Political Preferences of Young Voters in Contemporary Russia

Abstract

The article is devoted to the political preferences of young voters in contemporary Russia’s elections. Building on the conclusions of their previous research on the relationship between modernisation and political pluralism in Russian regions, the authors attempt to evaluate the role of the age factor in voting behaviour by means of correlation and regression analysis, using as control variables the factors of modernization tested by them earlier. Their research showed that the perception that young voters are more likely to support liberal and democratic parties than older generations is not entirely true. Voters aged 18 to 24 were indeed more prone to vote for opposition parties, but not necessarily liberal and democratic ones. In the 2016 Duma elections, the caricature neo-Stalinists from Communists of Russia benefited the most from the support of the youngest category of voters; in the elections to regional assemblies in 2016—2021 the radical imperialists from the Liberal Democratic Party did it. In the Duma elections of 2021 the greatest support from the youngest age cohort received, on the one hand, the “systemic opposition” in the face of the Communist Party and the Liberal Democratic Party, and on the other hand, the debutant of the election campaign, the New People Party, that adheres to liberal positions in the economic sphere, but is quite loyal to the existing regime.