Stability of socio-economic development of administrative-territorial entities. Concept of stability and instability

socio-economic system, sustainable development, region, municipalities, strategy, sustainability

Shovgenov Tembot Muratovich

Main aspects of the sustainability of regional socio-economic systems// Regional economics and management: electronic scientific journal. ISSN 1999-2645. — . Article number: 1107. Date of publication: 2007-09-29. Access mode: https://site/article/1107/

Shovgenov Tembot Muratovich
Adyghe State University
[email protected]

Abstract

The formation of a stable socio-economic system should be based on the principles of sustainable development. It should be noted the fact that the current economic situation in Russia, the existing mechanisms of financial and economic base of regions and municipalities - all oppose the implementation of sustainable development strategies. The article discusses different approaches to assessing the sustainability of socio-economic systems.

socio-economic system, sustainable development, region, municipalities, strategy, sustainability

Shovgenov Tembot Muratovich

Key aspects of the sustainability of the regional socio-economic systems. Regional economy and management: electronic scientific journal. . Art. #1107. Date issued: 2007-09-29. Available at: https://site/article/1107/

Federal Agency for Education of the Russian Federation

State educational institution of higher education vocational education

"STATE UNIVERSITY OF MANAGEMENT"

Institute for Training of Scientific, Pedagogical and Scientific Personnel

Department of Public Administration and Political Technologies

In the discipline "Methodology of research of socio-economic and political processes"

On the topic: “Social instability, its factors and stages of development”

Specialty: 00.08.05 - “Economics and management of the national economy”

Completed:

Karatkevich A.G.

Introduction

1. The concept of stability and instability. The problem of social security. An example of social instability

2. Social stability and instability as a criterion for indicators of the dynamics of social development. The concept of social crisis.

Factors and stages of development of instability

2. The concept of social catastrophe. Social instability in Russia

Conclusion

List of used literature

Introduction

Russia's ability to find answers to the challenges of the time directly depends on the state of Russian society. History shows that on this path those nations succeed that combine the following qualities: adherence to traditions along with receptivity to the new; cohesion simultaneously with the ability for everyone to act independently; breadth of views while firmly adhering to traditional moral standards. Today, to the usual tasks of economic and social creation has been added the need to defend our vital interests with arms in hand.

The development of modern Russian society is going through an inevitable crisis stage. It is characterized by such a state of the social system when all its connections and processes are determined by the area of ​​critical values. This creates enormous difficulties for public management practice, affects the quality of life and social condition of all segments of the population, and requires a deep and accurate theoretical understanding of the current situation in order to develop effective tactical and strategic solutions.

Modern sociological knowledge simultaneously solves a number of problems. One of them is the search and testing of new expressive means that are adequate to the situation. This is facilitated by the emergence of new social themes in the social process, as well as the aggravation of contradictions caused by global transformation, which requires appropriate scientific understanding. We are talking about a systemic crisis that has affected all areas of social relations. The crisis state of society is the most universal characteristic of society as an integral system. Thus, the problems of the crisis require a more in-depth, systemic understanding, which is connected not only with the current situation, but also with the previous development of Russian society.

Real social changes, which are sustainable and irreversible, are associated in Russia primarily with economic reforms. And they develop in a complex and contradictory way. Socio-economic tensions contribute to the deepening of social and ethnic conflicts. Political instability and the lack of conceptual strategies in the field of development of external relations, national interests, regional policy of Russia, the lack of verified socio-economic programs lead to uncertainty in the sphere of ensuring the security of Russian society.

In this work, I intend to consider the particularly pressing problem of social instability in Russia, highlight several key terms, which are social security, as well as the dynamics of social development, and how it generally affects instability in the social sphere of the Russian Federation.

The problem of stability now has not only scientific and theoretical significance. The stabilization of economic, political, social life, the consolidation of modern Russian society is what Russians have been waiting for and hoping for for several years now. In such a situation, even ideas arise that the stability of society is identical to the immutability of social orders, systems and structures, that any changes only lead to a deterioration in people’s well-being.

Stability and instability of a social system are two extreme opposite points on the scale of its possible states.

Instability is a deformation of the structure, functions or any processes of social systems (including societal ones), which deform these systems and threaten their integrity. It can manifest itself both at the level of individual social systems (instability of the economy, government power, etc.), their interaction with each other, and at the level of the entire society.

The relevance of this study is due to the fact that the development of modern Russian society is going through an inevitable crisis stage. It is characterized by such a state of the social system when all its connections and processes are determined by the area of ​​critical values. This creates enormous difficulties for public management practice, affects the quality of life and social condition of all segments of the population, and requires a deep and accurate theoretical understanding of the current situation in order to develop effective tactical and strategic solutions.

The purpose of the work is to consider the basic ideas about the unstable state of the social system, to reveal the positive and negative aspects of such a state.

1. The concept of stability and instability. The problem of social security. An example of social instability

In real social life there is practically no absolute stability. In any society, there are always imbalances within and between social systems, manifestations of real or potential instability. Instability is understood as such deformations of the structure, functions or any processes of social systems (including societal ones) that deform these systems and threaten their integrity. Such instability can occur at the level of individual social systems (instability of the economy, state power, etc.), their interaction with each other, and finally, at the level of the entire society.

However, the concept of instability also has a broader fundamental scientific and philosophical meaning. According to modern ideas, which are becoming increasingly widespread among scientists of various scientific profiles, instability in the sense of instability is a fundamental characteristic of the entire universe. Such ideas can also be attributed to society. At the same time, instability should be understood not as social chaos, but as incompleteness, incompleteness at any given moment of social evolution, the possibility and necessity of social changes at one point or another of social existence, even the unpredictability of these changes, their specific direction, time and place of occurrence.

In real social life, instability, as a rule, is a sign of some unresolved problems, dysfunctions and deformations. Factors of instability, like factors of stability, can be external to the social system and internal. External factors, in turn, can be divided into social (anthropogenic) and natural. The impact of external social factors can significantly deform and even destroy the social system. Thus, during the period of aggressive colonialist wars, many societies in Africa, Asia, America, Australia were destroyed, entire peoples, often with a high and unique culture, were destroyed. Natural disasters can also significantly disrupt the stability of social (societal) systems. Under their influence, some social institutions, for example, the economy and the healthcare system, are often deformed or completely destroyed. Earthquakes, floods, typhoons, tsunamis, etc. cause enormous damage to the national economy, various life support systems of people, and their lives.

Internal social factors of instability of social systems are also very diverse. In general, we can say that the instability of a system is the destruction or at least a violation of its integrity, deformation of the structure and functions. This situation can be illustrated in more detail using the example of social institutions. The instability of the activities of social institutions is manifested primarily in a significant imbalance between structural components (for example, an imbalance of sectors of the national economy in the economy), in functional disorder up to the failure to perform necessary social functions, and deformation in the relationships between various social institutions.

From a sociological point of view, social stability is not synonymous with immutability and immobility of social systems and relationships. In society, such immobility is, as a rule, not a sign of stability, but a sign of stagnation, which sooner or later leads to instability, social tension, and ultimately to instability. In the former USSR, for example, for a long time, especially in the 1960s and 1970s, the government tried to keep retail prices for many goods and services stable, that is, fixed. However, in the end, this led to the fact that prices were completely inconsistent with the costs of labor and raw materials for the production of these goods, and the costs of labor for the provision of services. In turn, this situation has led to the fact that it has become economically unprofitable to produce goods and provide services. As a result, production began to fall, scientific and technological progress slowed down, and areas of stagnation began to expand. So the immutability of any systems does not at all mean their stability.

In a sociological sense, social stability is such stability of social structures, processes and relationships that, despite all their changes, preserves their qualitative certainty and integrity as such.

It consists of three levels:

1) internal stability of social systems (institutions, organizations, communities, etc.);

2) the stability of their relationships and their interactions with each other;

3) stability of the entire society, which can be designated as societal stability.

This latter will already include political, economic, ideological, cultural, etc. stability at the level of the entire society. A stable society is a society that develops and at the same time maintains its stability, a society in which a mechanism of change has been established that preserves its stability, excluding such a struggle of social forces that leads to the weakening of the very foundations of society. Accordingly, instability is also caused by society and has the ability to persist over a long period, and also have disastrous consequences for all layers and structures of society. To avoid situations of various instability, I will introduce the term “social security” and talk a little more about this topic.

Political instability and the lack of conceptual strategies in the field of development of external relations, national interests, regional policy of Russia, the lack of verified socio-economic programs lead to uncertainty in the sphere of ensuring the security of Russian society.

