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410 THE ISA HANDBOOK IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIOLOGY

control over regional government than in was a perception of much more foreign
most other countries of Europe. investment, some increase in tourists, and in
Since Russia established a new political Russia, of foreign workers. There is little
regime in 1993, its official position is that its increase in perceived impact from the global
political system is democratic. Even after a media, but the democratic values of tolerance
shift was made (after the re-election of Putin changed remarkably during this time.
in 2004) to more centralized political control A few of the variables highlight the
in a strong presidential system by a law cur- changes from 1995 to 2001 in Poland
tailing direct elections of governors of and from 1995 to 2003 in Russia. The main
regions in favor of appointment by the cen- macro difference of specific political rele-
tral government, the official interpretation is vance to globalization between these two
that Russian democracy is compatible with countries was that Poland in 2001 was in the
the democratic standards subscribed to by midst of preparations for joining the EU,
members of the EU. scheduled for 2004, and moving to greater
Data about what happened to the democratic global engagement, while in Russia there
values, beliefs, and practices of local political were clear signals that the Presidency would
leaders from 1995 to 2001–03 will be high- be strengthening central institutions at the
lighted, with Sweden as a contrasting ‘control’ expense of regional and local autonomy. That
country. (Sweden stands out as the ‘most dem- process appears to have continued from the
ocratic’ country of all the 29 countries in this time of the study throughout the terms of
study on nearly all the comparative measures office of President Putin.
used in this research.) The evidence is that the
big changes in the newly ‘globalized’countries
occurred at the very beginning of the demo- Democratic values
cratic ‘revolutions’, during the early 1990s.
These changes were accompanied by signifi- The democratic values of leaders in two
cant turnovers among the people occupying countries have changed significantly within
the full range of positions of local government, this short time frame, increasing in Poland
following changes in the incumbents and insti- and dropping in Russia. To measure this, a
tutions at higher levels of government. Demscore was constructed from three items
After the ‘shocks’of institutional and lead- from each of three democratic value scales –
ership changes associated with the political political equality, pluralism (acceptance of
collapse of the ‘last great empire’, the Soviet conflicts) and minority (vs. majority) rights. 5
Union, there is continued impact of the Although many refinements are possible and
global on the local leaders’ perception of the alternative scales were carefully explored,
importance of foreign investments. When this nine item scale turned out to
asked about the impact of the global on their be the broadest and clearest measure for
localities in terms of investment, exports, differentiating among the 16,000 or so lead-
imports, pollution, foreign workers, there ers interviewed across many cultures and

Table 27.1 Demscore (mean score)
1
1991 1995 1999 2001(03)
Poland 0.10(N=448) 0.13(N=443)
Russia −0.10(N=1068) −0.16(N=719)
Sweden 0.45(N=440) 0.48(N=438)
1 mean of nine items each with ‘agree’, ‘tend to disagree’, ‘disagree’ as possible answers.
Note: Ns are for individual leaders nationally and are the same for all tables.