Monitoring Institutional Change in the Soviet Union: Comparing Legislator and Citizen Perspectives

了解苏联乃至整个东欧目前正在发生的巨大政治、社会和经济变化，是社会科学面临的最重要挑战之一。该奖项再次支持旨在监测苏联舆论和研究苏联在民主化进程中挣扎的公众舆论和政治领导人之间关系的研究。具体地说，该项目以1990年对苏联公民的调查为基础，对俄罗斯联邦、乌克兰和立陶宛这三个共和国的苏联公民进行了第二次访谈。采访将衡量公众对机构改革的支持或反对程度。它们还将能够评估族裔和区域分裂的性质和程度，以及建立民主进程的其他潜在绊脚石。此外，与三个共和国的最高苏维埃成员和苏联人民代表大会当选代表的访谈将提供第一个系统的证据，证明领导人的个人偏好及其对公民需求和要求的看法。该项目完成后，将为发展苏联公民与其代表之间的关系提供系统证据。这些证据对于理解中央集权的威权国家向更加分散、开放和民主的政府演变的全球进程将是非常宝贵的。

Understanding the dramatic political, social and economic changes currently underway in the Soviet Union and through out Eastern Europe is one of the most important challenges facing the social sciences. This award renews support for research designed to monitor public opinion in the Soviet Union and to study relations between public opinion and political leaders as the Soviet Union struggles with the process of democratization. Specifically this project builds on an 1990 survey of Soviet citizens by conducting a second set of interviews with Soviet citizens in three republics: the Russian Federation, Ukraine, and Lithuania. The interviews will measure the extent of public support or opposition to the institutional changes. They also will permit assessments of the nature and extent of ethnic and regional divisions and other potential stumbling blocks to the establishment of democratic processes. In addition, interviews with members of the Supreme Soviet in each of the three Republics and the elected representatives to the USSR Congress of People's Deputies will provide the first systematic evidence of the leadership's personal preferences and their perceptions of citizen needs and demands. When completed this project will provide systematic evidence of the relations developing between Soviet citizens and their representatives. This evidence will be invaluable in understanding the global processes by which centralized, authoritarian states evolve toward more decentralized, open, and democratic governments.