A seminar, Political Orientation of the Ukrainian Population, was held recently at the Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv, presenting a sociological study under the same title, dating from July and carried out by the Department of Sociology and Psychology jointly with the Iowa University Department of Political Science. Kyiv docent Andriy Horbachik led the presentation before an audience of Ukraine’s leading sociologists. He announced that “similar studies were performed in Georgia and Russia at approximately the same time” and that the organizers’ plans include a comparative assessment of the polls’ results.
The study shows that the current political system is accepted by a mere 7% of the respondents. Even though the largest share are inclined toward the Western democracies (44%), the percentage of Soviet exponents remains high at 32%. Sociologists believe, however, that the existing ambivalence of public opinion does not make it possible to interpret the findings unequivocally. This ambivalence, seen in the ability to unite contradictory views, prompts a certain category of the Ukrainian citizenry to adopt an orientation toward Russia, the CIS, Russia-Ukraine- Belarus, and other such alliances, while simultaneously choosing a Western-like political system for their own state. This ambivalence, according to philosophy Ph.D. Yevhen Holovakha, a supervisory research associate in the National Academy’s Institute for Sociology, “is saving Ukraine” and, given the overall worsening of the emotional environment, social tensions remain low. Figuratively speaking, one out of every ten in Ukraine is a zealot of the capitalist system, two want to return to the [Soviet] past, seven are ambivalent, and these seven form a kind of cushion. Dr. Holovakha attributes this ambivalence not only to our living through a transition period (for this is a worldwide trend) but also to Ukraine’s being regionally divided, thus lacking a single nationally uniting political stand. He believes that a single Ukrainian nation can be seen only at the level of a specific economic (selfish) interest. In other words, the eastern and western parts of Ukraine are identical in all that answers the citizen’s direct economic interest. “Substantial transformations can occur in Ukraine,” says Dr. Holovakha, “only after the central region (ranging from Sumy to Khmelnytsky and from Zhytomyr to Kirovohrad oblasts) determines its political orientation. Ukraine’s prospects, its moving East or West, will depend on the direction taken by the geographical center, because neither the western nor eastern territories of Ukraine will show any evolution.”
Mykhailo Mishchenko, research fellow with the Institute for Sociology, continued in the central evolution vein, noting that “the center needs regional self-consciousness for the dynamics of its consciousness as a whole. There is no central community and the center serves as a buffer between Ukraine’s East and West.”
Mykola Shulha, deputy director of the Institute for Sociology, looked at the popular political orientation from a somewhat different angle. He believes that “the man in the street is exposed to the efforts of political parties.” Today, however, “the population understands what the ideas proclaimed by these parties and their actions are all about.” For example, people may support Communist ideology but refuse to vote for the Communist Party. By and large, Mr. Shulha considers that Ukrainian society is showing pessimism and a degree of cynicism with regard to what is going on in the political realm. Most people react negatively to everything having anything to do with political parties. “Unless our society starts to become politically structured, we will never understand this attitude of the people,” stresses the sociologist.
Iryna Bekeshkina, scholarly expert with the Democratic Initiatives Foundation, maintains that the turnouts of polls in Ukraine should be interpreted primarily from the standpoint of their life plane, how they live. Addressing the conference, she noted that citizens level much criticism on the regime, yet this is not only a Ukrainian trend. Similar attitudes have been registered in the West since the mid- 1970s. Ms. Bekeshkina believes that the political culture of the Ukrainian elite lags behind the general culture of the population.
Ihor Burov, director of the Poshuk (Search) Center for Social Research, is of the opinion that “the current political system is vague. However, as society matures, so does the party movement.” He thinks that the time of personalities is past, and that the political parties will “crystallize along ideological lines.” Actually, we are all now witness to such attempts at crystallization.
