Platform
A Just Russia's main values are fairness, freedom and solidarity. The party platform calls for a welfare state where all citizens are equal, the cliff between rich and poor is small, and individual rights are guaranteed. The state should be responsible for the well-being of the citizens, while citizens should be responsible for the effectiveness of the state. The party defines its ideology as "New Socialism of the 21st century", but emphasises that it does not wish to return to "Soviet bureaucratic socialism". In the party platform, New Socialism is defined as the antithesis of "barbarous, oligarchic capitalism". The ideology does not eliminate the market but transfers power over the market from the oligarchs to the people. For New Socialism, the individual is of central value.
Improving the socio-economic position of average Russians is the primary aim of A Just Russia. In the State Duma, the party emphasises its role as "constructive opposition" that opposes high-level corruption and supports further democratisation of the political system. In the 2007-2011 Duma, A Just Russia declared absolute opposition to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's government, voting against the government's budgets in 2010 and 2011, while remaining strongly supportive of President Dmitry Medvedev and his modernisation programme.
The party wishes to replace Russia's 13% flat income tax with progressive taxation, and demands that spending on employment programs is increased to 1% of GDP.
Although established as a centre-left party, under Sergey Mironov's leadership, the party's ideology became closer to social democracy and it presented itself as a socialist alternative to the Communist Party of the Russian Federation.
Read more about this topic: A Just Russia
Famous quotes containing the word platform:
“Do you know I believe that [William Jennings] Bryan will force his nomination on the Democrats again. I believe he will either do this by advocating Prohibition, or else he will run on a Prohibition platform independent of the Democrats. But you will see that the year before the election he will organize a mammoth lecture tour and will make Prohibition the leading note of every address.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“The use of literature is to afford us a platform whence we may command a view of our present life, a purchase by which we may move it.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I marched in with the men afoot; a gallant show they made as they marched up High Street to the depot. Lucy and Mother Webb remained several hours until we left. I saw them watching me as I stood on the platform at the rear of the last car as long as they could see me. Their eyes swam. I kept my emotion under control enough not to melt into tears.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)