Ukrainian value context for identifying the perpetrators of corruption
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Abstract
Relevance. Psychological research on corruption focuses on its personal and interpersonal aspects. The value nature of corruption as a social phenomenon is less studied. The task of psychology should be to establish appropriate social and psychological dependencies.
The purpose of the study is to highlight and interpret the results of massive psycho-semantic study of value aspects of the search for perpetrators of corruption.
Methodology. The research was conducted within the framework of psycho-semantic monitoring of mass political consciousness. Using the method «face-to-face»,1199 respondents were interviewed in the all-Ukrainian sample (except for the occupied Crimea and part of Donbas). The question about the probable perpetrators of corruption was correlated with 52 statements concerning different circumstances of the respondents’ socio-political and personal life. Factor and comparative analysis were used.
Results. The respondents who defended pro-Ukrainian values were more active in blaming Ukrainian citizens than Zelenskyi’s or Poroshenko’s governments. On the contrary, the pro-Russian people were more likely to blame Poroshenko’s government than Zelenskyi’s one or Ukrainian citizens. They also blamed the former Ukrainian authorities or avoided blaming the perpetrators. The reformist respondents blamed Ukrainian citizens more than Zelenskyi’s or Poroshenko’s government. Instead, those in anti-reform positions accused all Ukrainian authorities more than Ukrainian citizens. The respondents who were inclined to protest blamed Zelenskyi’s government more clearly than Ukrainian citizens. The respondents with the internal locus of control were more active in accusing Poroshenko’s government than Zelenskyi’s one or citizens of Ukraine. Blaming from the people who had the external locus was converse.
Conclusions. The value context of the search for perpetrators of corruption in Ukraine is due to the division according to pro-Ukrainian and pro-Russian values, reformist and anti-reformist attitudes, the level of protest sentiments, and the locus of control of behavior. The respondents’ commitment to certain worldview values determines the direction of their assessments of the agents of public and political life. An important factor in such assessments is the power-oligarchic context.It can be noticed the respondents’ attempts, which look like defensive self-justification, to oppose themselves and ordinary citizens in general to other agents of probable corruption.
Prospects for research may be to identify the reasons for citizens’ excessive focus on value prejudices and to develop means to encourage them to more constructive ways of solving problems of corruption.
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References
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