Democracy, political parties and party formation in postcommunist russia

The paper uses a survey conducted in late 1992 to examine popular support for and attitudes towards Russia's postcommunist political parties. The findings confirm that support for democratic reform is at best conditional, and negative mentions of political parties vastly outnumber positive ones. Although popular knowledge about currently active political parties is limited, five main parties attract majority support. A factor analysis of opinions of the main parties indicates three underlying dimensions: a centre/reformist dimension (subdivided into those who are partially aligned with the communists and those who oppose them); a right/nationalist dimension; and a left/communist dimension. The democratic reformist dimension attracts the largest popular support, followed by the communist dimension; the nationalist dimension attracts a negligible following. None of the three dimensions has any secure socio-economic basis within the electorate, however, and the differences that exist are mainly ideological. It is argued that the reformist and communist dimensions, perhaps under different labels, will form the basis for the more stable party system that is likely to emerge in the future.