What Russians Think About Transition: Evidence from Rlms Survey

Abstract: We use data from the 2006 round of the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS) to describe perceptions of Russian people about the transition process and the role of the state. We also study which groups of the population hold more positive and more negative views of transition. Overall, we find that the Russian population is divided in their assessment of transition. About one half is deeply disappointed with transition results and has serious nostalgia about the life under the communist regime. There is a lot more unanimity about the role of the state in the economy. A vast majority of Russians opts for a very high state intervention into all spheres of economic life. However, an average Russian faces a cognitive dissonance: a perception that the state should be more involved in the economy is combined with a deep mistrust of specific state institutions. The variation in these perceptions is systematically related to age, education, employment histories and transition experiences.