Ethnocentrism in Russia and Ukraine

This dissertation is an investigation into the causes and consequences of ethnocentrism in Russia and Ukraine. It expands on the current literature in political science which has focused exclusively on data from the United States. By examining new countries, this work increases our knowledge about the characteristics of ethnocentrism and its effects. I also go beyond what has been done in previous work by examining ethnocentrism’s variable effects on different ethnic groups in a society.

The dissertation is broken down into two parts. The first half, chapters one, two and three, look at the relationship between ethnocentrism and different ethnic groups. Using the ideas of William Sumner as a starting point, I investigate the differences in in-group and out-group attitudes across high-status and low-status ethnic groups using survey data from the United States, Russia and Ukraine. I also explore how group status influences individual levels of ethnocentrism.

In chapters four and five I use ethnocentrism to help explain individual-level foreign policy attitudes and vote choice in Ukraine. Using survey data and multivariate logistic and linear regression models, I show that ethnocentrism has distinct effects on ethnic Russians and ethnic Ukrainians living in Ukraine and that these effects are substantively significant. Ethnocentric Russians in Ukraine are much more likely than ethnic Ukrainians or non-ethnocentric ethnic Russians to support integration with Russia, to support fighting terrorism and to oppose NATO membership. They were also significantly less likely to vote for Viktor Yushchenko during the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election.