Safety is a social norm of modern society. The emergence of the topic of “security” in the horizons of the sociology of instability is caused by a number of circumstances. And among them, it is necessary, first of all, to highlight the close connection and interdependence of the problems of ensuring stable development, social order of society and maintaining the security of Russia. Next, we will expand a little on the topic of social security as a cell in stable coexistence in our country, and the factors that influence it.

Social security is the protection of the vital interests of the individual, family and society from internal and external threats. Its objects are all the main elements of the social system for ensuring the quality and standard of living of the people, which are regulated by national and social policy. And in this regard, social security is an integral part of national security. As we all remember, until recently there was no social development strategy in social policy. The consequence of this was low life expectancy, high levels of poverty, unjustifiably high social differentiation of the population, regional disparities in living standards, a decline in the quality of education and healthcare, as well as the general level of spirituality and culture in our society. And finally, the demographic problem emerged in full force.

As is known, priority national projects appeared in 2005, which marked the beginning of a strategic turn in social policy and served as the basis for the formation of a social strategy in Russia. The importance of these projects is that they were focused on the person, on the need to prioritize the problems of his education, his health, his well-being.

To develop principles for achieving long-term goals of social development, which were proclaimed at the famous meeting of the State Council by Vladimir Putin, the tasks of building socio-economic policy as a policy for managing the future were identified. And in this regard, it is necessary that the concept of socio-economic development of our country become a strategy for safe and sustainable social development aimed at improving social relations, ensuring equal opportunities and social consolidation.

This requires serious financial resources and solving the rather complex task of implementing two interrelated, but at the same time multi-vector directions - the demand for equality and the demand for efficiency. This, in turn, requires the simultaneous accumulation of social mobility and social justice within a market economy, corresponding to the level and pace of development of society.

In this regard, social security is a key guarantee of the safety and effectiveness of all types of investments in human capital. To ensure it, it is necessary to accept and fulfill high social obligations of the state within the framework of a comprehensive system of social standards.

The new social policy requires the constant creation and expansion of an infrastructure for society and for every citizen of new opportunities for self-realization, self-development of citizens' own investments in their future and the future of their family. Everyone needs to realize this - the authorities, society, and every citizen. Although today there is and is accumulating an obvious shortage of such opportunities, a shortage of professional tools: saving, insuring, accumulating and investing.

The need to solve strategic problems of social development requires calculated, effective and discussed with society new principles of financing the social sphere, a clear understanding of the prospects for its individual areas, restructuring and increased government responsibility.

For this purpose, as we know, the Ministry of Economic Development developed a draft Concept of socio-economic development until 2020, which does not sufficiently focus on overcoming the differentiation of Russian society in terms of quality and standard of living, and does not provide for reasonable mechanisms for reducing property, territorial, information and other gaps between segments of the population, expanding the rights and freedoms of those in need. In the revised version of the concept, income policy, housing policy, standards for classifying the middle class and the possibility of achieving its share of 50-60% in the total population of the country are not sufficiently justified.

I believe that we must proceed from a completely different paradigm: from the recognition of equal importance for society of social and economic policies. This is a fundamental provision that is present in the social systems of those civilized countries where the problems of social security for citizens have been largely resolved and where social standards have been adopted.

Human creativity is too complex a phenomenon to be reduced only to social and cultural conditions. But it is impossible to ignore the influence of these conditions on creativity, since they are of great importance, representing the environment under the influence of which any human activity is located.

2. Social stability and instability as a criterion for indicators of the dynamics of social development. The concept of social crisis. Factors and stages of development of instability

Do both stability (as well as crisis and growth) and security act as certain states of the social organism, indicators of the dynamics of its development?

The concept of “state” here serves as a general theoretical basis for establishing the internal relationship between the phenomena of stability and security as phenomena that characterize the dynamics of life processes, social and economic development. N.A. draws attention to this feature of the state of stability and, accordingly, instability. Kosolapov, who defines it as follows:

this is not the status quo, but the dynamics of all and every life processes, which no one can stop, and dynamics that are not distorted by the extremity of external or internal conditions of life, especially by extremity artificially created or caused;

predictability of the most significant, fundamental parameters and states of the system, directions and trends of its evolution and development;

the ability to react rationally and effectively, both politically and practically, to all the changes that life gives rise to, and to do this in a timely manner... In a psychological sense, stability is when a person is able to manage time, and not time - a person.”

Accordingly, instability, which, according to N.A. Kosolapov, also needs to be considered as a “universal form of manifestation of development,” but development that is poorly controlled, fraught with conflicts and dangers.

“People and political structures perceive the situation as unstable, and therefore potentially threatening, dangerous in cases where they do not know and/or do not understand what exactly is happening; cannot interpret what is happening in their usual concepts and categories; do not have sufficient time and/or opportunity to obtain and interpret the necessary information; do not control or have insufficient influence on what is happening.”

So, stability and instability can be considered as categories that denote different degrees of mastery of vital practical situations, social reality, different levels of security or danger (depending on which aspect is chosen as the initial one). But they also act as boundaries that fix the development of social reality as a flow of changes that has a nonlinear nature. Instability in this case expresses not only the insufficient ability to understand or control changes in social reality, but also the objective possibility of the emergence of “strongly non-equilibrium situations”, bifurcations (bifurcation translated from Latin means “forks, bifurcation in two” and captures the peculiarities of the behavior of complex systems experiencing strong external and internal stresses).

In particular, the instability of a social system can be caused, as E. Laszlo shows, by completely rationally explainable reasons - bifurcations. “The instabilities themselves can be of various origins. They may arise from insufficient assimilation or poor application of innovations.

The impetus for their occurrence can be both external factors, such as the arms race, and internal factors, such as political conflicts.

Instabilities can be caused by the collapse of the local economic and social order under the influence of increasingly frequent crises.

Regardless of their origin, instabilities are likely to spread to all sectors and segments of society and thereby open the door to rapid and profound change.”1

Sociology of instability is a sociological theory that highlights the crisis development of society and unstable states of social reality as the object of its research. At the same time, the main interests of these studies are focused on identifying sociocultural mechanisms that determine the behavior of both individual social actors and the social system in conditions of unstable, crisis development, as well as studying changes in the relationships between social norms and pathologies - deviations from the normal in situations of risk and uncertainty.

Classical sociology has accumulated a lot of experience in analyzing the phenomena of disintegration of social systems, crisis situations and conflicts (for example, wars and national conflicts), as well as anomie (here we should recall the works of A. Boscov, E. Giddens, R. Dahrendorf, E. Durkheim, L. Coser, L. Kriesberg, T. Kuhn, R. Merton, P. Sorokin, G. Spencer, G. Howmans, F. Borodkin, A. Zdravomyslov, A. Zaitsev, etc.).

It is another matter that in-depth system analysis, reflecting the main essential characteristics of crisis, unstable forms of social development, is either absent, which is typical for the works of the above-mentioned authors describing instability, or is rejected as not having stood the test of historical practice, which, in fact, is what happened with Marxist sociology. Namely, within the framework of this last doctrine, the problems of socio-economic and political crisis, social revolutions as radical changes in society, class struggle and wars occupied a central place.

As already mentioned, instability in developing societies almost always exists in one form or another. Instability deepens and expands if ruling groups do not take measures to control them or if these measures are insufficient and inadequate. In this case, instability not only increases, but develops into a crisis situation, a crisis.

Three stages can be identified in this process. The first is the deformation of individual structures, individual functions or processes within the social system, as well as individual violations of intersystem connections. At the level of the entire society as a societal system, these are mainly deformations of individual social institutions, as already mentioned.

The second is the general instability of the social system as such, when its integrity is significantly violated. This is the stage of a general crisis of a social system or, if we are talking about a societal system, a systemic crisis of the entire society. At this stage, restoration and revival of the system in its former quality is still possible, although this requires much greater effort than at the previous stage.

When studying such situations, the approach proposed by scientists from the Institute of Socio-Political Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences is of fundamental importance, which consists in determining the extremely critical, threshold indicators of a systemic crisis of society, meaning the danger of the occurrence of irreversible processes of decay. These indicators are grouped into seven most important spheres of life in a particular society: economic relations, social sphere, demographic situation, environmental situation, deviant behavior, political relations, defense capability. Thus, the social sphere contains four indicators:

1) the ratio of the incomes of the richest 10% and the poorest 10% of citizens. The extremely critical value in world practice is expressed by the number 10: 1;

2) proportion of the population living below the poverty line. The maximum critical value in world practice is 10%;

3) ratio of minimum and average wages. The extremely critical value in world practice is 1: 3;

4) unemployment rate. The maximum critical global value is 8-10%. In the second half of the 1990s. many real indicators of the development of Russian society went beyond the extremely critical global indicators, which had a very serious impact on the stability of Russian society as a whole. For example, the income ratio between the richest 10% and the poorest 10% in 1996 was 15:1.

