In the modern world there are significant changes in demographics, politics, economy, culture and institutional structures due to globalization, modernization and information warfare. This leads to social consequences, such as isolation and anomie, distrust of the institutions of state and society, exclusion from power and absenteeism. These processes are exacerbated by the deep transformational changes occurring in the post-Communist space, inadequate horizontal communication and low civic engagement. In these circumstances the problem to strengthen trust at the vertical (institutional) and horizontal (interpersonal) level is of particular importance. The article presents the results of the ISEDT RAS opinion polls on social trust and civil society carried out in the Vologda Oblast in the late 2000s – early 2010s. It defines the nature and dynamics of interpersonal and institutional trust in the region and indicates the features of social attitudes in 2014 on the background of the deteriorating international situation and consolidation around the personality of the RF President. The article presents cross-national and national comparisons. The work discusses the features of electoral behavior of the region’s population. It stresses the need to strengthen social trust and suggests the ways to solve the problem
Keywords
institutional trust, interpersonal trust, distrust, elections, social atomism