Recently the Razumkov Center made public the results of a sociological study conducted on September 30-October 5 in all regions of Ukraine.
Participants of the survey, notably assessed how much different institutions influence the development of the state policy in our country. The level of influence was assessed based on the 5-point scale, with “1” as no influence and “5” as maximum influence.
This measuring of the social pulse showed interesting results. President Viktor Yanukovych has the most influence, with an average value of 4.16 points. The political forces forming the current parliamentary majority are an honorable second (3.89). The government (3.88), the Verkhovna Rada (3.79) and home business (3.78) also belong to the five most influential institutions.
It is interesting that Ukrainian respondents gave a rather high assessment of the Russian influence on the development of state policy in Ukraine. The average value of the influence of Russian business was 3.48 points, the Russian government was assessed at 3.46 points. Western business (3.14) and international organizations (3.08) have somewhat less influence.
The respondents assessed the influence of governments of Western countries (2.99), opposition political forces (2.94), business of other countries (2.92), governments of other countries (2.84), small and medium Ukrainian businesses (2.83), local authorities (2.74), and Ukrainian non-governmental organizations (2.55) as scoring less than three points on average.
It is notable that, according to the survey, the citizens of Ukraine turned out to have the least influence — 2.3 points.
The Day discussed the results of the survey with Andrii BYCHENKO, director of the Razumkov Center sociological service.
Mr. Bychenko, why do you think the value of citizens’ influence is so low?
“First of all because Ukraine is approaching very slowly to what is called the civic society. In totalitarian and authoritarian countries, as it is known, the state decides everything. Ukraine emerged in this situation after the collapse of the USSR, when the influence of a citizen was minimal. However, at the same time, we did not progress much on the way to building a democratic state. Despite the fact that, according to the Constitution, the Ukrainian people are sovereign in Ukraine, in fact, citizens (representatives of the people) have a very small influence on the formation of state policy. And the government (both new and old) do not consider the interests of citizens as a priority for the state. Actually, that is what we see now. For example, if we look at the Tax Code: it was elaborated for the interests of big business, which gets profits first of all from export and doesn’t depend on the internal demand of Ukrainian citizens.”
It is obvious that the government is not interested in the appearance of a middle class and civic society (sometimes there is an impression that it blocks this process). But how can one change the situation?
“Efficient mechanisms… Have we ever heard about cases when not a deputy or minister but an ordinary person won trials against the state in Ukraine? No, whereas the European Court regularly takes decisions in favor of citizens of Ukraine against the state of Ukraine. Therefore, in my opinion, elections are the only more of less efficient mechanism of citizens’ influence on the state. However, elections are held not so often; in addition, the attempts of the parliament to postpone elections to the Verkhovna Rada are well known. That is we see that the state by all means tries to deprive the citizens of their only mechanism of influence on the situation in the country, on the formation of state policy. Other mechanisms, unfortunately, are not efficient since they need first of all the government’s political will.”
