Middle Class: System of Values and Perceptions on Country’s Development Vector

Journal of Economic Sociology. 2015. Vol. 3. No. 1. P. 39–54.

Мареева С. В.

The paper estimates the share of Russian population that belong to the middle class and analyzes their values, standards, and ideas of the nation’s future vector of development. The analysis is based on nationwide representative polls conducted by the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2013–2014. The paper shows that everyday values of the Russian middle class are modernized and proactive and thus are different from those of other population groups; however, the middle class barely stands out from other groups in terms of political values and the vision of Russia’s future. As of now, the consensus view of the middle class (as well as other groups of Russians) is that Russia cannot just copy the Western “route” and needs to take its own way defined by its people’s values, standards and attitudes to some basic non-political institutions such as private property, rule of law etc. 

Ключевые слова: Middle class, living standards, political attitudes, middle strata, cultural values