Finally, the third stage of instability is a catastrophe, i.e. the destruction of a given social system as such, the end of its existence. A return to the previous state is no longer possible, and destructive anti-systemic social changes are becoming irreversible.

History knows only two ways out of such social catastrophes: 1) collapse, death of a given social system (society), civilization and culture (the death of the ancient Egyptian, Greco-Roman, Byzantine and other civilizations); 2) transition to a fundamentally new social quality, the formation of a qualitatively new social system (transformation of feudal or semi-feudal social systems and institutions in Japan, Malaysia and other countries into capitalist ones). The latter is possible only under certain objective and subjective conditions, the political will of the ruling groups, and the enormous efforts of significant masses of people.

3. The concept of social catastrophe. Social instability in Russia

The term “catastrophe” is widely used nowadays to characterize various types of historical situations (wars, revolutions, economic crises).

Modern explanatory dictionaries of the Russian language give the following definitions to the concept of “catastrophe”.

“A disaster is an event with tragic consequences.”

“A catastrophe is a sudden disaster, an event entailing serious consequences.”

A different definition is given by E.M. Babosov, who characterizes a catastrophe as “a sharp, abrupt transformation of a system as a result of an excessive increase in internal and external tension from a stable position to an unstable one, threatening the destruction of its most important components or a transition to another qualitative state.”

Accordingly, the concept of “social catastrophe” refers to similar processes in society that lead to large human, material and (or) cultural losses.

The socio-political revolution is a period and a series of multiple catastrophes. In the last decade of the twentieth century. in Russia, peaks of decline in several development cycles coincided (or rather merged and caused a resonance effect, mutually stimulated each other) in several development cycles: technological, economic, national relations, elite circulation. As a result, multiple disasters occurred. The main ones in the “package” of Russian revolutionary disasters were:

1. socio-economic (record in depth and duration for peacetime in the world history of the twentieth century, economic crisis and “collapse” in key industries).

2. financial (multiple budget cuts, avalanche-like growth of external debt, hyperinflation during the revolutionary period, capital export over a number of years, comparable to the federal budget).

3. socio-technological (accelerating decline in the level of investment, retirement of fixed assets and an increase in the accident rate).

4. social (in the narrow sense of the word). Its components in post-Soviet Russia were: falling living standards, depreciation of honest labor, growing social inequality, spreading poverty, mass child homelessness, mass unemployment).

5. Social and moral. The destruction of the moral health of society was expressed in its criminalization, an epidemic of diseases caused by antisocial behavior, and the replacement of social and patriotic values ​​with antisocial and antipatriotic ones.

6. Socio-demographic

7. geopolitical (collapse of a superpower, unipolar world, cross-threats)

Social instability caused by the uneven distribution of public goods can become a threat to the political stability of society

What is happening in modern Russia? We have to admit that the country's social health has been seriously undermined. There are many poor people in Russia, and at the same time one can observe a sharp polarization of incomes, which cannot be balanced even by a significant increase in the general well-being of citizens. In other words, rich people continue to get richer, while the number of poor people is declining very slowly. The situation is aggravated by the fact that the established level of poverty is the subsistence minimum, which today amounts to just over 4 thousand rubles. per capita - seems artificially low compared to Western levels. 16.3% of Russians are officially below the poverty line. If Western standards are applied to Russia, this figure will increase significantly. Approximately the same number - 16% - consider themselves to be middle class. It is obvious that a real, large middle class does not exist in Russia, either according to objective economic indicators or in the subjective perception of citizens. The existing middle class is very eclectic: due to the fact that the process of differentiation of society by level of education and professional affiliation is far from complete, the main criterion for belonging to the Russian middle class is the level of income, in contrast to the United States, where belonging to the middle class reflects the level of education received person.

Growing income differentiation poses a serious danger for Russia. Social instability caused by the uneven distribution of public goods can become a threat to the political stability of society. At the same time, the sociological qualification of Russian society, be it civil or totalitarian, cannot be associated primarily with political aspects and parameters, which is typical for societies of totalitarian and civil types. A connection with economic, production and labor factors is necessary. The type of social organization of modern Russian society must be deduced first of all from these factors, and circumstances derived from the economy must be threaded onto them. The basis of the sociological qualification of the type of social structure, social order objectively includes phenomena related to the nature of predominantly labor relations.

Thus, in modern sociological literature, with regard to the analysis of society as an integral system, as a social organization of a certain level, the following social problems and subjects remain poorly studied:

cross-cutting sociological parameters that make it possible to track and analyze Russian society in the historical period within which issues of social continuity are being resolved, and the conditions and trends of modern global transformation are being considered;

social, rather than state-political, aspects of the transition from a Soviet social organization or an organization of a totalitarian type to an organization of a democratic, post-Soviet type;

elements, mechanisms and principles of manifestation of emergency, tension in the social system, allowing it to be qualified as a system of a changed, mobilization social order;

the role of socio-economic, production and labor factors in the organization and functioning of Russian society as an integral system and the place of organizational and economic mechanisms c. reproduction of the social system; the role of social violence and restriction of freedom in the organizational, economic and political mechanisms of the functioning of Russian society.

Degree of development of the problem

At the same time, the main attention of researchers of problems of Russian society is concentrated around the problems of its subject-community and institutional transformation. The problem of society as an integral system either fits into already established ideological and methodological stereotypes, or is considered at the level and in the qualities of social, economic and political space. As such, the problem of macrosocial organization of society is not specifically analyzed. The point is not only that it dissolves in other problems, but that it does not have its own quality. Often, the methodological guidelines for analyzing society as a system are directly identified with theoretical knowledge about the peculiarities of the functioning and nature of society.

Modern Russian society is experiencing a crisis stage of its development, which is characterized by such a state of the social system when all its connections and processes are determined by the area of ​​critical values, that is, it is unstable. This situation is associated with the socio-economic transformations being carried out in the country. At the initial stage, the reforms were perceived positively by the population of the country, but subsequently, when instead of reformation there was a transformation of the social system, and fundamental changes in the economy entailed a weakening of the material basis of the state and, as a consequence, a sharp drop in the standard of living of a significant part of the country's population, the reforms were no longer used support. As a result of the ongoing transformation in Russia, all the contradictions that were characteristic of the Soviet system have worsened: an inefficient economy, corruption, the actual non-participation of the bulk of the population in governing the country, non-observance of human and civil rights and freedoms. In addition, as a result of the reforms, the following contradictions were added to the listed contradictions: a decline in the standard of living of the main part of the country's population, social stratification of society, a demographic crisis, and the criminalization of consciousness. Political instability and the lack of conceptual strategies in the field of development of external relations, national interests, regional policy of Russia, the lack of verified socio-economic programs lead to uncertainty in the sphere of ensuring the security of Russian society.

Conclusion

The absence of mass ideology in our society has led to the formation of a literally “ideological vacuum” in recent years, when people have consistently become disillusioned with the most diverse ideals of the social system: communist... democratic... liberal... All the ideological foundations on which much of the world is based the stability of society collapsed. Consequently, the general causes of system instability include excessive changes in the structure and physical parameters of the system, deviations from the norm in the nature and strength of internal connections, and low efficiency of some elements. The characteristic features of an unstable system are uneven development, instability, low adaptability to change, and a low level of realization of the potential of the majority. Such a system is short-lived.

The most unstable are transitional social systems that are undergoing transformation in connection with the implementation of reforms in political and socio-economic life, carried out according to a complex bifurcation scenario.

The instability of a social system may be the result of a lack of balance in its structure, low efficiency of some of its elements, which are responsible for preventing and eliminating the consequences of impacts. An example is the low-powered armed forces of Iraq, which were unable to repel external aggression, which led the country to the actual loss of sovereignty, and ultimately to the destruction of the entire system. Weak intrasystem relationships can also lead to a similar result. Thus, the negative attitude of the majority of the population towards representatives of law enforcement agencies does not contribute to the effective solution of the tasks facing them, which, coupled with divergent value systems, weakens the potential of society, which is typical for today's Russia.

In addition, instability is a consequence of the low realization of human potential, which is expressed in the exclusion of a significant part of the population from the process of stabilizing the system. The reason for this is the imperfection of the organization of the system - the discrepancy between the standing and emerging tasks of the structure and social technologies, the dynamism of development. On the one hand, the social system is ineffective due to the fact that the creative potential of people remains unclaimed and this leads to the separation of the individual from the system, and on the other hand, the lack of satisfaction of the individual’s needs also leads to distance from the system and plus the degradation of the individual himself. As a result, the total creative potential of the social system decreases, which affects the overall stability in the country.

