% effective and 493 (40.5%) if it is 70% effective; 676 (55.5%) participants indicated they feared side effects and 237 (19.4%) thought the vaccine was not effective. Older age, having had a postgraduate education, a history of a negative COVID-19 test, a high level of worry of contracting COVID-19, believing that COVID-19 infection can be prevented with a vaccine and understanding there is currently an effective vaccine against COVID-19 were associated with higher vaccination acceptance. A vaccination education campaign will be needed to increase the knowledge of Ecuadorians about the COVID-19 vaccine and to increase their trust in the vaccine. People with a lower education level and living in rural areas may need to be targeted during such a campaign.


2002 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 37-55
Author(s):  
Louise I. Shelley

The murder of Valentin Tsvetkov, the governor of Magadan in central Moscow in broad day light in October 2002 highlights that organized crime and corruption are still alive and well and highly destructive of life and governance in Russia (Wines, 2002). His murder once again raises the question, “Why has Russia not been able to stop organized crime and high level corruption?” The answer is that Russia docs not have the political will at the national, regional or local level to fight these problems. This is true because the Kremlin and economic elite push their personal interests over those of the state and the society. Structural problems such as low salaries of state personnel and the embedding of organized crime and corruption make reform very difficult.


Author(s):  
Oderinu Hassana ◽  
◽  
Kadir Mumini ◽  
Tijani Adebayo ◽  

Nigeria has one of the countries whose experience of poverty and unemployment is on the high side makes this study to look into the effect of the economic lockdown during the global pandemic in the country, with the aim of making effort on how this effect can be translated into economic development. Survey research design method was adopted with self-administered questionnaire used to collect data. Findings revealed that in Nigeria COVID -19 outbreak effects was felt in almost all sectors and the aftermath greatly affected the country’s GDP and this adversely affect rural development in the country, which translated to a worrisome rate of poverty and unemployment. Hence, both individual and government have now seen that campaigning for economic diversification is not sufficient for economic development but rather a prompt swing into action by all is needed for sustainable development of rural areas to respond to the worrisome rate of unemployment and in turn high level of poverty caused by the COVID-19 lockdown in the country. It was recommended that government at all level as well as individuals and stakeholders should put in place actions that would gear up rural development and set policies at their various helms of affairs that would encourage economic participation of all citizens in all sector of the economy.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 62-70
Author(s):  
ANTONINA SELEZNEVA ◽  

Purpose of the study. The article is devoted to the analysis of value orientations, forms of civic engagement and political participation of young Russian citizens who consider themselves patriots. In accordance with the conceptual and methodological provisions developed within the framework of the political and psychological approach, the author examines how the cognitive and behavioral components of the personality structure, which determine the patriotic orientation of youth, relate to each other. Research results. Based on an analysis of the data of an all-Russian survey of young people aged 15 to 30, the author comes to the conclusion that young Russian patriots are interested in politics and identify with Russia. They demonstrate a fairly high level of social activity and have a wide repertoire of forms of civic participation and political behavior. They have attitudes towards conventional forms of political participation (primarily electoral). In the system of values of young patriots, the most significant are human rights, peace, order, legality, security, freedom and justice. Young Russian citizens who consider themselves patriots differ in their political values and behavioral orientations from «non-patriots». The author comes to the conclusion that young patriots have a connection between values and behavioral practices of their implementation, which determines their focus on interaction with the state and society. But this is not typical for young people in general. It is noted that in the future, patriotism can become a factor in the serious intragenerational demarcation of young people. Therefore, significant efforts are required from various institutions of socialization in the field of political education and patriotic education of youth.


Africa ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 86 (2) ◽  
pp. 263-287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rony Emmenegger

ABSTRACTThis article explores the politics of decentralization and state–peasant encounters in rural Oromiya, Ethiopia. Breaking with a centralized past, the incumbent government of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) committed itself to a decentralization policy in the early 1990s and has since then created a number of new sites for state–citizen interactions. In the context of electoral authoritarianism, however, decentralization has been interpreted as a means for the expansion of the party-state at the grass-roots level. Against this backdrop, this article attempts a more nuanced understanding of the complex entanglements between the closure of political space and faith in progress in local arenas. Hence, it follows sub-kebele institutions at the community level in a rural district and analyses their significance for state-led development and peasant mobilization between the 2005 and 2010 elections. Based on ethnographic field research, the empirical case presented discloses that decentralization and state-led development serve the expansion of state power into rural areas, but that state authority is simultaneously constituted and undermined in the course of this process. On that basis, this article aims to contribute to an inherently political understanding of decentralization, development and their entanglement in local and national politics in rural African societies.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document