Using maternity capital: Citizen distrust of Russian family policy

Abstract

During the last decade Russian politics have aimed at stimulating the birth rate, most famously by the maternity capital program. This article provides results from the first extensive study of citizen use and attitudes to this benefit and concludes that Russian women and families harbor a deep distrust of the program and Russian social policy, as it sends contradictory messages combining paternalistic and liberal trends. Many eligible mothers have not activated their capital due to various bureaucratic obstacles they encounter. Contrary to the expectations of economists and sociologists, the results indicate that middle-class families have more resources to use their capital.

Pronatalist Policies and Fertility in Russia: Estimating Tempo and Quantum Effects

“…They base their estimates on the Gender and Generation Survey for Russian Federation (the 2011 round) and argue that the 2011 wave of the survey shows that "intentions to have another child were virtually the same as in the 2004 or 2007 rounds" (Frejka/Zakharov 2013). Other scholars who examined the use of the "maternal capital" programme and the attitudes to this family support measure point to the distrust of the policy by Russian women and families as well as to the many bureaucratic obstacles that discourage its utilization (Borozdina et al 2016). Most demographers who specialize in Russian population policy note that it is too early to make a conclusion about the outcome of the policy of 2007, since the data on completed cohort fertility is not yet available.…”

The emergence and evolution of cognition‐ and affect‐based trust in Russian entrepreneurial ventures

“…Regardless of whether this stance of generalized social distrust is attributed to the legacy of the communist past (Hosking, 2013(Hosking, , 2018Rose, 1994) or assumed to be deeply rooted in the Russian cultural tradition (Batjargal, 2006(Batjargal, , 2007a(Batjargal, , 2007b, it exerts a strong influence on the views and attitudes of contemporary Russian population. The characteristics of this low-trust environment are reflected in the general distrust of business (Rose, 1994), the lack of confidence in major companies and economic system as a whole (Shlapentokh, 2006), disappointment and disbelief in the country's social policy (Borozdina, Rotkirch, Temkina, & Zdravomyslova, 2016), and the loss of trust in Russian financial institutions (Rock & Solodkov, 2001), in particular private commercial banks (Spicer & Okhmatovskiy, 2015;Spicer & Pyle, 2002).…”

Petr and Fevronia, and the Day of Family, Love and Faithfulness. Pronatalism and Unstable Gender Order in Today’s Russia

“…13. Borozdina, E., et al (2016) "Using materinity capital: Citizen distrust of Russian family policy", p. 62.…”