Eurasian Integration Yearbook 2012

Igor V. Zadorin. “Monitoring social moods in the post-Soviet space:EDB Integration Barometer”The Economics of the Post-Sovietand Eurasian IntegrationUnion results from intrinsic objective and economic factors such as geographicproximity, trade and agricultural relations, infrastructure and a common historicbackground. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, cooperation on Eurasianintegration has become an essential element in the formation of economicrelations in the region, promoting social and economic stability, and has turnedinto an effective mechanism of comprehensive regional interaction.Government bodies, business structures and the expert community thereforeneed accurate and methodical sociological information describing the natureof integration processes, including analysis of how citizens of the former Sovietcountries relate to integration and institutions of integration. The deepeningof economic integration within the framework of the Customs Union and theSingle Economic Space of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus intensifies the needfor systematic, highly-professional work of this kind.At the same time, foreign policy activities in the post-Soviet states areinterwoven with public opinion, and integration or disintegration efforts have totake account of the mass consciousness and factors affecting prevailing moods.The average person’s opinion on foreign policy is therefore an essential factorin forming internal policy.There are now many government and private research companies that carry outstudies and polls of the population on a variety of topics operating in almost allcountries of the former Soviet Union. However, until recently, there have beenno institutes devoted to conducting regular evaluation of the foreign policy,foreign economic and other integration preferences of citizens of the region.The EDB Integration Barometer project was designed to fill this significantknowledge gap by developing the necessary methodology and conductingannual social studies on this range of issues.A terminological problem arises in the study of integration, related to theneed to differentiate between cooperation (high-level collaboration betweenstates, directed towards the achievement of common goals) and integration(interdependent economies, common “rules of the game” for transactions,shared culture). However, it is impossible to design tools for mass polls basedon the nuances of these terms: studies involving the populace require simpleand unambiguous formulations. Therefore, for the convenience of the study,we have equated the terms “integration preferences” and “attraction betweenthe countries evident in the views of the population of these countries”.The “attraction” construct combines both possible cooperation and possibleintegration, and even a general positive disposition to people in the othercountry. The decision to define the subject in this way allowed us to avoid anyartificial limitations imposed by terminology.Taking into account this reason, the goal of the study may be formulated asfollows: to evaluate the degree of economic and humanitarian affinity of the CISEurasian Development Bank151