List of used literature

1. Lavrinenko V.N. Research of socio-economic and political processes: textbook. for bachelors / V.N. Lavrinenko, L.M. Putilin. - 3rd ed., revised. and additional - M.: Yurayt, 2014.

2. Ovcharov A.O. Study of socio-economic and political processes: textbook / A.O. Ovcharov, T.N. Ovcharova. - N. Novgorod: Tsvetnoy Mir LLC, 2013. - 260 p.

3. Vertakova Yu.V. Study of socio-economic and political processes: a textbook for university students. - M.: KnoRus, 2009. - 335.

4. Lavrinenko V.N. Research of socio-economic and political processes: textbook. manual for university students / V.N. Lavrinenko, L.M. Putilova. - M.: University. textbook : VZFEI, 2007. - 182 p.

5. Roy O.M. Research of socio-economic and political processes: Textbook. - M. [etc.]: Peter, 2004.

6. Yadov V.A. Strategy of sociological research M., 1998.

7. Tolstova Yu.N. Measurement in sociology. M., 1998.

8. Volkova V.N., Denisov A.A. Fundamentals of systems theory and system analysis St. Petersburg, 1997.

9. Sheregi F.E., Gorshkova M.K. Fundamentals of applied sociology. M., 1996.

10. Political changes in transforming transitional societies: conditions and optimization factors: monograph / A.G. Karatkevich - St. Petersburg: ZUMTs, 2012. - 6.4 pp.

11. Political aspects of social problems of a transforming society (on the example of Russia and Belarus): monograph / A.G. Karatkevich. - M.: Publishing House "ATISO", 2008. - 16 pp.

12. Karatkevich A.G. On the question of the structure of systemic sociotransformation of transitional societies // Ethnosocium and interethnic culture. - 2009. - No. 2. - 1.0 p.l.

13. Karatkevich A.G. Geopolitical aspects of global transformation challenges. Part I // Ethnosociety and interethnic culture. - 2009. - No. 3. - 1.0 p.l.

14. Karatkevich A.G. On the question of the main trends and directions of social interaction in the conditions of transformation of society // Ethnosocium and interethnic culture. - 2009. - No. 4. - 0.8 p.l.

15. Karatkevich A.G. Reintegration as a factor of sociotransformation and a counterbalance to globalization. Part II // Ethnosociety and interethnic culture. - 2009. - No. 5. - 1.0 p.l.

16. Karatkevich A.G. On the issue of geopolitical aspects of global transformation challenges // Bulletin of VolSU. Series 4. - 2009 - 0.5 p.l.

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Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation

Federal State Autonomous Educational Institution of Higher Professional Education

National Research Nuclear University "MEPhI"

Faculty of Socio-Economics

Department of Economics, Economic-Mathematical Methods and Computer Science

COURSE WORK

in the discipline "Macroeconomics"

Problems of social stability in the national economy

Student Samokhova E.A.

2 courses of EKN group B14

Teacher Kobylina E.V.

Obninsk - 2016

Introduction

Chapter 1. The concept of social stability. Stability indicators

1.1 Social stability as a factor in economic development

1.2 Main indicators of social stability

Chapter 2. Problems of social stability in the Russian economy

2.1 Main social indicators of the Russian economy

2.2 Main threats to social stability and ways to solve them

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

Any society, to one degree or another, takes measures for its development and improvement. Various changes are taking place in sectors of the national economy. The Reformation affects all spheres: economic, social, political, cultural, etc. One of the key concepts characterizing the state of the economy before and after changes is the concept of social stability.

Social stability in the broad sense of the word can be understood as the stability of social institutions. That is, social stability is the ability of institutions to respond to adverse events in the economy with minimal losses.

The problem of social stability in modern conditions is especially acute. The Russian economy is not going through the best period right now, due to the consequences of economic sanctions and instability in the oil market. This is what aggravates old and gives rise to new social problems - for example, rising prices and falling real incomes of citizens.

Another threat is the instability of the real sector of the economy, and this is also a social threat. The closure of enterprises also leads to the closure of jobs, that is, people find themselves without sources of income.

That is why the state must control the economic and social sphere, preventing its excessive fluctuations. Measures that authorities should take may relate to material support and job searches (for example, various retraining programs based on state employment centers). All this should be done with one goal: to provide a person with work (as the main source of income). It has been noted that such negative social manifestations as crime, drunkenness, drug addiction are generated for the most part in a society affected by crisis phenomena in the economy. An example is the instability in the economy of the transition period (in the economy of the 1990s), when the situation was close to a social explosion (events in Moscow in 1991 and 1993). Here we also note the events of August 1998, when a default occurred and the population became almost twice as poor.

The main goal of the course work is to analyze the social stability of the Russian economy, and the main threats that are emerging or may appear in the future. In accordance with the purpose of the work, the following tasks were set:

Consider the concept of “social stability” and show how it is related to the state of the national economy;

Develop a system of indicators that most clearly reflect the state of the socio-economic environment;

Analyze data on the indicators of the Russian economy, establish possible limits of their variation;

Formulate the main threats that may arise to social stability, indicating the possible consequences;

Present the main ways to normalize the socio-economic situation in modern conditions.

The object of research in the course work is the Russian economy and its main indicators. The subject of the study is factors influencing social stability and the degree of their influence.

The practical significance of the work lies in the fact that the results of the study make it possible to identify the main indicators of social stability and influence them using various economic instruments. Thus, these are a kind of guidelines for statistical research.

When writing the course work, the following materials were used: textbooks on economic theory and socio-economic statistics, scientific articles on the topic of social stability, materials from Internet sources.

The structure of the course work: introduction, 2 chapters, conclusion and list of references.

Chapter1. The concept of social stability. Stability indicators

1.1 Social stability as a factor in economic development

Many researchers associate social stability with the concept of immutability. There are ideas that the stability of society is the immutability of social systems. Any change has a negative impact and leads to a decrease in social welfare.

This is not entirely true. Social immutability is rather a sign of stagnation, but not a sign of stability. Stagnation phenomena are stable only in the short term, but the problems generated by stagnation sooner or later lead to a sharp change in society, usually destructive. In the 60-70s of the last century, such a situation was observed in the USSR. Prices for many groups of goods were frozen (under the slogan of “stable prices”), as a result of which, in the late 70s, prices for goods no longer corresponded to the costs of their production. This led to a reduction in production (especially in the light and food industries) and a shortage of goods. Subsequent events became direct proof that stagnation sooner or later leads to a social explosion - the population, tired of the stagnant state, plunged into a perestroika state. History shows what this led to: the collapse of the USSR and the long-term crisis of the domestic economy.

In sociology, the following levels of social stability are distinguished:

1) Level 1 - internal stability of social systems (institutions, organizations, etc.). For example, the stability of the banking system, as one of the main economic institutions, or the stability of the stock market, etc.

2) Level 2 - stability of relationships between institutions and social systems. For example, if the relationship between the political and economic systems is disrupted, then this will affect all other social institutions. An example is the events of the Great Depression of 1929-1933, when the governments of a number of countries completely lost control over the economy, which led to the exacerbation of all social problems

3) 3rd level - social stability (from the word society), that is, the stability of the entire society as a whole. This stability will include economic, political, cultural, social stability at the level of the entire society.

Thus, a stable society is a society that develops and at the same time maintains its stability. It establishes a mechanism for interrelations between institutions, and also eliminates the possibility of various social explosions. It follows that the higher the well-being of each person individually, the higher the stability of society.

Let us highlight the main political factors of social stability (since decision-making in all spheres, including the economic one, depends on politicians):

1) A stable society must be democratic. Societies with a totalitarian regime of government can maintain stability for some time (the example we discussed above), but this is more stagnation than stability.

2) The rule of law is one of the key characteristics of a stable society. This is quite logical, since the term opposite to stability is anarchy or lawlessness, which is generated by various social explosions (revolutions, riots, uprisings, etc.)

3) There must be a consensus between the government and society, that is, the government must be legitimate. Trust in government at various levels is one of the conditions for social stability. If there is no trust in the authorities (as, for example, in the 1990s), then there can be no talk of any stability.

4) The basis for stable development is a multi-party system (and not only on paper). It has been noted that in the most developed countries (USA, UK, Germany) there is a multi-party system with intense competition between 2-3 political parties. The lack of competition creates a monopoly of power by one party, which, on the one hand, causes discontent among some segments of the population, and on the other, kills all incentives for productive work. Unfortunately, the situation in Russia is close to the second option. The monopoly of one party does not allow making some necessary (especially in modern conditions) decisions (we will consider them below).

