Monthly Archive: July 2013

Out of the whole set of questions A. Lukashenko’s electoral rating traditionally draws attention of the general public, politicians and experts to the fullest extent. As a rule, only the very few are satisfied with its value. In society split into supporters and opponents of the authoritarian “father” it is obviously understated for the former (“what can be expected from the sociologists serving their western masters”). For the latter it is, on the contrary, overstated (“what can be expected from the KGB agents, and what rating measurements can one talk about in an authoritarian country”).

We begin our analysis of social indices with citing the words by Minister of Economic Affairs N. Snopkov: “The record salary rate of $ 565 is a historic high. By the end of 2013, as expected, we should reach $ 600; that is why for the time left the approach to increasing salaries up to the anticipated level must be directly coordinated with labor productivity”.

In the states with split societies an additional problem connected with the necessity to reconcile the interests of the two parts of split society turns up for the ruling elites besides the standard set of problems. If the split line divides society into parts unequal in size (“a majority” and “a minority”), then the ruling elites get a natural desire to give up the role of a mediator and lean upon just one part of society (as a rule, upon the “majority”). Interests of the “minority” are, of course, ignored while domestic policy is being formed.

In the opinion poll of June 2013 a set of questions about the popularity of politicians and social and political organizations was asked. In particular, respondents were asked two questions concerning their desired presidential contenders: an open-end one, when a respondent was supposed to write in the last name of the preferred candidate on his/her own, and a close-end one, in which the respondent was offered to choose a candidate from a fixed list of politicians (Table 1).

Modern states “create” rather than “find” their nations. Belarusian state is not an exception in this case. It is working indefatigably on forming a state nation, as reproduction of the authoritarian political regime is possible only under such type of a nation.

At a press conference in Minsk on May 20 three Belarusian opposition structures – the movement “For Freedom”, the campaign “Tell the Truth!” and BPF Party (soon they were joined by BSDP “Gramada”) – stated they intended to hold a “people’s referendum”.

The fact that Belarus becomes more and more attractive for tourists from Russia was noted long ago. The Russian “descent” on May holidays, especially in the capital, was also noticed by many people. Almost all newspapers wrote about it; A. Lukashenko himself responded to this public and media stir among the people: “Recently information has appeared that we were pestered by Russians during the May holidays and there was not a vacancy in hotels. Inwardly I am happy about it. I have always dreamt about Belarus becoming a wished for spot where people would aspire to come to. And these are not the poorest people, they have money”.