FROM THE LIFE OF THE SOCIAL INDICES
As it was to be expected, literally a collapse of the main social indicators happened in March. For three months which passed since the December opinion poll, the economic crisis "has got at" the majority of the Belarusians. The New Year gift which the authorities presented their fellow countrymen with on January, 2^nd having devaluated the Belarusian ruble by 20.5% relative to the dollar alone was in position to change the world-view of the largest part of the society, and that, in fact, happened...

PURSUING AN INCOMPREHENSIBLE COURSE IN AN OBSCURE DIRECTION
Along with the indices of material well-being and expectations it is useful to scrutinize the course correctness index (CCI). It is calculated with the help of a similar method: negative answers are deducted from the positive ones. As it follows from Table 1 the amplitude of the CCI oscillation is not large, however it is quite sufficient for a productive analysis. The reason for a more conservative behavior of the CCI relative to its fellows (the IMW and EI) lies on the surface...

IN SEARCH OF AN ANSWER TO THE CLASSICAL QUESTION
Politicians in power are supposed to demonstrate optimism. This universal rule also applies to Belarus where, as it is known "only one political figure exists". However, the gap between the official optimism and reality cannot be too large; otherwise the politician begins to annoy people by his inadequacy. The March opinion poll showed that the public opinion had finally became aware of the economic crisis beginning in the country. 81.8% of respondents think so (64.3% in December)...

SUPERPOWER IN THE BELARUSIAN WAY
For several years already sociologists of the IISEPS have been paying attention to the close dependence between the ratings of the head of the Belarusian state (electoral and trust) and the real earnings of the population. This dependence testifies to the fact that a once charismatic type of A. Lukashenko’s rule has given place to a rational one. There is nothing surprising in it...

DEVALUATION OF TRUST
On January, 2^nd the Belarusians got a New Year "present" – the National bank devalued the Belarusian ruble (i.e. reduced its worth relative to the dollar and euro) by 20.5%. Whether that step was economically grounded and forced, what its long-term consequences are going to be – there exist various opinions among the experts on this account. And how did the population estimate what had happened?..

FOREIGN COUNTRIES ARE GOING TO HELP US
It is quite natural to pass from the question "Whose fault is it?" on to the question "What shall we do next?" It is clear that answering the first question a respondent, as it were, turns to look around in his mind; however, when answering the second one he does not feel any desire to look into the mirror either. Having realized the inevitability of the economic crisis, he is instinctively seeking the force able to protect him from the unexpected bad luck...

WATCH OUT! THE AUTHORITIES!
The March opinion poll lets us not only estimate the attitude of the public opinion to the figure of the head of state, which as it has already been mentioned, plays a symbolic part in many respects, but to the authorities as a whole. And these “authorities as a whole” are perceived by the society in a rather critical way. At least, the famous words by M. Lermontov about the greedy crowd standing at the throne said already in 1873 sound quite topical today, too...

I VOTE, BUT I TAKE NO INTEREST IN IT
According to the March opinion poll a little bit more than a quarter of the grown-up population in Belarus is not interested in politics. According to this indicator the country can be safely included into the unanimous family of the European states. What does the interest of the Belarusians in politics consist in? First of all, they vote at the elections. There is almost a half of such people – 48.9%...

PATERNALISM AND LIBERALIZATION – TWO IN ONE
Vitality of the formula "If it is not him, then who will?" is determined not by the personality strength (charisma) of the head of the Belarusian state, but by his monopolistic right to dispose of the resources concentrated in the hands of the state. The resources are considerable, if it is remembered that in 2008 the consolidated state budget exceeded 50% of the GDP...

"LET US CONTRIVE A DESPOT..."
What is the secret of authoritarian rulers’ popularity, why do their ratings remain unshakable even in the present crisis situation? The simplest explanation is people’s fear. According to this explanation, all opinion polls conducted in the country which has not passed the severe exam in democracy are not worth of anything – people are afraid to honestly answer the quite dangerous question about their attitude to the supreme power...

THE DISUNITY
IISEPS researches of many years rather convincingly testify to a quite tangible disunity existing in the Belarusian society. Data of the March opinion poll visually confirm this idea. As it can be seen alternative of opinions divides the Belarusian society if not in half, then quite close to it. The mentioned fact expressively disproves official statements about the monolithic character of the society, its unity around the president...

THE POOR AND THE RICH
As researches of the IISEPS have repeatedly confirmed, the level of well-being determines a quite visible difference in the attitude of people to these or those socially important problems. Let us consider the present-day state of this difference using the population’s assessment of their per capita income level. For that purpose let us divide all the grown-up population into two groups...

THE WARM WIND FROM THE WEST
Careful signals about the desirability of relations normalization with the West which Minsk began to give at the beginning of 2007, have acquired at the present time the character of a geopolitical revolution. No, Belarus has not at all become "the outpost of the West" in the East. The level of relations between Minsk and Europe has not even reached yet the relations level of Baku, Astana or Moscow with Brussels, to say nothing about Kyiv or Tbilisi...

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