1.2 Main indicators of social stability

Let's consider the main indicators that are used in the analysis of social stability. Note that the classification of indicators may be different from the one considered. This classification was proposed by economists and sociologists from the Institute of Socio-Political Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Scientists have identified the following indicators and their critical values:

1) Factor of differentiation of the population by income or the ratio of the income of the richest 10% of the population to the income of the poorest 10% of the population. A critical limit value of 10:1 has also been established. However, in addition to this indicator, other important indicators that are used in most countries should be noted:

The decile coefficient of income differentiation of the population, which shows how many times the minimum income among the richest 10% of the population exceeds the maximum income among the poorest 10% of the population. The decile differentiation coefficient is calculated using formula (1):

The fund ratio is determined by the ratio between average incomes in the tenth and first decile groups (2):

Average per capita income of 10% of the population with the minimum income and 10% of the population with the richest part of it, respectively.

The 2 coefficients given above allow us to judge the ratio of the incomes of the richest to the incomes of the poorest.

The income differentiation coefficients of the population belong to the Pareto-Lorenz-Gini assessment system, which is widely used in foreign economic and social statistics. The Italian economist V. Pareto (whom we already noted above) used statistical methods to establish that there is an inverse relationship between the level of income and the number of their recipients, known as the “20-80 axiom”: 20% of the population have 80% of all total income, and vice versa, 80% of the population has the remaining 20% ​​of income.

The idea of ​​V. Pareto was continued and developed in his works by the American economist O. Lorenz, who proposed displaying Pareto’s main idea on a graph called the “Lorenz curve” (Fig. 1):

Let's take a closer look at the Lorenz curve graph. If the distribution of income is uniform, then this is graphically represented by a bisector. The Lorenz curve shows the uneven distribution of income. Moreover, the more concave it is, the stronger the differentiation.

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Rice. 1 Lorenz curve

Recall that the convexity and concavity of a function are determined by the second derivative of this function. Thus, if the Lorentz curve with the vertex (0;0) is a polynomial of the second degree (in other words, the increasing part of a parabola), then its formula has the form ax 2 + bx, and the second derivative is equal to 2a. Consequently, the determining factor of differentiation in the Lorentz function is the coefficient a.

To characterize income inequality, Lorenz introduced a localization coefficient (3):

share of income and share of the population of the i-group.

Geometrically, income inequality is indicated by the area of ​​the figure located under the bisector on the graph of the Lorenz curve. Let's denote by x - population, y - income. Then according to the Newton-Leibniz formula (4):

If the Lorenz curve is represented by a polynomial of the second degree, then the differentiation of income and the value of the Lorenz coefficient depend on the coefficients a and b in the parabola formula.

The Lorenz curve is used to calculate the most common coefficient when analyzing household income - the Gini income concentration coefficient. Geometrically, this is the ratio of the area of ​​the figure we just found to the area of ​​the entire triangle. If we take into account that the sides of the rectangle are equal to 1, then its area is 0.5, hence the Gini coefficient is equal to (5):

More generally, the Gini coefficient is calculated as (6):

where is the share of the population with an income higher than its maximum level in the i-group,

The share of income of the i-group in the total income of the population, calculated on an accrual basis.

2) The second factor identified in the ISPI RAS is the unemployment rate. Unemployment is divided into 3 categories. The first two of them relate to natural unemployment, i.e. always present on the labor market.

Frictional unemployment is associated with the choice of a new job when leaving the old one for various reasons and can last from 1 to 3 months. The presence of frictional unemployment is associated with the dynamism of the labor market, which approximately operates according to the laws of supply and demand. An employee who finds a new, better-paid job will, all other things being equal, take a job there. The period of time from dismissal from an old place of work and placement in a new one constitutes frictional unemployment;

Structural unemployment is associated with technological changes in production and is associated with the retraining of personnel for new working conditions or the search for a new job if retraining is impossible. Some economists generalize these two types of unemployment as being at the natural rate and inevitable;

Cyclical unemployment is associated with fluctuations in economic cycles and occurs during periods of recession or depression. The reason for cyclical unemployment is a drop in production levels and, as a consequence, a decrease in demand for labor from enterprises. Cyclical unemployment characterizes economic growth, and therefore stands out as a separate category.

Unemployment has a number of negative impacts on the socio-economic state of society. Among them we can highlight:

Not using the country's production potential to its full extent and reducing the rate of its economic development

A decrease in the standard of living of people left without work, and as a consequence, deviant social manifestations - crimes, suicides, etc.

Increase in the tax burden on the employed part of the population due to the requirement to provide for the unemployed and pay them benefits

Loss of qualifications by persons who have remained unemployed for a long time. The absence of work practice for a long time leads to the fact that a person begins to lag behind technological changes in the field of his specialty and experiences even greater difficulties in finding a job, since he does not have sufficient qualifications at the moment.

Other negative social manifestations that can no longer be attributed to an individual, but to society as a whole.

The critical level of unemployment is considered to be 8-10%. The main indicators that are calculated when analyzing unemployment are:

The economic activity index can be measured as the ratio of the number of economically active people aged 15 to 72 years to the total population. The economic activity index shows the national economy's supply of labor resources (3):

Structure of the employed economically active population by age. In light of the emerging shortage of young labor resources, this indicator is of utmost importance. This indicator is also a share (4):

3) The inflation rate is of utmost importance for determining social stability. It can even be proven that the first two factors directly depend on the level of inflation. The Phillips curve, which reflects the relationship between unemployment and inflation, is very conditional (Fig. 2):

However, the Phillips curve is a theoretical model. In case of strong fluctuations in the economy, stagflation occurs - this is an increase in both unemployment and inflation. Also, the inflation rate allows you to convert all indicators from nominal to real - for example, real growth in wages, the cost of living, etc.

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Rice. 2. Phillips curve

We examined the main indicators that play a key role in determining social stability. It should be noted that the above indicators may have a close relationship (correlation) with each other. Analysis of indicators (in accordance with the above critical values) allows us to formulate conclusions about social stability and main threats. For example, if the level of inflation and unemployment is high (from 15%), then stagflation occurs, which indicates a deep systemic crisis and is dangerous due to possible social explosions.

social stability national economy

Chapter2. Problems of social stability in the Russian economy

2.1 Main social indicators of the Russian economy

To calculate indicators of population differentiation by income, we present the basic data in tabular form (Table 1):

Table 1

Population income and its share for 2008-2015.

Let's look at how it increased over 2008-2015. average level of wages (and, consequently, income of the population). Since the average value fluctuates around 25 thousand rubles, we display in Figure 3 the dynamics of increase in persons with incomes of 20,000-25,000 rubles per capita:

Rice. 3. Dynamics of changes in the share of income of the population from 20,000 to 25,000 rubles.

However, the presented graph displays the change in average per capita income without taking into account the level of inflation; this is just an increase in nominal income. Therefore, in the following table we will weigh the numbers taking into account inflation. Growth data will be adjusted (Table 2):

table 2

Adjusted values ​​of table 1

As can be seen from the table presented, the number of people with an average income of 20-25 thousand rubles increased from 4.3% to 10.51%. Thus, we can talk about positive dynamics in the growth of average per capita income in real terms. Consequently, if we consider average per capita income as an indicator of stability, then since it has increased, social stability has also strengthened.

One of the indicators that a number of Western scientists highlight when analyzing social stability is the indicator of the “middle class” - what percentage of the economically active population can be attributed to it.

Indeed, the middle class represents people with incomes with which they can satisfy more than just minimal needs. In developed countries, the minimum bar for entry into the middle class is 2000 thousand dollars (euros) per person. If we do not take into account the depreciation of the ruble, setting a fixed value of 35 rubles = 1 dollar, then the middle class may include people with incomes over 60,000 rubles, the share of which, as we see from the table, is very insignificant and amounts to only 7.1% . Considering that this category includes people with very high incomes (who clearly do not position themselves as the middle class), then even less remains (about 3%). Thus, if we associate our economy with developed countries (the share of the middle class in which is up to 30%), then in Russia it simply does not exist. Nevertheless, if we approach this issue from the other side, positioning our country as a “country with a developing economy,” following the example of BRICS, then the value of 35,000 rubles can well be considered the bar for entering the middle class. Discarding the 3% of the population with super incomes, we find the approximate number of middle class people in Russia: S = 28.2, which in principle is a fairly good indicator.

Let's group by quantiles: the first group will include people with the lowest incomes and calculate their share of total income, the fifth group will include people with the highest incomes and calculate their share. Table 3 displays data for 2000-2014. with the calculation of the decile coefficient of funds and the Gini coefficient.

