Russia’s election apathy bodes ill for the country’s future
International | September 21, 2021
In a system in which the state is the main player, arbiter, and employer, elections are a ritual of anticipatory obedience. But by carefully cultivating a submissive population, the Kremlin has created a citizenry that prefers to work for someone else, preferably the state, than to run their own businesses, and one which is suspicious of any politician, including opposition activists. Social manipulation of this order will eventually provoke a crisis of human capital, among other problems. An apathetic populace will not, for example, bring about much-needed growth in labour productivity. Ordinary Russians simply do not believe that they can make a difference or effect change. Instead they look for the future in nostalgic visions of the past perpetuated by state propaganda. In a recent poll, half of those asked said they would like to return to the Soviet political system, while 62 per cent would like to have a Soviet-style planned economy. Another poll found that the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin’s popularity among young Russians was on the rise. Sustained by the empire’s former glory, Putin’s Russia is walking backwards…. (Excerpts from the Financial Times)