THE SUBLIME AND COMMONNESS
On March, 25 the opposition made an attempt to conduct an action in honor of the 90^th anniversary of the Belarusian People's Republic (the BPR) declaration which was cruelly suppressed. According to the data of the human rights activists more than 80 people altogether were detained in the course of the action...

TENDENCIES OF DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS
What is Belarusian stability held up by? Basically it has only one point of rest – that is the rating of the head of state which in its turn directly depends on the growth of the population real income. The given political science inference does not contradict with the official point of view either. Instead of digging in archives let us refer to the March article of the deputy head of the Administration, academician A. Rubinov "The pedagogical itch of reforming"...

WHO LEFT GRANDCHILDREN WITHOUT CHOCOLATE?
The subject of benefit cancellation is still on the agenda. Specialists in the field of statistics have already begun to register the consequences of the authorities’ decision. The decision concerning benefit cancellation had come into force in December of the previous year; and already in February the Ministry of Statistics reported that in January passenger traffic inside the Republic reduced 10.3%...

DIVIDENDS OF OPTIMISM
"Optimism brings dividends" – we have borrowed this idea from the book "Social psychology" by D. Myers, an American. Judging by the results of the March opinion poll the idea is universal, and that is why it may be fearlessly used for analyzing changes of the public opinion in Belarus...

A PORTRAIT OF AN OPTIMIST
Poetical lines by Alexander Blok that people actually need quite little in this life, because their hearts are ready to rejoice even over the smallest novelty would give the best fit as an epigraph for this commentary. The poet, as is well-known, did not study sociology; however he was very well acquainted with the inclination of a mass individual to rejoicing over "the smallest novelty". A slight decrease of the inflation rate acted as such "smallest novelty" for the Belarusians in the first quarter of 2008, and they reacted to it with the growth of social optimism...

"SOMETHING GOOD" IN DICTATORSHIP
In the West A. Lukashenko is frequently called "the last dictator of Europe". This title is not a secret for the head of the Belarusian state, especially since foreign journalists regularly ask him about his opinion concerning this "ticklish question". The question does not embarrass A. Lukashenko; he always answers it calmly and with validity...

THE "FEMININE" SUBJECT
For the Belarusians their attitude towards prospective construction of a nuclear power plant (NPP) is determined in many respects by their memory about the Chernobyl catastrophe. It is quite difficult for an ordinary person to look at the problem of construction from the point of view of the economic gain, particularly when the authorities do virtually nothing for the sake of conducting "a campaign against illiteracy" in this very field...

WHERE DOES MERCANTILISM LEAD TO?
Perhaps, the most important conclusion that can be drawn out of the data of the IISEPS last years' opinion polls is the growing pragmatism of the Belarusians. In this case when saying "pragmatism" we mean their interest in improvement of their social conditions of life. Communists in their time warned about threats which "a society of consumption" was bringing with it, but they were not listened to, and the trouble came. As it is known, troubles never come singly...

"AN ALIEN" PROTEST
In January mass protest actions of individual entrepreneurs were conducted in Minsk. They were left unnoticed by the state mass media, but in spite of the fact 75.1% of the respondents in the course of March opinion poll noted that they had heard about those actions. The truth is cognized in comparison, that is why let us quote the data characterizing awareness of the Belarusians concerning "The European March" and "The Social March" conducted by the opposition last autumn...

ELECTIONS WITH NO CHOICE
As it is known, the authorities have scheduled regular elections for the lower house of Parliament–the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus–for the end of the current year’s September. Data of the opinion poll show that less than a half of electors have decided today to take part in voting at the elections of deputies for the House of Representatives...

GEOPOLITICAL PREFERENCES OF THE BELARUSIANS
The results of the March opinion poll do not show any significant changes in geopolitical priorities and preferences of the Belarusians. More precisely, quite visible changes do take place, however at a short distance, say in comparison with the previous, three months old poll. At a longer time interval, though, these changes look merely as fluctuations...

IS HILLARY OUR CANDIDATE?
Not long ago somebody uttered a witty suggestion that because of the great influence of the United States on the whole world, the president of this country should be elected by the voters of the whole planet. So far it has not come to it, but it is indeed interesting how citizens of other countries would vote at the American elections in case they were given such an opportunity...

LANGUAGE OF THE PUBLIC FIELD
In what ratio should languages be used in the public life of Belarus? This question has been the subject of fierce discussions during all the years of independence. The language question quite often became an object of political confrontation. Recent situations with S. Semenov, who demanded a customs declaration in Belarusian, and with D. Zheleznichenko, who wanted to serve in the army where he would be given orders in the Belarusian language, have become examples of such struggle...

THE SOCIETY AND STATE DECISIONS
As it is known, modern political strategies let us change the public opinion in a radical way rather quickly. All sorts of heads use them quite successfully without resorting to direct imposing of their will on their subordinates. Especially in case when they do not feel confident enough, or when quite strong opponents withstand them...

CONDITIONS OF WILL AND TRUST TO THE PRESIDENT
As it is known, parliamentary elections are going to take place in Belarus this autumn. Almost a half of respondents (49.6%) already declare they are going to take part in them. Approximately every fifth respondent (19.9%) has decided not to vote, and about 30% of the polled have not come to a decision yet. Such readiness to take part in voting displayed long before the elections testifies to the fact that the Belarusians still believe in elections as in an instrument of people’s will...

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