SOCIAL JUSTICE IN BELARUS IN THE EYES OF BELARUSIANS

The main feeling that led millions of Belarusians to vote for ex-director of a collective farm A. Lukashenko at the presidential election of 1994 was the need of social justice which, in their opinion, was greatly distorted following violent transformations of late 80-ies – early 90-ies. Since then, whatever changes home and foreign policy of Belarus underwent, the president does his best to remain a guarantor of social justice in the eyes of the majority. This is exactly what the slogan he proposed in the recent address to the Parliament and the people as a foundation of the Belarusian policy for the next five years is all about – “State For The People.” The power well understands that as long as the majority of Belarusians consider it fair, i.e. expressing and defending its interests, it may not fear any internal or external influence.

IISEPS experts already wrote in the article “Inequity of authorities pushes the people to revolution” of April’05 that the feeling of social justice in the Belarusian society was again endangered for more than ten years of A. Lukashenko’s presidency. As the opinion poll showed then, 26% of respondents suffered an offence from authorities and three out of every four respondents said that they were offended “several times” or even “many times.” Let’s see if the situation has changed since then (See Table 1).

Thus, the number of respondents offended by authorities has increased by more than 11% over the past year, and three fourths of the polled were many times offended.

Clearly, claims for absence of social justice are very different – from arrogant attitude of a Housing Service head on a complaint about communal services to the fear to express political views in the country. The Table 2 shows that the number of those who think it is not safe to air political views in this country makes three fourths of population which is the same as the number of offended at the level of public utilities.

Undoubtedly, bureaucracy and corruptibility are the two most annoying forms of social justice infringement for the majority of people. A. Lukashenko who became a president at the wave of wide public resentment with bureaucracy and corruptibility knows this better than anyone and this is why he cherishes the image of “a fighter for the interests of common people against "fussy officials.” However, as the latest opinion poll revealed, he has already lost this image in the eyes of the majority (See Table 3).

The key issue now is how deeply the feeling of impaired social justice influences the "social well-being" of citizens in general, their attitude to the country, its past, present and future, and, the most important – how it influences their attitude to the power. To answer this question, we shall make a comparative analysis of sociological portraits of Belarusians depending on how they assess activity of President A. Lukashenko on social justice (See Table 4).

Apparently, these are, first of all, the most active citizens – those on whom the future of Belarus depends – who feel infringement of social justice in the country. However, the most important conclusion is the following. Perception of social justice influences the ‘social well-being’ of Belarusians stronger than basic sociological factors (like social and professional status, level of income, place of residence, etc.) Those who assess in the negative the activity of A. Lukashenko on social justice maintenance are as well critical about the situation in the country, both present and future. In other words, social inequity means inequity of the authorities for many.

How will this feeling shape in the future? Judging by mirror-like attitude of these groups to the mass actions of protest which took place in Minsk after the presidential election, inequity of authorities may lead people into the streets sooner than all actions of the opposition or demarches of the West taken together. Will the power succeed to build the “state for the people” earlier than the people do this? We will stop guessing but will follow the development of these processes and promise to introduce the reader to the results of our observations.

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