Table 6

Dynamics for 2000-2014, differentiation coefficients

Let us present in Table 4 the value of the Gini coefficient in European countries:

Table 4

Gini coefficient in European countries

The lowest Gini coefficient is in Sweden and Norway, countries that occupy one of the leading positions in terms of the standard of living of the population. At the same time, as can be seen from the table presented, in the countries of the post-Soviet space (Belarus, Ukraine), the coefficient is also not very different from the average European indicators. Looking ahead a little, we note that in Russia, for quite a long period of time, the Gini coefficient exceeds 0.4. The main reason for this is the privatization of the 90s. Let's imagine the dynamics of the Gini coefficient in Fig. 4:

From the calculation of the Gini coefficient, we can conclude that the stratification of society by income is obvious and stable. This has a negative impact on social stability.

Let's move on to consider the dynamics of unemployment. Let's display the basic data in Table 5:

Table 5

Employment of the population in the Russian Federation in 2008-2013.

As can be seen from the table presented, the number of unemployed among the economically active population in 2013 was 5.5%. At the same time, the variation of this indicator is large. In 2014, we can expect an increase in unemployment, which, however, is unlikely to exceed the critical value of 10%. Conclusion: if we consider social stability in terms of employment, its level is quite acceptable.

In Table 6 we present the inflation rate for 2008-2014.

In 2014 There was a sharp increase in the inflation rate (up to 11.36%), which was associated with the depreciation of the ruble and a sharp increase in prices for all groups of goods. The dynamics are negative, since the population of the Russian Federation perceives inflation as the main indicator of stability (keeping in mind the events of the 90s).

2.2 Main threats to social stability and ways to solve them

Let's consider the main threats to the social stability of the Russian Federation and possible ways to solve them:

1) High level of stratification of the population by income (Gini coefficient 0.41), the ratio between the incomes of the richest to the poorest is 15:1. These indicators are beyond the acceptable levels. The population's dissatisfaction with this state of affairs is very noticeable, although they do not express it openly. Let us recall that various social explosions had in their embryo the root of inequality: this was the case both during the French Revolution of 1792 and during the October Revolution in Russia in 1917.

Unfortunately, the state understands this problem, but no steps have been taken to resolve it yet. All developed countries have introduced a progressive taxation scale - if a person has a large income, then the tax should be appropriate. Additional funds received into the budget can be used to increase wages for social workers. Thus, this measure meets two goals: increasing budget revenues (which have declined due to lower oil prices) and partially eliminating social stratification. We should strive, in the near future, to reduce the Gini coefficient to at least 0.35.

2) The second threat to social stability is inflation, which in 2014 for the first time in 5 years exceeded 10% and amounted to 11.36%, and these are official figures - prices for essential goods rose by 20-30%. Also, for the first time in 5 years, wage growth in real terms turned out to be negative. The threat to social stability with such high inflation is obvious - the population is dissatisfied with rising prices and declining living standards.

The state must control the market segment associated with the sale of basic socially significant goods. An increase in prices may not be associated with rising costs, but may be a consequence of the dishonesty of entrepreneurs who, in the “general crisis wave,” decided to make unreasonably high profits. Therefore, regulatory authorities must constantly monitor retail outlets, suppressing such attempts.

Conclusion

Ensuring social stability in society is one of the primary tasks for authorities. Social stability means the stability of social institutions and relationships to adverse events in the economy. To give the concept of stability a mathematical basis, a number of indicators have been introduced that characterize it. This:

1) Indicators of differentiation of income of the population. These include:

The ratio of the income of the richest 10% of the population to the poorest 10% of the population;

The Gini coefficient, which is most often used to analyze income differentiation.

2) Unemployment rate

3) Inflation rate

When analyzing the above coefficients, it was established that threats to social stability exist and have a very real probability. First of all, there is a high stratification of the population by income: the ratio of the incomes of the richest to the incomes of the poorest is 15:1. At the same time, the Gini coefficient exceeds the value of 0.4, with the global level being 0.25-0.3. Let us note that even in the countries of the post-Soviet space (Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan) there is no such strong inequality.

Unfavorable economic factors also give rise to an increase in the level of inflation, which Russian residents always perceive with concern. Let us note that the unfavorable influence of external factors will persist for quite a long time, hence the state must look for ways to smooth out the negative consequences. For example, we proposed the option of introducing a progressive tax scale, which allows us to resolve several contradictions at once.

At the end of the work, we note: despite the apparent social stability, the problems in the Russian economy are serious enough to disrupt this stability at any time. History knows many pushing factors. Therefore, the main task of the authorities is to establish basic indicators such as the Gini coefficient and the inflation rate. In the next 2 years, the bar for these values ​​can be 0.35 and 8%, respectively.

List of used literature

1. Amosova V.V., Gukasyan G.M. Economic theory / V.V. Amosova, G.M. Ghukasyan. - M.: Eksmo, 2014. - 736 p.

2. Gryaznova A.G., Sokolinsky V.M. Economic theory: textbook / A.G. Gryaznova, V.M. Sokolinsky. - M.: Knorus, 2014. - 464 p.

3. Eliseeva I.I. General theory of statistics: textbook / I.I. Eliseeva, M.M. Yuzbashev. - 5th ed., revised. and additional - M.: Finance and Statistics, 2013.- 655 p.

4. Zhuravleva, G.P. Economic theory. Macroeconomics: Textbook / G.P. Zhuravleva, N.A. Pozdnyakov, Yu.A. Pozdnyakov. - M.: INFRA-M, 2013. - 440 p.

5. Kiseleva E.A.: Economic theory. - M.: Business literature, 2011.-365

6. Melkumov, Ya.S. Socio-economic statistics: Textbook / Ya.S. Melkumov. - M.: INFRA-M, 2013. - 236 p.

7. Mankiw N.G. Macroeconomics / N.G. Mankiw. - St. Petersburg: Peter, 2014. - 560 p.

8. Statistics: textbook for bachelors / ed. L.I. Nivorozhkina. - M.: Dashkov and K: Nauka-Spektr, 2011. - 415 p.

9. Applied statistics. Fundamentals of econometrics: Textbook for universities: In 2 volumes - Vol. 1. Ayvazyan S.A., Mkhitaryan V.S. Probability theory and applied statistics. - M: UNITY-DANA, 2012. - 656 p.

10. Yakovenko I.G. Risks of social transformation of Russian society: cultural aspect. - M.: Progress-Tradition, 2010.-188 p.

11. Yakovleva, A.V. Economic statistics: Textbook / A.V. Yakovleva. - M.: IC RIOR, 2011. - 95 p.

12. Materials from the official website of Rosstat

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Social changes are a familiar part of people's daily lives - they occur continuously and most often unnoticed by the naked eye. However, the same social changes sometimes become the cause of enormous social upheavals, which leave their dramatic imprint on the destinies of entire nations. This explains the special attention that philosophers, historians, sociologists and politicians show to social changes, their types, sources, driving forces, and their possible human, humanistic consequences.

Modern ideas about social change are formed at the intersection of sociology and a number of philosophical, historical and general scientific concepts - social synergetics, modern social evolutionism, world-system analysis, etc. These ideas cover a wide range of issues related to historical macrosociology, but we will limit our analysis here basic, basic concepts in relation to a particular society.

In the most general terms social change and social stability represent two interrelated categories (process, state). The first denotes the transition of social systems (communities, institutions, organizations, etc.) from one state to another, the second characterizes the stable state of the social system, allowing it to function effectively and develop under conditions of external and internal influences (changes).

Concept social change covers a wide variety of changes in social systems, regardless of their direction, speed, scale, mechanism and many other parameters. There are a large number of types of social change, which are distinguished for various reasons.

Thus, depending on the initial decisive factor, technological, socio-economic, socio-political and socio-cultural changes are distinguished.

Depending on the social level at which changes occur, social changes are distinguished at the micro level (small and primary social groups), at the macro level (large social groups and society as a whole) and global, covering all of humanity.

Depending on the systemic nature of social changes, structural, functional, procedural and motivational social changes are distinguished.

Depending on the subject, individual, collective (when individuals act as part of a group and directly interact with each other) and mass social changes (when a large number of people act individually and not as part of a group) are distinguished.

In turn, mass social changes, depending on the degree of awareness and organization (coherence) of the actions of individuals, are divided into social processes and social movements.

Under a social process is understood as a set of unidirectional but unorganized individual actions that take place when a large number of people act individually and not as part of a group, for example, moving from place to place, purchasing consumer goods, participating in political struggle, etc. The social process is a certain trend that consists of many separate, but partially coinciding social changes.

Social movements arise when the actions of large masses of people become organized, coordinated and directed either in support of certain social changes or against them.

Depending on the form, directed and undirected social changes are distinguished. The former are ordered in a certain way, have a certain shape or trajectory, the latter are random, chaotic in nature.

