Attitudes towards democracy and the market in Belarus: what has changed and why it matters

Figures & data

Table 1. Elements for the question: “We would now like to know what you consider being the essential characteristics of democracy. Use this scale where 1 means ‘not at all an essential characteristic of democracy’ and 10 means ‘an essential characteristic of democracy.’”

Question	Not essential	Essential	Index
People choose their leaders in free elections	1	10	Liberal
Civil rights protect people from state oppression	1	10	Liberal
Women have the same rights as men	1	10	Liberal
Religious authorities ultimately interpret laws	1	10	Authoritarian
The army takes over when government is incompetent	1	10	Authoritarian
Governments tax the rich and subsidize the poor	1	10	Egalitarian
People receive state aid for unemployment	1	10	Egalitarian
The state makes people’s incomes equal	1	10	Egalitarian

Table 2. Elements for questions involving the level of state involvement in market dynamics and social issues

Statement	Scale		Statement	Index
We need larger income differences as incentives for individual effort	1	10	Incomes should be made more equal	Redistribution
People should take more responsibility to provide for themselves	1	10	Government should take responsibility that everyone is provided for	Redistribution
Private ownership of business and enterprises should be increased	1	10	Government ownership of business and enterprises should be increased	State involvement (in the market)
Competition is good. It stimulates people to work hard and develop new ideas	1	10	Competition is harmful. It brings out the worst of people	State involvement (in the market)

Figure 1. The five indices measuring views on democracy and the market in Belarus.

Figure 2. Correlation plot for individual variables across the five indices for the three survey years.

Figure 3. Results of Poisson regression on aggregate index scores.

Figure 4. Response variation by age on the five indices measuring views on democracy and the market in Belarus.

Figure 5. Proportional odds model showing relationship between trust and understandings of democracy, the state, and the market in Belarus.

Figure 6. Proportional odds model showing relationship between political attitudes (importance of emocracy) and understandings of democracy, the state, and the market in Belarus.

Figure 7. Proportional odds model showing relationship between political attitudes (voting and protest activity) and understandings of democracy, the state, and the market in Belarus.