Abstract
Currently, one of the relevant areas of political and psychological knowledge is the study of the content component of the images of power. The author in this article analyzes the image of the Government of the Russian Federation that has developed in the minds of Russian citizens. The image of power is the result of political perception, the formation of which is influenced by a combination of various factors: object, subjective, temporal, spatial, communicative. The theoretical basis of the study is the theory of political perception. The process of political perception is complicated by the fact that the individual’s attitude to power and its activity is formed not only as a result of access to the media, but also based on stereotypes inherent in the mass consciousness and based on the experience of the individual’s interaction with the government. The empirical basis was the data obtained as a result of a study aimed at studying the image of the Government of the Russian Federation in the minds of Russian citizens. The author of the article revealed some features of the perception of the Government of the Russian Federation by Russian citizens, for example, such as increasing the emotional level of perception and rejection of the current model of interaction in the "power-society" system, the need of citizens in a high-quality dialogue with a political institution. The article analyzes in detail the visual component of the image of government, as well as the subjective and objective factors that determine the process of political perception. The author comes to the conclusion that in the current realities of the political development of our country, there is some contradiction in the “power-society” system: even though confidence in power is declining, society is ready to compromise and dialogue.