The development of party identification in post-soviet societies

The prevailing view among scholars who study the former USSR is that party identification and party loyalty may take years, even decades to develop. The public has been characterized as anti-party, distrustful of political parties, and indifferent toward parties in general. Our data show that not only has party identification begun to develop, but that a majority of Russians and Ukrainians identify with one party or another and they share attitudes and views of political systems with party leaders. In addition, both party leaders and partisans in the general public have a sophisticated understanding of how the parties are arrayed along axes of political conflict and where they fit in the political spectrum.