Directed social changes are of several types: unidirectional (growth of scientific and technical knowledge, improvement of tools) and multidirectional (for example, various social and cultural forms of transition of underdeveloped countries from a traditional society to an industrial society); directional reversible, or cyclical, which periodically go through similar stages and resemble a sinusoid in shape (periodic change of generations of people, technology, fluctuations in supply and demand for raw materials and energy resources on the world market, ups and downs in business, politics, the rise and fall of entire civilizations) ; directed irreversible , which are otherwise called social development .

The main types of social development are progress and regression. Progress is usually understood as such a directed change that raises the social system (individual, social group, society as a whole) to a higher level, increases the degree of its organization and independence. Regression is a process opposite to progress, which is associated, as a rule, with a decrease in the level of social organization, with the weakening and attenuation of social functions, with stagnation and, ultimately, the collapse of the social system; a type of regression are the so-called dead-end lines of development, which lead to the death of certain socio-cultural systems (cultures, civilizations).

The problem of social progress, with all its apparent “simplicity,” has always been controversial both in social philosophy and in sociology since its inception. Various concepts of social progress began to take shape in sociology already in the 19th century. due to different interpretations of its criteria. For O. Comte, social progress coincided with the progress of reason, with the establishment of the dominance of science in all spheres of social life. G. Spencer associated it with the increasing complexity of the internal organization and functioning of social systems. For K. Marx, social progress was determined by the continuous growth of the productive forces, which, combined with the liberation struggle of the exploited classes, was supposed to lead in the future to the formation of a classless communist society. M. Weber saw the criterion of social progress in the pervasive tendency towards the rationalization of social life, and E. Durkheim - in increasing the degree of social integration and social cohesion as a consequence of the growing division of labor.

Most modern sociologists deny the existence of absolute or universal criteria for social progress and identify a whole hierarchy of such criteria in accordance with the hierarchy and heterogeneity of social phenomena themselves.

There is a group of social phenomena whose development is clearly assessed as progressive. These are the development of healthcare, improvement of working conditions, growth in living standards and the associated increase in the average life expectancy of people; development of means of transportation, communications, growth of knowledge about the world. Other social phenomena, such as industrialization, urbanization and “technological progress” in general, can no longer be unambiguously assessed as progressive, since they carry with them negative side effects that can pose a threat to the very existence of humanity (for example, the problem of depletion of natural resources and environmental pollution environment). The application of the concept of progress to political and social orders turns out to be even more complex - here everything depends on from the standpoint of whose interests the development of a particular phenomenon is assessed. And finally, there are areas of social life in relation to which the concept of progress cannot be applied at all, although they are subject to significant evolution. These are, first of all, the spheres of art, religion, and philosophy.

So, the concept of social progress is multifaceted, ambiguous and internally contradictory. The source of this inconsistency lies in social reality itself, and the task of sociology is to identify this inconsistency by analyzing specific trends and forms of development.

In addition to progress and regression, there are other types of social development. These include: specialization - one-sided progress, with partial regression or stagnation in all other areas of development (for example, the orientation of the economy towards extractive industries and the import of consumer goods, which results in an increased dependence of the well-being of society on price conditions on the world market); universalization - the development of a social system in many directions simultaneously (such opportunities are created in social systems built on the principles of pluralism of political, economic and other interests); convergence - an increase in the structural and functional similarity of social systems (for example, the emergence of similar features in the economic, social fields, areas of education, science, culture between developed Western countries and the USSR in the 60s as a result of the introduction of similar equipment and technology); divergence is the reverse process of convergence, associated with a decrease in structural and functional similarity between social systems; parallelism is an intermediate state between convergence and divergence in the development process, when the original relationship between the structures and functions of two or more social systems is maintained over a certain period of time.

In real social life, various types of social changes are closely intertwined with each other, and it is very difficult to isolate them in their pure form. In each specific case, we are dealing with the result of a whole set of social changes of different orders, which are capable of both maintaining and disrupting the stability of the social system.

Society as a system always strives for stability, balance - sustainable reproduction of its most important indicators. At the same time, any social system, no matter how stable it may seem, is thrown out of balance over time under the influence of internal and external factors. In the tandem “social stability – social change”, the latter always dominate.

Social stability is not a state opposite to social change. Social stability can be defined as a temporary combination of certain social changes, favorable for the reproduction of a given social system.

Social stability cannot be identified with a state of peace or immobility. The external absence of social changes is only an appearance, behind which many forces and tendencies, including socially dangerous ones, are always hidden. This was the case during the apparently prosperous period of “developed socialism” of the 70s and 80s. last century - then, it would seem, nothing foreshadowed the imminent collapse of the entire social system. Peace and immobility are most often a sign not of stability, but of stagnation, which sooner or later gives rise to crisis phenomena in the life of society - an increase in contradictions, conflicts, and social tension.

So, social stability is only a moment, one of the forms of manifestation of social change. Social stability is always relative and temporary, while social change is absolute.

But is it possible to manage social stability? Is it possible to intentionally induce, maintain and prolong a state of social equilibrium in society? Absolutely yes! All changes that occur in society are the result of human activity, so social stability can be maintained if the right social changes are carried out at the right time and in the right place.

What factors contribute to maintaining social stability or, on the contrary, disrupt it? The stability of society is ensured by a whole set of factors and mechanisms that belong to the most diverse spheres of its life. This is the sustainable functioning of the economic and political system, the effective operation of social control mechanisms, the presence of cultural traditions common to all layers of society, a system of life goals and values, and a number of others. Particular attention should be paid to two conditions or factors for maintaining social stability, which, in the event of unfavorable developments, fall into the sphere of activity of law enforcement agencies - the absence or insignificant size of the middle class and the dysfunction of social institutions.

The presence in society of a large middle class interested in maintaining the existing order serves as a reliable guarantee of social stability. If the middle class is small and centrist forces are weak, extreme radical groups may seize the initiative, leading to increased political and social tension and an increased risk of instability.

Sharp social contrasts and a large share of the poor also do not contribute to maintaining social stability. A particularly serious threat is posed by the presence of significant marginal layers and declassed elements (lumpen) in society. The direction of their destructive actions is difficult to predict, therefore, in order to maintain social stability, it is necessary to protect society from lumpenization by all means and to develop in a timely manner the necessary social programs to support social groups that find themselves in difficult situations.

For Russia, which has experienced very painful reforms over the past two decades, this problem is especially pressing. According to research results, the share of marginal strata in the working-age population of Russia today amounts to 25% of its total number. In Russia, a mass movement is completing its formation lower class(14-15% of the economically active population), whose representatives are characterized by temporary or casual employment, the constant threat of unemployment, family and housing instability, and a low standard of living. In Russia, as in other countries, there is a “social bottom” (homeless people, beggars, prostitutes and street children), which, according to various estimates, ranges from 5 to 10% of the urban population.

All these categories of the Russian population are a potential and real source of social instability and need not only targeted social assistance, but also the implementation of effective socio-economic policies aimed at minimizing their numbers.

Social stability can also be disrupted by the dysfunction of social institutions, which occurs when a social institution does not have time to restructure itself in response to changing social needs and the performance of its functions turns into a ritual activity unrelated to real social problems. The dysfunction of social institutions causes people to strive to satisfy their needs by bypassing official legal structures, by violating existing norms and rules. In its extreme forms, this kind of activity can be expressed in illegal activities. Thus, the majority of economic, property, and financial crimes are directly related to the fact that existing state economic and financial institutions operate in isolation from real social needs.

Offenses arising in connection with the dysfunction of social institutions are widespread and clearly aimed at achieving a specific goal. They are distinguished by the planning of illegal activities, systematicity, distribution of roles, etc. This problem became particularly acute in our society in the 90s. The transition to market relations shifted the system of value orientations of the population towards achieving material success. At the same time, the crisis state in which Russian society was then did not allow a significant part of its population to achieve this success through legal means. The result was massive tax evasion by the population, massive street crime, including organized crime, massive abuses by government officials, etc.

In modern sociology, along with the concept of “social stability”, the concepts of “security of the social system” or “national security” are used, which specify “social stability” in relation to the most important spheres of public life. Each of the structural subsystems of society - economic, political, spiritual etc. - has some stable relationships(elements, parameters, connections) that ensure its normal functioning and which can be assessed quantitatively in the form of a system of indicators. The approach of the development indicators of the main subsystems to the extremely critical level disrupts their normal functioning and leads to general social instability.

Here are examples of maximum critical indicators in the most important areas of public life, obtained on the basis of a generalization of the experience of developed Western countries.

In the economic sphere: the level of decline in industrial production is 30-40%; share of imported food products – 30%; the ratio of minimum and average wages is 1:3.

