WHO IS WHO IN BELARUS

IISEPS researches including the latest clearly reveal feasible collapse of the Belarusian society in what regards the most acute public issues. Therefore, we should like to consider some sociological features of various population groups, in particular those which differ in social status or occupation. Table 1 presents the weight of such groups within the adult population of the country.

Table 1. Social status of respondents

* All other alternatives are omitted due to insignificance of values

Table 2 gives socio-demographical portrait of the mentioned population groups. In the gender, distribution of public sector employees approximately corresponds to the entire sampling. Among private sector employees and students, male persons are prevailing and female persons are prevailing among pensioners which complies with the demographic situation in the country. Group characteristics in age and education also correspond to the demographic trend.

Table 2. Socio-demographic characteristics of social groups within population, %

Regarding average family per capita income, it is obviously higher in the private sector than in the public. Very low and insufficient incomes among students and pensioners should be noted as well.

As for geographic distribution of these groups, private sector employees and students reside in big cities mainly while most pensioners – in towns and villages. Also, most of private sector employees live in Minsk and Minsk region and least of them – in Gomel, Grodno and Mogilev regions.

How do these groups differ in socio-economic and political standpoints? We shall address Tables 3 and 4. Thus, private sector employees and pensioners are the most optimistic in the estimate of their welfare dynamics and students are the most pessimistic. Further, the most pensioners are among those who trust the national currency while private sector employees and students give preference to US dollars and Euro. Private sector employees and students preferably spent their vacations abroad while pensioners apparently don’t have funds for this.

Table 3. Socio-economic standpoints within different social groups of the population, %

Table 4. Attitude of various social groups to certain political problems, %

Considering country’s socio-economic prospects, private sector employees are the least optimistic in this regards. In all other groups, the number of those who think that the situation will improve in the near future considerably exceeds those with the opposite viewpoint. Pensioners are the greatest optimists here.

In general, pensioners and public sector employees estimate country’s development course as right and private sector employees and student – as wrong.

Talking about politics, pensioners and public sector employees give the greatest support to the current power which we’ve already mentioned. Thus, 80% of pensioners trust the president, 78.4% voted for A. Lukashenko at the presidential election of 2001, 71.5% voted for letting him be elected president anew at the referendum of 2004 and 74.7 would vote again for A. Lukashenko at the next presidential election. These figures are slightly lower among public sector employees – 51.7%, 44.9%, 45.4% and 44.2% respectively.

Furthermore, most pensioners (51.3%) are convinced that there shouldn’t be any political opposition in the country (only 31.7% spoke out for its importance) and less than 10% would vote for a candidate for democratic opposition at the next presidential election.

Private sector employees and students give the least support to the current authorities. Among them, 27.7% and 33.1% respectively trust the president, 27.7% and 11.5% voted for A. Lukashenko in 2001 (it should be noted that four years ago many students participating in September questionnaire couldn’t yet vote because of age), 25.4% and 14% voted for.

Constitution amendment at the referendum of 2004 and 24.3% and 19.9% would vote for A. Lukashenko at the next presidential election. Every two people out of five in these groups are ready to vote for a candidate for a democratic party and every three people out of four believe that the country needs political opposition.

Most pensioners and public sector employees give their preference to A. Lukashenko in case of Russia-Belarus Union’s hypothetical presidential election while private sector employees and student would like to see V. Putin in this position.

As regards country’s development prospects, these two groups have the opposite standpoints. The majority of pensioners and public sector employees doesn’t want country’s accession to the EU. These are the minority among students and private sector employees. Three thirds of pensioners and almost 60% of public sector employees would rather integrate into Europe than join the EU. The opinions among students and private sector employees split almost equally on this issue.

To summarize the above information, sociological features of socio-economic and political standpoints of respondents within different population groups differ greatly depending on their social statuses. The current situation in the country is all right for pensioners and public sector employees, i.e. the people whose incomes directly depend on the state and are determined by country’s government. All measures on advancement of these incomes are constantly accompanied by mass propaganda aimed at president-praising which undoubtedly increases his rating.

The least satisfied with the current situation in the country are private sector employees and students. Incomes of the first depend on the results of their struggle against the state, its greediness, bureaucracy and corruptibility. Incomes of the second aren’t confined to the tiny state grants but depend to a greater extent on parents’ incomes. This is why their negative attitude to state-run institutions in general and to country’s administration in particular is quite clear.

This all wouldn’t be so important unless these two groups be a kind of engine of civilization. Students are intellectual potential of every nation. Regarding private sector employees, under severe competition most of them will have to gamble their funds and seek for some other opportunities. Therefore, those countries achieve the greatest success whose governments create favorable conditions for these two population categories. The current Belarus doesn’t seem to stand among such countries.