Is it possible to even measure public opinion in a totalitarian society?
this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2023
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a totalitarian society
Afaik Russia isn't totalitarian yet. They're "only" authoritarian. In the latter there's still a lot of private life left that isn't dictated by the state and therefore a lot of room to wiggle in a survey. That obviously doesn't mean you can get surveys with a western standard, but you can indeed gauge public opinion. Real authoritarian regimes are actually quite rare. I can't think of any examples besides North Korea and Afghanistan that clearly fit at the moment.
The poll was done a month ago, let’s see how it plays out after recent 170k mobilization.
And after the “election” Russia has coming up
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Their survey revealed those who favour peace far outnumber pro-war voices, with more Russians supporting the departure of the country's troops from Ukraine than not.
The US-based think tank claimed Vladimir Putin will centre his re-election campaign on "Russia’s alleged domestic stability and increased criticism of the West instead of focusing on the war."
The Kremlin has criminalised criticism of the war and spends millions on pro-war propaganda, meaning they may not reflect the realities of the situation.
Chronicles, founded by Russian opposition politician Aleksei Miniailo, says its surveys offer an accurate snapshot of public opinion, however.
One reason why support for the war is falling could be that Russians are increasingly feeling the pinch and seeing a more gloomy future due to the fallout from the invasion, as a separate survey has shown.
Putin announced a significant increase in military spending this week, with about 30% of the country's budget directed toward the armed forces in 2024.
The original article contains 435 words, the summary contains 157 words. Saved 64%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
I saw some article about polling in the last week or two where a lot or maybe most of the people who now wanted peace still didn’t think they should give up Crimea.
Feels like a very have your cake and eat it too kinda stance. “We didn’t do anything wrong but the consequences of our actions suck so we should prob tone it down… but to reiterate, we weren’t in the wrong”
How can anybody make an opinion poll in Russia that is even remotely accurate? This is just rubbish.
The overall result is probably not very accurate but if the methodology has not changed then you could try to gauge something based on change from poll to poll.
There was an interesting methodology I read about. Basically, they read 4 statements and asked how many (not which!) the interviewee agreed with.
Then they did the same thing with 5 statements, where the 5th was what they actually wanted to find out. With a large enough sample size on both and the power of math, they can essentially deduct test 1 from test 2 to find out how many people agree with the 5th statement without anybody outing themselves to the FSB.
sohnds interestind, do u know what the methodology is called?
Sorry, I read about this technique over a year ago, and I can't seem to formulate the right Google search to re-find it.
It is called the "unmatched count technique" or "list experiment." It has a wider error range, so you need to poll more people, but you get honest answers.
Love it, such a smart technique