Image of legislative branch in contemporary Russian citizens' perception: problem Definition

Since Ch. Montesquieu described the concept of separation of powers it became unconditional value for political science theory and determined the appreciation of stable functioning legislative branch as a basic instrument and condition of democracy process. If political experts regard this concept as a norm of political science then Russian citizens' attitude to legislative powers in general and its institutions particularly isn't clear. Russian sociologists researches indicate that about half of citizens don't trust State Duma actions and about third part of them are sure that the parliament as institution is not necessary for political system. The current image of Russian parliament is determined by contextual, communicative and psychological factors such as: in Russian political culture there are no reference representations of separation of powers; legislative actions changed the configuration of political system; negative image in media as dependent institution with predictable actions and others. In the research of sociology and psychology of politics branch of political science department of Lomonosov Moscow State University we received the next results. On the rational level citizens do not mention legislative institutions spontaneously in political power system description. In focused questions about place and functions of legislative powers in political system we noticed that in public opinion there is mixed knowledge and understanding of roles of State Duma, its' reference and really executed functions. On the unconscious level in the projective test "Drawing" the legislative institutions appear in drawings describing power as system and structure with objects and connections. The typical image of parliament institutions they are placed below the president and executive power institutions, near but without connections (or with connections through other institutions). These data from researches of power perception and political mentality shows that topic demands additional research with focused methodology.

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