Образ идеального губернатора в глазах российской молодежи

Полис. Политические исследования. 2025. № 2. С. 78–95.

Дейнека О. С., Аверьянова С. А., Maksimenko A.

 This study is devoted to analysing perceptions of an ideal (socially approved) governor among 
Russian youth by evaluating the effectiveness of his/her activities, personal qualities and communication in blogs. To assess how young people perceive the ideal governor, an online study was conducted of 391 
young respondents aged 18 to 35 years in 2022 and 477 in 2024 (additionally, 223 people over the age 
of 36 participated in the study as a control group in 2024) using the author’s express methods (tested 
for reliability and design validity) and taking into account the political values of the respondents and 
their degree of dependence on social networks. The results of the study showed that the image of the 
ideal governor among young people is marked by the qualities of moral and functional authority, the 
requirements for which increased in 2024; The governors’ activities were assessed more on the results 
of their work (especially in the field of social support for the population, industrial development and 
infrastructure), rather than on the political orientation and effectiveness of blog communication (with 
the strengthening of the role of loyalty to the government and the president in 2024). Nevertheless, 
the quality of political communication in the blogosphere was important for young people, especially 
among those showing a high level of dependence on social networks. Preferences and evaluation of the 
effectiveness of the governor’s communication on blogs also differed due to the political values of the 
respondents. Dependence on social networks turned out to be higher among young people than among 
the older generation, but in 2024 it became lower than in 2022 as a result of government measures to 
avoid an information bias among citizens. The data obtained by original psychological methods do not 
contradict the research of other authors and can be used in practice, in particular, in monitoring the 
image of regional authorities against the background of new challenges in the life of the country.

Keywords: блогосфера, blogosphere, российская молодежь, Russian youth, цифровые коммуникации, digital communications, the image of the governor, assessment of the qualities of the governor's personality, requirements for the governor's blog, образ губернатора, эффективность деятельности губернатора, оценка качеств личности губернатора, governor’s blog, effectiveness of the governor’s activities, блог губернатора