THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN ORDER AND LIBERTY IN CONTEMPORARY RUSSIAN POLITICAL-CULTURE

One of the enduring tensions in Russian political culture is that betw een order and liberty. Indeed, many fear that when faced with the inev itable cacophony of democratic politics, most Russians demand the rest oration of order, and by a 'strong hand' if need be. This lack of comm itment to democracy among ordinary people is often seen as a major imp ediment to the consolidation of the democratic transformation in Russi a. 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 cond ucted in 1996, and employing within the survey an experiment on suppor t for the imposition of martial law in Russia, I discover that Russian s are indeed willing to surrender some liberty for the restoration of order. The preference for liberty reflects general democratic attitude s more than it is sensitive to the particular context within which lib erty is suspended. Nonetheless, the context of the dispute is importan t because it serves to stimulate particular attitudes; for instance, t he 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 pol itical competition, it is likely that the mass public will maintain in dividual liberty, and democracy in Russia will prosper accordingly.