armenianow.com
August 6, 2004

Culture Shock: Survey reveals bleak outlook among social/political experts

By Zhanna Alexanyan
ArmeniaNow reporter

A survey of sociologists and political scientists has found that only 16
percent of the specialists believe the republic is “going toward democracy”.
Over the past several months, the Armenian Center for National and
International studies, ACNIS, has conducted a series of such surveys. The
most recent, released last week concerned “The Challenges of Culture and
Value System in Armenia”.
Fifty experts participated in the survey, the results of which were
summarized in a seminar at the center in Yerevan July 29.
Armenia, the majority of experts concluded, is leaning more toward
authoritarianism than democracy.
According to experts the results of the study show that, after 13 years of
independence, the public has not formulated a value system. And everyday
life is orientated more toward the past than the future.
“In the presence of today’s conditions we are inclined toward anti-popular
regime politics,” said the center’s Styopa Safaryan, a political analyst,
who presented the study results.
According to the experts (who represent a variety of political persuasions),
democracy in Armenia will be strengthened in five to 25 years. Eight percent
were completely pessimistic, saying it will be 100 years before democracy
flourishes.
The study asked specialists to identify obstacles, if any, that hamper the
democratic process.
The onus for change, the experts say, is on government officials.
“If 30% is the result of this or that peculiarity of the public, the rest is
the result of government actions,” Safaryan said. “This all can be explained
as follows: Changes in Armenia come from above and it is natural that the
solution of such a problem is seen to come from a vertical direction (from
high to low).”
Some of the 31 questions addressed cultural/spiritual attitudes. Here, too,
the experts do not paint an optimistic picture. (Find complete results on
)
Safaryan said opinions of experts in this category were driven by the
“changes from above” model and that spiritual/cultural change must also
start from the top.
“In my opinion, this can offer significant thought for our cultural elite,”
Safaryan said.
Yerevan State University professor Vardan Khachatryan said such ideologies
“can only be built on real existing classes. But nowadays, there are not any
classes in our reality.”
Khachatryan disagreed that the study reflects “dispair” and said Armenian
history favors recovery.
“I am sure that it will not go this way, because a nation which has
centuries-old culture and which passes through genocide cannot be negative,”
Khachatryan said.
ACNIS expert Hovsep Khurshudyan said the main aim of the study was to prove
already existing theories and make clear the positive and negative opinions.
We think that the situation in our cultural value system is too bad,” he
said. “But there is hope and experts see that and nobody behaves like
ostrich, hiding the head in the sand. In the discussions some ways out were
found and we must work on them.”