The development of democracy in contemporary Ukraine faces serious difficulties. Despite the presence of formal traits of democracy (a constitution, elections, democratic institutions), democratization is hampered by a lack of citizen participation in decision-making, on both local and national levels. Observers notice political anomy in Ukrainian society, and go so far as to declare that today's Ukraine is essentially an uncivil society. The evidence includes the lack of a protest movement, the failure of professional groups and small civil associations to defend their rights or raise the living standards of common people, and the absence of civil disobedience against unjust policies and corruption in government.
Recent sociological and psychological scientific research data provides evidence of the significant impact of rigid attitudes, beliefs and stereotypes (both behavioral and cognitive) on social-political life in post-Soviet countries. Russian psychologists explored four psychological types, which are inherent to contemporary Russians. They revealed that a great part of the population feel themselves to be passive objects, waiting to be managed. Russian psychologists argued that adaptation to new conditions of free market and democratic institutions, the urge to participate in social-political processes, depends on "subject-subject" personal orientation in the "I - society" relationship. Our own recent research showed a low level of social-political activity among contemporary Ukrainian women, but an increase of the individual "subject" orientation in private life.