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Orthodox Christianity, Civil Society, and Russian Democracy
Demokratizatsiya, Summer 2005 by Marsh, Christopher
Surveys also regularly find that the church is the most trusted institution in Russian society, with approximately 60 percent of all Russians expressing confidence in this important civil society institution. Using two distinct categories for Orthodox believers, we can see that there is great variation in levels of trust in the church. The devout Orthodox have the highest levels of trust in the church, with more than 92 percent saying that they have either a great deal of trust in the church (73.3 percent), or quite a lot of trust ( 19.3 percent). It is also significant that the devout Orthodox group is the only one that has more responses in the "great deal" category than in the "quite a lot" category. The cultural Orthodox still have a high level of trust in the church, with more than 76 percent for both positive responses, but more have quite a lot of trust in the church (43.9 percent) than a great deal of trust (32.6 percent). The devout Orthodox group thus is more trusting of the church numerically and by degree. Interestingly-and something that has remained overlooked by those who look at trust in institutions-very few nonreligious Russians have a great deal of trust in the church, although a modest 30 percent do respond that they have quite a lot of trust. The ability of the church to act as a bridge across the various factions of civil society would appear, therefore, to remain limited.
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When it comes specifically to the political realm, there appears to be a relatively healthy level of interest in politics, although it is not accompanied by any significant level of political involvement. Although approximately 40 percent of all respondents stated that they were interested in politics (41.4 percent for cultural Orthodox and 38.7 percent for nonreligious), the number of the devout Orthodox who agreed was the lowest of all three groupings (34.7 percent), perhaps reflecting an otherworldly orientation of devout believers. This idea is supported by the fact that the devout Orthodox were also less likely than the cultural Orthodox and the nonreligious to belong to political organizations. Although 0.5 percent of the devout Orthodox respondents stated that they were either members of a political party or a local political organization, there was a greater likelihood for cultural Orthodox and nonreligious Russians to belong to a political party (1.2 and 1.1 percent, respectively). This still represents a very small number in absolute terms, but this finding is not surprising given the current state of party development in Russia.
Involvement in the formal political realm remains low, but Russians show a healthy level of political efficacy and preparedness to participate in a variety of informal political activities, such as signing petitions, joining boycotts, and taking part in demonstrations and strikes. More than a quarter of all Russians are prepared to sign a petition, while more than 10 percent have actually done so. Approximately the same number are willing to attend a lawful demonstration, while more than 20 percent actually have. Significantly fewer are prepared to join a boycott, however, and it is an act that only approximately 2 percent have taken part in. Not surprisingly, the numbers are even lower for those taking part in an unofficial strike. Nevertheless, the data suggest that there is a large segment of society-nearly half-that exhibits healthy levels of political efficacy. The data are just as clear, however, in indicating that these levels are directly related to religious belief and religiosity, with identification with the Orthodox Church and religious devotion, respectively, strongly associated with diminished levels of political efficacy. The nonreligious Russians register significantly higher responses on every indicator while the devout Orthodox exhibit the lowest levels on each indicator.
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