Political mentality is a concept for a syncretic form of awareness of the socio-political system, which is characterized by the following characteristics
- is formed as a result of understanding of political experience by individual and collective political consciousness
- Expresses the values relevant to this political group.
The concept of "political mentality" is connected with the concept of "political man" developed by various humanities, including political science. Aristotle has already systematically developed the notion of a human being as a "political animal". This idea was based on the belief that the nature of human character and behavior can be fully revealed only in its attitude to the civil society, its institutions, traditions and customs. In Aristotle's opinion, a man out of politics no longer constitutes an element of the state, becoming either an animal or a deity.
Structure of political mentality:
The motivational block:
1. Needs (needs that form the motivational sphere of political psychology are the product of extrapolation of personal needs into it. The condition of extrapolation is their macrosocial attribution).
2. Values.
3. Attitudes (cognitive, emotional and behavioral components). Types or forms of political attitudes - opinions, dispositions, beliefs.
Cognitive block:
1. Interest (it depends on why a person is interested in politics, what exactly he or she is interested in and how the cognitive process is carried out).
2. Awareness.
3. Cognitive style (way of thinking).
The operational code (the structure of the operational code, according to S. Walker, includes some characteristics of the politician's representations and actualization of these representations at the behavioral level. We set the task to define the structure of the operational code of ordinary citizens - participants of the political process, voters).
The Russian political mentality is dominated by a certain image of state power. As an ideal of the state power, the Russian political mentality first of all authorizes the power of sole (responsible), strong (authoritative) and fair (moral). This "image" of power is focused on a moderate authoritarian ideal, which is always combined with collective democracy of an ochlocratic nature. As a result, the political mentality has developed a dual attitude to authority. On the one hand, there is a belief in authority, often endowed with charismatic features, and, accordingly, an expectation of a "miracle" from it, accompanied by a constant willingness to obey authority. On the other hand, it is the belief that authority itself should serve the "common cause", the national-state idea.
The Russian political mentality is characterized by the cult of state power, admiration for it as the embodiment of power and domination.
In the Russian political mentality, the state is identified with a large family. Hence, the attention of the national unity as a spiritual kinship and the desire to replace soulless legal norms with moral values.
The Russian political mentality puts the state power above the law, which forms such a political attitude as disbelief in the law as an embodiment of justice and a means of fighting against evil. The supremacy of the state over the law, on the one hand, generates legal nihilism and arbitrariness, and, on the other hand, tolerance of the Russian and passion for order.
Values orientations of Russians: about 80% of Russians consider a state based on the rule of law, in which people respect the law and the rule of law as the most important prerequisite for overcoming the crisis. However, this high percentage does not mean that the rule of law is a social value for most Russians. Here we face a conflict. On the one hand, there is a mechanical recognition of the principles of the rule of law, on the other hand, the alienation of citizens from the law.
More than half of the citizens of modern Russia have a civil legal consciousness, about 1/3 of the etatistic, 1/5 - the legal consciousness itself.
In the Russian political mentality, order is the basic value. The majority of Russians feel comfortable only in a situation of certainty, where there are specific prescriptions, what to do and how to do it. The situation of uncertainty, where everything that is not prohibited is allowed, and freedom of choice and freedom of action are allowed, annoying. Such a situation is assessed as disorder in Russian society.
In the Russian political mentality, order is associated with certain social prescriptions on how to live. Social and political prescriptions should concern all aspects of human life, the more prescriptions, the wider the scope of their activities, the more they restrict every person, the less freedom of choice they have, the more order in society. Therefore, in the Russian mentality, social order is inextricably linked to the state, the role of which is to regulate all social relations. The more the state issues various laws, the more thoroughly they regulate all aspects of society's life, the stronger and more reliable order seems to the Russian man.