Political protests are one of the effective ways for citizens to influence authority. Despite a widespread opinion about the preeminent role of opposition parties in the formation of protests, some research shows that the activity of ordinary citizens, activists is more valued in this matter. However, in his article a professor of George Washington University Julian G. Waller shows that everything is ambiguous. Perception of the impact of an opposition party on political protests depends on political beliefs of citizens as well as on demographic characteristics. On the presentation of the article «Popular Perceptions and the De Facto Role of Political Parties in the Euromaidan Protests of 2013-2014» this result was covered in more detail.
On June 4, 2017, the annual festival ‘The Whole World at HSE’ took place in the courtyard of the HSE building on Shabolovka Street. In our photo report, we present lectures, workshops, Armenian dances, Mongolian sweets, the nardi game from Azerbaijan, and many other things that people saw at the festival.
Do public councils matter for development of civil society? Or their activity is just window dressing? Actually, according to research, these state agencies play a rather important role. For instance, the council attached to MVD takes part in sponsor programs aimed at development of the region as well as controls police activity. On the presentation of the article «Managed Civil Society and the Realities of Police Oversight in Russia» the professor of University of Massachusetts Amherst Lauren A. McCarthy spoke about this in more detail.
The relationships between the government and operators are regulated by a contract. In theory such contracts offer a choice among a continuum of options, but due to the complexity, it is impossible to realize them. Therefore the government usually offers a contract with just two alternatives, for instance, a fixed-price or a cost-plus one. However, using such binary contracts instead of the ones obtained in theory leads to a sufficient decrease in social welfare. On the presentation of the article «Full versus binary menus: What are the welfare gains?» the professor of Paris School of Economics David Martimort told us how, actually, big the loss of the society is.
After the collapse of the Communist system left parties found themselves in a difficult situation. Some of them preferred to adapt to the reality and changed radical views to more democratic ones, while others remained faithful to their ideology. According to research, the last managed to retain support of workers and lower middle class. However, those left parties that had become more democratic lost their traditional constituency, most of which turned to radical right parties. On the presentation of the article «The Left Parties Choices and The Emergence of The Radical Right» the postgraduate student of Columbia University Maria Snegovaya explained why that happened.
Topic: "Do institutions cause social trust? Evidence from an institutional reform"
Interpersonal trust has a great impact on life quality and economic development. What are its origins? Why are people in some countries inclined to trust each other while in others they are not? In his work "Do institutions cause social trust? Evidence from an institutional reform» NRU HSE research fellow Denis Ivanov told us how police reform and control of corruption can influence the level of social trust.
Topic: "Elections, Protest and Trust in Government: A Natural Experiment from Russia"
co-authored with Timothy Frye
What influences a level of trust between a government and citizens? It seems that one of key factors that determine it is fair elections. However, according to some studies, in autocracies post-election protests play an important role in the development of the trust of population. For instance, in Russian, an attitude of citizens toward the government is significantly improved in case such protests are not forbidden by the authorities. On the seminar dedicated to the article «Elections, Protest and Trust in Government: A Natural Experiment from Russia» the professor of NRU HSE Ekaterina Borisova spoke about that in more detail.
Due to the ability to influence people’s sentiments, mass media is often called the fourth power. Because of this, government usually tries to establish some sort of censure in order to control information provided to the population. However, what is the effect of mass media in political sphere without such control? Particularly, how does it affect turnout? In course of experiments it was revealed that in Russia the presence of independent TV in a region increases turnout in it. The professor of NRU HSE Michael Rochlitz spoke about this and other results on the presentation of an article «Does Independent Media Matter in a Non-Democratic Election? Experimental Evidence from Russia».
Millions of people around the world watch football championships, rooting for a country team, and national team players strive for victory in order to earn fame for themselves, for their country and not to let their fans down. How can a team win a football match? According to some researches, together with players’ talent one of the components of the success is a level of social capital in the country, which positively influences the quality of team performance. Presenting an article «The role of social capital in collective action problem: the case of national football teams», the professor of NRU HSE Inna Zaytseva spoke about this result in more detail.HSE Seminar on Political Economy
What is the most efficient way to organize procurement? On the one hand, outsourcing procurement procedure to authorized agencies, which operate in the competitive environment, must lead to a decrease in costs. On the other hand, inasmuch as they belong to public sector, using such organizations do not solve such problems as corruption in sphere of procurement. On the presentation of an article «Corruption perception and competition in public procurement: empirical evidence from Russian regions» the professor of HSE Elena Podkolzina told wether it is better for a procurer to organize procurement himself or delegate this procedure to authorized agencies.
