The political identity of inhabitants of St. Petersburg: results of the empirical research (2015)

Abstract

The Present article is devoted to the problem of the self-concept of Saint Petersburg citizens’, political identity. The aim of the article is to identify the condition of this significant installation of political consciousness, which is determined through the self-assessment at three levels such as ideological, partyaffiliated, and personal. The article is addressed to the following tasks: revealing the extent of levels of political identity, defining the political identity of different social groups living in Saint Petersburg, revealing the degree of concordance of the population’s political self-concept with their political values. This reveals a whole range of assessments of social and political life of Russian society in St. Petersburg with various models of political identity. The practical significance of the article lies in the possibility of using the obtained data in state information policy as well as practical activities of different political actors. The article is based on data presented in the empirical political research work entitled: “The Peculiarities of Political Consciousness of the Inhabitants of the Russian Megapolises in Situations of Systemic Economic Crisis: the Example of Saint-Petersburg” (“Political Petersburg–2015”). This research was conducted on the basis of the Resource Centre of St. Petersburg State University of Sociological and Internet Research. The survey method was telephone interviews. Sample size is 1204 persons permanently residing in St. Petersburg. The sample is random, sampling with quotas according to the following characteristics: gender, age, education, area of residence. Over the course of research we were able to capture features of political self-evaluations of the population of St. Petersburg, which, in turn, allows us on the basis of indirect criteria to assess the prospects of various political forces competing for leading positions in the political class. Refs 10. Figs 4.