Legal Values of the Russian Population:
Priorities and Contradictions
Pokida A.N.
Cand. Sci. (Soc.), Director of the research Center of Social and Political Monitoring at School of Public Policy, The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, Moscow, Russia pokida@ranepa.ru
Zybunovskaya N.V.
Research Fellow, Research Center of Social and Political Monitoring at School of Public Policy, The Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, Moscow, Russia nzyb@ranepa.ru
Pokida A.N., Zybunovskaya N.V. Legal Values of the Russian Population: Priorities and Contradictions. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. 2020. No 1. P. 92-99
The article is based on the results of a sociological survey characterizing the attitude of the population to the law as a social value that determines their legal consciousness, as well as legislative norms regulating the relationship of citizens with the government bodies. Respect for legal norms and the presence of conviction in the need for their implementation largely determine the legal consciousness of a person, significantly affect his/her legal behavior. The results of the survey fix an inconsistency of the legal consciousness of the Russian population. On the one hand, citizens treat the law as an important value, on the other hand, they completely allow violation of the law. Such an attitude to the law is formed under the influence of various circumstances, including the activities of individual representatives of the authorities, which for citizens are guidelines and to some extent an excuse for their illegal behavior.