SGER: Monitoring Political Change in the Soviet Union

该奖项由探索性研究小额赠款机制支持。苏联正在经历前所未有的政治改革。这些改革正在使政治机构与公众之间的关系发生相应的变化。由于公民个体正在发挥扩大的公民作用，调查研究对于理解苏联正在兴起的新政治是必不可少的。这个项目需要研究三个苏维埃共和国：俄罗斯联邦、爱沙尼亚和乌克兰公民的政治态度和政治参与。这项研究采访了1600名苏联公民，并与莫斯科政治与国际研究中心的学者合作进行。尽快完成这项研究是至关重要的。学者们以前从未有机会研究共产主义政治制度的民主化。研究人员必须迅速采取行动，在发生太多变化之前建立一个衡量公众意见的基准。此外，如果这个项目被推迟，未来的事件，如政治动荡，可能会使进行系统严格的调查变得不可能。所有材料将被编目并存档，供其他对研究苏联政治变化感兴趣的社会科学家使用。这个项目应该大大增进我们对共产主义政治体制中的民主化进程的理解。

This award is supported through the Small Grants for Exploratory Research mechanism. The Soviet Union is experiencing unprecedented political reform. These reforms are producing corresponding changes in the relations between political institutions and the public. Because the individual citizen is playing an expanded civic role, survey research is essential for understanding the new politics emerging in the Soviet Union. This project entails research on political attitudes and political participation among the citizens in three Soviet republics: the Russian Federation, Estonia and the Ukraine. The study involves interviews with 1600 Soviet citizens and is conducted in cooperation with scholars from the Center for Political and International Studies in Moscow. It is critical that this research be done as soon as possible. Scholars have never before had an opportunity to study the democratization of a communist political system. Researchers must act quickly to establish a baseline measure of public opinion before too much change occurs. Moreover, if this project is delayed, future events, such as political turmoil, might make it impossible to conduct systematic rigorous surveys. All materials will be catalogued and archived for use by other social scientists interested in studying political change in the Soviet Union. The project should add considerably to our understanding of the democratization process in a communist political system.