The article is devoted to the study of the formation of the political leader's image. The relevance of this topic is due to the strengthening of democratic institutions in Russia, so the problem of the image of a political leader and its introduction into the mass consciousness has acquired decisive importance. Specificity of the political space in modern society is such that student youth form, as a rule, their perceptions about politicians not as a result of direct contact with them, but on the basis of symbolic representations of the latter in media space, in the media, in assessments and judgments of relatives and acquaintances. In this regard, the assessment of the image of a modern political leader by student youth is timely and relevant for study. To this end, in the spring of 2016 a sociological survey was conducted. The objects of sociological research were students of Astrakhan universities, and the subject of the study was the attitude and perception of the students by the personality of the political leader. The aim of the study was to study the image of the political leader in the assessments of student youth. The conducted sociological research allowed to draw the following conclusions, the image of the political leader today is a strong personality with high business and moral qualities, on which the economy and politics of modern Russia depends. The main characteristics of the political leader's image are: high moral and moral qualities, patriotism, professional, business and Political skills, high level of education, family. The main factors shaping the image of the modern political leader are the political and economic situation in the country, as well as political advertising and political stereotypes. The level of awareness of student youth about the political elite of the Russian Federation as a whole is higher than that of the regional political elite, a full-fledged correspondence to the ideal image of a modern political leader among the representatives of the modern political elite of the Russian Federation and the Astrakhan region is available only to a few of the most popular political leaders. There are changes in the perception of the image of political leaders, so the students' understanding of the term "political leader" has changed; Priority characteristics of a political leader; Unacceptable qualities that the political leader should not have, the most important is the connection of the political leader with the people, which determines his positive perception.
