Social attitudes of the population towards the social role of the state in Russia and Germany

The article presents the results of a comparative study of attitudes toward social role of the state and the factors of their formation in Russia and Germany. The study was conducted on the data of the European Social Survey (ESS, 2008). The author analyzes not only the data on Germany as a whole, but also on its Western and Eastern lands. The purpose of this comparative study is to answer the question if there are still differences in the attitudes of the population of West and East Germany, and whether the socialist past influences the welfare attitudes of East Germans. The comparison of East Germany and Russia helps not only to identify common factors associated with the influence of the socialist past, but also to understand the specifics of Russian welfare attitudes.