Yearly Archive: 1999

BULLETINS “IISEPS NEWS” N 4 (14) DECEMBER

IISEPS News, N 4 (14), 1999 Content: Preface Building an Information and Analytical Infrastructure for Private Enterprise: Dr. G. Drakokhrust, IISEPS Belarusian Associations of Entrepreneurs and Employers: a Comparative Analysis of Program Documents V. Kopin, United Committee of the trade union of entrepreneurs “Sadruzhnast” The Legislative Regulation of Entrepreneurship in Belarus in the Period from …

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NATIONAL POLL 11’99

1. Title of the study: “Developing an information and analitical infrastructure for private enterprise in Belarus”
2. Topics of thematic coverage: political, social and economic factors of development of analytical and information infrastructure for private enterprise
3. The aim: to study the dynamics of the most important facilitators and obstacles to developing an information and analitical infrastructure for private enterprise
4. Descriptors: market, socio-economic positions and attitudes, electoral behavior, socio-political positions and attitudes, attitudes toward private enterprise, rule of law, legal applicable practice
5. Comparability: most important questions were replicated
6. Geographical area: Belarus-national
7. Principal investigator: IISEPS
8. Polling organization: IISEPS, P.O.B. 219, Minsk, 220030, Belarus, e-mail: iiseps@iiseps.org
9. Fieldwork dates: 1999, Nowember 10
10. Population sampled: 18+ years old residents of Belarus who are not currently in hospital, jail, military service
11. Sampling: clustered random
12. Sample size: 1508 respondents
13. Mode of interviews: face-to-face interview
14. Interviewers: part-time and university students
15. Control: selective control of interviewers
16. Related publications: 48 publications in mass media
17. Availability of the original data sets: contact with IISEPS
18. Source of information: IISEPS

 

WHO BENEFITS FROM THE DECREE ON LABOR DISCIPLINE?

Presidential decree #29 of July 29, 1999, has recently come into force “On additional measures on improving labor relations, strengthening labor and executive discipline”. In accordance with the law in question, employers were given the right to sign employee contracts with additional clauses that would allow the employer to cancel the contract before the initially agreed date.

INTEREST IN PRIVATE ENTERPRISE DOES NOT DECLINE

As survey data suggest, conditions for private enterprise in Belarus continue to worsen. While in March 1999, 7.1% of the pollsters said the conditions had improved in the last two to three years, in November 1999 that figure dropped to 4.8%. At the same time, 36.7% believe that the state has substantially tightened control over private enterprise and 22.3% pointed to increased incidence of arbitrary actions on the part various state agencies against private entrepreneurs (see Table 1).

LIFE CONVINCES BETTER THAN PROPAGANDA

While analyzing the respondents’ answers to economic questions, there is always a feeling that some new ideas about how the country’s economy should be organized are more and more commonly expressed in Belarusian public opinion. Despite 59.4% of the respondents say they do not know much about economics, 69.3% of the pollsters are interested in economic issues. It’s possible to express a tentative guess that the people, in the name of whom authorities claimed they made economic decisions, are beginning to realize that living standards in “good” Belarus are much lower than in “bad” Poland,

THE FATE OF NEGOTIATIONS

Negotiations between authorities and the opposition that the OSCE is trying to initiate, was one of the most important political themes of the year 1999. However, as survey data show, a rather low proportion of the respondents – only 19.9 per cent were aware of the initiative to begin negotiations. Meanwhile, the respondents express their attitude toward the idea of negotiations quite strongly (see Table 1).

BELARUSIANS’ ELECTORAL PREFERENCES

In the Fall of 2000, a parliamentary election is scheduled to be held in Belarus. It is not yet clear, how they will be organized and it is still far away. However, it was important to ask the respondents what parties and political blocs that would vote for if the election were held today. Often the opinion is voiced that people do not trust political parties at all, which is reinforced by survey data. However, many respondent would vote for representatives of political parties (see Table 1).

EAST IS EAST, WEST IS WEST

We are not trying to judge how true this line from Kipling is. Nor are we arguing about whether Belarus belongs to the East or to the West. Let’s try instead to answer the question of how Belarusian public opinion sees the country’s place in the world.

DO BELARUSIANS WANT TO JOIN RUSSIA?

During the public discussion of the new union treaty between Russia and Belarus officials from the two countries said that both Russians and Belarusians unanimously supported the unification of the two countries. Survey data from Russia suggest that about 70 per cent of Russians support the idea of unification with Belarus. Belarusian society, however, is not as unanimous, which data from IISEPS national surveys prove.

BULLETINS “IISEPS NEWS” N 3 (13) SEPTEMBER

“IISEPS News”, N 3 (13), 1999 Content: Preface Youth and Civil Society: Dr. A. Feduta, “Belarusskaya Delovaya Gazeta” Belarusian Youth: the Problem of Leadership Today and Tomorrow G. Antonova, Dr. T. Bykova, BUEE Business Education of Youth in Belarus: Experience and Problems Prof. A. Rubanov, MRISEPP Deviant Behavior of Youth Dr. Z. Grinyuk, IPM The …

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