Political Science Students of Ukraine and Moldova: Political and Ideological Self-identification

Abstract

The article is devoted to the identification of political and ideological self-identification of students of political science communities of Ukraine (Lviv, Kharkiv, Simferopol) and Moldova (Chisinau) in the period 2012–2013. This work is part of a larger study that captures the state of Ukrainian political science in 2012-2013 and provides a better understanding of the political, social, ethnic, economic, gender and disciplinary views of students on the eve of the Revolution of Dignity. The empirical basis of this article is a survey of bachelors, specialists and masters at the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, the V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, the V. Vernadsky Tavriya National University
and the State University of Moldova. In total, more than 350 people were surveyed.
The answers of the respondents allowed revealing several tendencies related to the prevalence of certain ideologies in different student communities, the presence of a gender dimension of political and ideological self-identification of students of Ukraine and Moldova, etc. One of the most symptomatic trends is the prevalence of nationalist ideas, especially among first-year students. As an explanation, it was suggested that the demand for national-democratic and nationalist ideologies among students is a protest reaction of the new generation to (geo)political and other challenges. Generally, despite the expectations, the ideological preferences of the Ukrainian and Moldovan students do not reflect the sympathies of the population of Ukraine and Moldova as a whole or their respective regions.
The final part of the article reveals the connection and internal coherence of the ideological orientations of students based on foreign policy issues. As a result, it was concluded that political science students in Ukraine (and Moldova) demonstrate what can be called the logic of a border state. Its essence encapsulates the mode of interaction as the most rational, which helps avoid direct pressure. It envisages cooperation at the level of configurations of states and/or international organizations capable of resisting the pressure of individual actors, no matter how powerful they might be.