Authoritarianism has a future in Russia. In the next two decades, the 1980s generation will start to join the higher echelons of Russian society. But the situation is such that the change of generation of the elites will have little effect on the transformation of the political regime. Or so the authors of research on “The Russian elite in 2020” have concluded

The 50-year anniversary of the march on Washington was celebrated recently in the US, but the famous ‘dream’ of its inspirer, Martin Luther King, is still a dream: over recent decades, the level of economic and social inequality between whites and African Americans has grown

The Russian Government is discussing a proposal on the administrative limitation of maximum interest rates on consumer loans. The reason is the state’s concern regarding citizens who fall into debt to banks and micro finance organizations. One of Russia’s partners in BRICS – South Africa – already has experience of such a solution. The HSE Center of Development published an analysis of this case in its ‘Banks: Statistics and Economics’ newsletter

The Second World War ended on September 2, 1945. A new study of human losses suffered by the Soviet Union and their consequences for subsequent generations was published in Demoscope Weekly, an HSE online journal

A child’s attitude towards school is formed by his parents and classmates. And, according to a new study published in Voprosy Obrazovaniya (Education Issues) magazine, the type of school doesn’t have a significant influence on his or her view

The structure of Russians’ income sources has changed. Pensioners are working more than before, while middle-aged Russians are working more and relying less on welfare; Russians are less frequently receiving child-related benefits. Farming has become less important for residents in rural areas. Sergey Vasin and Vladimir Kozlov presented a map of Russians’ income sources in the HSE online magazine Demoscope Weekly

The annual conference of the American Sociological Association was in New York this year. Among the 6,000 specialists discussing the current state of social sciences and society were 18 academics from the HSE

For a long time, retail in Russia developed without interference from government regulators, but the situation has changed dramatically in recent years. The state is now actively trying to control this sphere, but the effectiveness of such attempts is questionable, asserts Vadim Radaev in his recent paper.

The Kremlin wants to change its relations with the business elites. While one part of the ‘government vertical’ hopes to maintain the status-quo of the mid-2000s, another one trying to broaden the social base of government to include medium-sized businesses. But if the bureaucrats want to win support and improve the investment climate in Russia, representatives of other elites need to be drawn into the discussion

Women’s magazines, declaring itself as model of modern woman interests and promoters of actual trends, in point of fact promote 19th century values. That’s the conclusion Elena Meshkova has drawn in her research

Only 20% of residents in Qatar are native citizens of the country. The rest are migrant workers. Cheap workers come from the East, more expensive ones from the West. Trevor Johnston has studied the way this authoritarian regime uses deliberate segregation in order to maintain civil peace during this mass influx of migrant workers engaged in the economy of the country

The fact – well known to political consultants – that people tend to go along with the crowd can be explained by a brain mechanism which has helped our survival as a species. Every time we differ from others, our brain responds by triggering an 'error signal', causing us to change our opinion in favour of the majority, reveals a study by Vasily Klucharev