The struggle between order and liberty in contemporary Russian political culture

One of the enduring tensions in Russian political culture is that between order and liberty. Indeed, many fear that when faced with the inevitable cacophony of democratic politics, most Russians demand the restoration of order, and by a 'strong hand' if need be. This lack of commitment to democracy among ordinary people is often seen as a major impediment to the consolidation of the democratic transformation in Russia. The purpose of this article is to assess empirically the degree to which the desire for social and political order undermines support for democratic liberty. Based on a survey of the Russian mass public conducted in 1996, and employing within the survey an experiment on support for the imposition of martial law in Russia, I discover that Russians are indeed willing to surrender some liberty for the restoration of order. The preference for liberty reflects general democratic attitudes more than it is sensitive to the particular context within which liberty is suspended. Nonetheless, the context of the dispute is important because it serves to stimulate particular attitudes; for instance, the intervention of a court transforms the conflict from a political to a legal dispute, thereby activating attitudes toward the rule of law. In the final analysis, I conclude that if elites maintain ordered political competition, it is likely that the mass public will maintain individual liberty, and democracy in Russia will prosper accordingly.