Political and Non-political Forms of Citizen Participation in Public Life in Russia

Abstract

The article is devoted to the consideration of political and non-political component of public opinions expression in contemporary Russia. The authors highlight the most popular channels for expressing public opinion on pressing issues through existing public institutions. The participation of population in the existing civic and social practices is analyzed, and the potential for increasing civic and political involvement is revealed. The paper focuses on the reasons for the low level of citizen political participation in Russia, formulates potential ways to solve this problem, including usage of modern communication tools. The classification of the most popular sectors of civic participation is also presented. Based on the analysis of sociological data, the authors highlight the relationship between the complexity of public participation and the number of citizens involved in various forms of civic initiatives. The article presents the socio-political agenda of the protests of 2017-2018 in Russia as well as its reasons. A forecast for the development of the protest agenda in future is also given in the article. In conclusion there is a forecast for the further development of political and non-political citizen participation in public life of the country and solution of pressing problems such as socio-political, economic, environmental and other spheres of public life.