Development of Democracy in Post Communist States: Ideas of Justice in the Ukraine and Russia
Development of Democracy in Post Communist States: Ideas of Justice in the Ukraine and Russia

Summary/Abstract: During sociological research in Russia (N = 1612) and the Ukraine (N = 1003) the question arose: ‘How do you understand the notion of “justice”?’ In both countries the characteristic of a traditional societal system of norms and values prevails. Russians more often than Ukrainians define justice as a category of law. This is the evidence of the different models of political culture development in both countries (under the influence of the dominating ideology) – aligned with the state in Russia and with society in the Ukraine. The ideology of national revival and rehabilitation of historical justice peculiar to the Ukraine opposes the ideology of sovereign democracy in Russia. The analysis verifies the assumption that the Ukraine is heterogeneous regarding normative and value preferences of its population and that the Ukrainians’ representations of justice reflect their evaluation of the authorities and the dominating ideology.

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