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analitics

BELARUSIANS TRUST NO ONE?

As Table 1 reveals, the voters feel almost no confidence in most state and public institutions. Only in the first four cases the number of those who trust them is higher than the number of those who distrust them. Orthodox Church tops the list leaving other institutions far behind. Clearly, 72.6% of the adult population consider themselves supporters of the Orthodox denomination. The second place on the basis of index of trust, which takes into account the number of those who trust and distrust, is given to independent research centers beating the army. Thus, the traditional Slavic triad of trust “God, tsar and military commander” is broken: if Church and Army are placed among the top three, the president takes only the 9thplace, lagging behind research centers, mass media, unions of entrepreneurs and the Constitutional Court.
Table 1. Distribution of answers to the question: “Do you trust the following state and public institutions?”, %

Institutions
Trust
Distrust
Trust index
Orthodox Church
65.7
22.4
+0.435
Independent research centers
43.9
26.4
+0.177
Army
49.8
37.2
+0.126
State-run research centers
38.6
35.5
+0.032
State-run mass media
40.4
44.2
–0.039
Non-state mass media
37.1
42.4
–0.054
Unions of entrepreneurs
31.3
38.5
–0.073
Constitutional Court
36.4
43.9
–0.076
President
38.2
48.3
–0.101
Roman Catholic Church
32.9
43.2
–0.103
Free and independent labor unions
29.4
42.1
–0.128
Labor unions of the Belarusian Federation of Labor Unions
27.8
45.4
–0.176
Government
29.5
53.6
–0.243
KGB
26.7
51.7
–0.252
Courts
28.7
54.9
–0.263
Central Election Commission
26.6
53.7
–0.272
National Assembly
23.1
50.7
–0.278
Political parties, which support the authorities
21.7
55.1
–0.337
Local Executive Committees
23.2
58.7
–0.357
Opposition political parties
18.4
55.0
–0.370
Local Councils of Deputies
22.5
59.8
–0.375
Police
24.6
63.4
–0.390
Protestant Church
13.4
58.4
–0.454
Protestant Church “leads” the lower part of the Table 1, the index of trust is even lower than that of police – which traditionally enjoys little support from the population. A high level of distrust to Protestantism in the mainly Orthodox country (according to the survey, we have only 1.2% supporters of Protestant denominations) is quite explainable. However, all institutions of the state authority, beloved and formed by the president, are also in the end of the list. Perhaps, the population and the president have different tastes and preferences.
The population does not trust political parties – no matter whether they support or oppose the president. In our opinion, that is because so far parties have had no place in the political system of power created by A. Lukashenko in compliance with his own vision of democracy.
Concrete statesmen and public figures enjoy even less trust than such institutions, including the institutions they head. As we can see from Table 2, quite expectedly A. Lukashenko tops the list with 37%, followed by Premier G. Novitsky with 21.2% (lagging behind by 15.8%). Then L. Yermoshina (18.7%) and M. Myasnikovich (16.8%) go.

Table 2. Distribution of answers to the question: “Do you trust the following Belarusian politicians and public figures?”, %

Person
Trust
Distrust
Do not know him/her
Trust index
Alexander Lukashenko
37.0
45.3
2.9
–0.086
Mikhail Myasnikovich
16.8
25.1
44.9
–0.155
Gennady Novitsky
21.2
35.0
26.4
–0.189
Lidia Yermioshina
18.7
35.5
27.5
–0.236
Leonid Kozik
13.9
28.8
42.6
–0.263
Grigory Vasilevich
10.2
20.7
58.9
–0.264
Ural Latypov
13.3
30.3
43.6
–0.307
Piotr Prokopovich
11.2
28.0
47.9
–0.330
Valentin Sukalo
8.9
23.1
56.2
–0.333
Anatoly Lebedko
11.5
31.1
40.6
–0.340
Alexander Voitovich
7.7
23.4
55.4
–0.364
Nikolai Starikevich
9.1
29.3
45.6
–0.380
Valery Frolov
5.7
20.1
62.3
–0.396
Viktor Sheiman
10.4
32.0
44.8
–0.397
Vadim Popov
7.0
25.1
55.1
–0.407
Stanislav Shushkevich
15.5
51.2
15.1
–0.424
Sergei Gaidukevich
13.4
48.3
19.9
–0.440
Vintsuk Vecherko
9.6
35.2
41.9
–0.448
Sergei Kalyakin
9.4
40.8
35.3
–0.492
Zenon Poznyak
9.3
58.9
17.2
–0.607
However, the level of distrust to A. Lukashenko is rather high (45.3%), and in this respect he is a little ahead of S. Gaidukevich (48.3%), S. Shushkevich (51.2%) and Z. Poznyak (58.9%).
Surprisingly enough, the following well-known parliamentarians have the lowest index of trust – V. Frolov (5.7%), V. Popov (7%) and A. Voitovich (7.7%). The two latter head the parliament. These politicians as well as V. Sukalo, G. Vasilevich and M. Myasnikovich have the lowest index of distrust (20.1-25.1%).
If the respondents are aware of the existence of proper state institutions, many people know almost nothing about the aforementioned politicians! The less known are V. Frolov, G. Vasilevich, V. Sukalo, A. Voitovich and V. Popov. In fact, 3% of the respondents know nothing about A. Lukashenko!
Judging by the index of trust, Z. Poznyak, S. Kalyakin, V. Vecherko, S. Gaidukevich and S. Shushkevich – have the lowest index. Only A. Lebedko and N. Statkevich are in the middle of the list.
In general, none of the above mentioned statesmen and public figures of the country received a positive index of trust. That means people distrust more than they trust them.