The Value Bases of the Civic Consciousness of the Russian Youth

The article presents the results of an analysis of political values as fundamental foundations of young people’s civic consciousness. The theoretical basis of the study is the political-psychological approach and the provisions of Ronald Inglehart’s conception. Political values in this work are defined as semantic dominants in the sphere of politics. They are hierarchically ordered, related to the needs of the individual, and they regulate political behavior. The empirical basis of the study is materials from the all-Russian representative survey of the Russian youth. The hierarchy of young people’s political values was determined on the basis of an evaluative scaling of value concepts. The survey also included questions to determine citizens’ value orientations on the scale “materialism/post-materialism” used in the World Value Survey. The results of the study show that human rights, peace, security, freedom, justice, law and order are important political values for the Russian youth. These value categories have no ideological connotations. The authors show that over the past decade there has been a change in young people’s preferences towards the values of post-materialism. At present, there is a relative balance between the materialistic and post-materialistic value orientations of young people. This can be explained by the generational heterogeneity of modern youth, as well as by the peculiarities of their socialization conditions. The analysis of the value orientations of different age cohorts in the structure of the youth allowed highlighting several key points. Depending on the age of the respondent, there is an increase in the importance of the values of legality, patriotism and personal initiative. The inverse relationship-a decrease in significance from younger cohorts to older ones-is revealed in relation to the values of human rights, equality, freedom and justice. The authors conclude that post-materialistic values are gaining stronger position in the minds of the younger generation. However, it is premature to say that there has been a value shift towards post-materialism. Actualized post-materialist values encourage young people’s civic engagement in real and virtual spaces.

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