In the social sphere: the ratio of incomes of the richest 10% and the poorest 10% is 10:1; proportion of the population living below the poverty line – 10%; unemployment rate – 8-10%.

In the political sphere: the share of citizens in favor of a radical change in the political system – 40%; The level of public trust in the central authorities is 25%.

In the spiritual sphere: the share of costs for culture in government spending is 2.5%; share of government funding for science – 2%; share of students (per 100 thousand population) – 180 people.

In the demographic area: the ratio of the number of deaths to the number of births is 1.0; birth rate – 2.14-2.15; the share of people over 65 years of age in the total population is 7%.

In the environmental sector: the share of GNP allocated to environmental safety is 5%.

In the field of behavioral deviations: crime (per 100 thousand people) – 5-6 thousand; alcohol consumption (per person per year) – 8 liters; number of suicides (per 1000 people) – 20; prevalence of mental pathology (per 1000 people) – 284.

Of course, the listed indicators should not be absolute and applied mechanically. Much depends on the level of development of society, the prevailing type of culture and historical traditions. For underdeveloped countries, Muslim countries or, for example, countries in the Asian region, the given system of indicators will certainly have different meanings.

In addition, it should be borne in mind that society itself is not a mechanical unit, but a complex organic system with nonlinear dependencies and numerous compensatory, cumulative and other mechanisms. Difficulties in economic life can be “compensated” by positive foreign policy processes, thanks to which (for example, external investments), the economy will work normally again, and a general patriotic impulse can “pull” society out of the national crisis.

However, the opposite logic of development of events is not excluded, when a slight excess of the maximum critical indicators in one of the spheres of public life will cause a “chain reaction” in all other spheres and lead to a structural crisis. And yet, in most cases, approaching a critical limit value and even exceeding it does not automatically lead to the disintegration of all connections and relationships, but only indicates a high degree of probability of such a development of events.

It is obvious that the degree of criminalization of a society has a direct impact on the level of its social security, and the minimum task that law enforcement agencies are called upon to solve is to prevent the crime level from rising to its maximum critical values.

In real life, it can be difficult to separate stabilization from disorganization - they are often two sides of the same coin. The reason is that each social system, before moving to a higher stage of development, must go through a stage of restructuring, which is always accompanied by elements of disorganization and loss of controllability. Russian reforms of the 1990s. there were many mistakes, miscalculations and abuses, but one could hardly expect that the transition from administrative regulation of the economy to the market would be possible without crisis phenomena at all.

The way of existence of human society is associated with constant changes in the natural environment and the simultaneous restructuring of social ties and relationships between people. One of the universal mechanisms for the progressive development of society and at the same time one of the most fundamental types of social change is innovation ( innovation ) .

Innovations (the use of fire, the domestication of wild animals, the invention of the wheel, etc.) accompany all human history, but the very concept of “innovation” first entered science in the 19th century. when studying the processes of penetration of European customs and methods of organization into traditional Asian and African societies. Then it was used as a kind of opposite to the concept of “tradition”. Later, already in the twentieth century. it began to be used when firms developed strategies for promoting new products to the market, as well as when introducing scientific and technological progress into production and improving the management system.

Gradually, as experience was accumulated and generalized, an independent theory of innovation began to emerge—innovation—the subject of study of which was the universal patterns of the creation, development and dissemination of various types of innovations, regardless of in what sphere of social life this occurs.

Innovation is the simplest type of purposeful, controlled social change. Typically, innovations are distinguished between material (new tools, means of labor, materials, etc.) and social (new forms of organization of economic, political and cultural life). In addition, they talk about radical or basic innovations associated with the introduction of something fundamentally new, and derivative, modifying innovations. There are other typologies of innovations.

The process of introducing innovations into public life rarely proceeds smoothly and painlessly. If technical innovations can be tested in a few hours, then with social innovations the situation is much more difficult. As a rule, they collide with pre-existing social norms, and even when accepted, they do not prove their usefulness immediately, and sometimes only after decades.

In how painlessly innovations take root in society and whether they take root at all, their compatibility with the existing culture plays an important role.

Innovation may conflict with the existing culture. In this case, they are either simply rejected by society, or, yielding to pressure, are accepted along with their conflicting features, which from time to time cause protest, which makes innovations unstable. This was the case, for example, during the period of reforms of Peter I, when European customs and traditions were forcibly introduced into Russian everyday life.

Innovations may have no analogues in the existing culture and, therefore, do not conflict with current norms, however, even in this case, society perceives innovations very slowly and carefully, giving them, often unconsciously, forms similar to the old ones. Thus, the first forms of democracy looked like a familiar advisory body under the monarch. This also includes the introduction of the “lifelong institution of presidency” in a number of former Soviet Central Asian republics in the last decade, as a compromise between new Western forms of democracy and familiar Muslim traditions.

Some innovations, in order to enter the existing culture, must necessarily displace a number of previous outdated elements from it. We perfectly perceive, for example, Western pop music or Western traditions of freedom of speech, but it is much more difficult for us to perceive Western forms of civilized business or democracy, since this is hampered by cultural examples that are, although largely outdated, but familiar to us.

Sometimes, in parallel with innovative shifts, or under their name, “pseudo-” or “quasi-innovations” appear. An example of such pseudo-innovations can be, in particular, the transfer of control over property in post-Soviet countries from the hands of the party-economic elite (nomenklatura) into the hands of the bureaucratic-oligarchic elite, or the mass culture of modern show business, which claims to be the role of high art, finally liberated , from ideological control.

The social effect of innovation is determined, first of all, by the type of innovation itself. Basic or radical innovations produce multiple social consequences that generate a chain reaction in a variety of areas of social life and cover significant periods of time. Such was the invention of the steam engine, electricity, the automobile, and the personal computer, which changed society from bottom to top.

Sometimes the social effect becomes a consequence convergence or the combined combined impact of several innovations. The technical capabilities of the media, combined with the achievements of psychological sciences, gave birth to propaganda, which became an effective means of managing public opinion; a nuclear reactor, a liquid fuel rocket and an electronic system, when combined together, gave birth to weapons of mass destruction.

Modern industrial society is a dynamic society, and this dynamics is based on the constant search and development of innovations. Today, scientific, technical and social progress is no longer possible without a continuous flow of innovations, and although a significant part of them carries with it not only positive, but also negative social consequences - for many countries, stopping this process is tantamount to a social cataclysm.

Related information.

The most important condition for the implementation of pressing economic problems is the transition to a model of sustainable development with a certain level of state regulation of economic processes, guaranteeing the normal functioning of a multi-structured economy and providing a balanced solution to socio-economic problems.

The construction of any science begins with the formation of its concept (system of axioms) with the subsequent development of the corresponding methodology (academic discipline) and methods for solving problems inherent in this science. Any problem requiring theoretical understanding and urgent practical solution in one or another area of ​​human activity requires, for its solution, the formulation of systemic knowledge about the phenomenon under study and the development of the necessary scientific methodological and methodological tools.

An economic system is a set of interconnected and ordered elements of the economy. Without the systemic nature of the economy, economic relations and institutions could not be reproduced (constantly renewed), economic patterns could not exist, a theoretical understanding of economic phenomena and processes could not have developed, and there could be no coordinated effective economic policy. Real practice constantly confirms the systemic nature of the economy. Objectively existing economic systems are scientifically reflected in theoretical (scientific) economic systems.

If the economy is considered as a systemic entity, then it appears as an economic system, but such a technique does not exempt it from special analysis.26

According to V.V. Leontiev, the economy of each country is a large system in which there are many different types of activities, and each link, component of the system can only exist

because he receives something from others, i.e. is in mutual

communication and interdependence on other links.

In Marxist economics, other approaches to revealing the essence of the economic system have developed, which reflects the class and ideological nature of understanding the structure of society. Marxism understands the economic system as a complex structure of interacting elements: economic phenomena and processes, economic categories and laws, production relations and economic interests, forms of social combination of the production process, production

driving forces and production relations.

An economic system is a complex social mechanism of interacting subsystems that are in varying degrees of subordination to each other, based on form and content, general, special and individual, phenomenon and essence, quantity and quality.

According to the established opinion, J. Galbraith notes, “... the purpose of the economic system... is to produce material goods and provide services that

people need." The economic system, according to the economist G. Grossman, represents unity27: 1)

natural structure (i.e. natural structure of production resources and material wealth, structure of the social product); 2)

institutional system (i.e. the system of social and organizational forms of the economy); 3)

systems of functional connections (i.e., various technical and economic connections between elements of the natural and “institutional structure of the economy”).

The concept of an economic system is fundamental in economic analysis. For example, L.A. Meereenh considers the economic system as a combination of the following elements: natural and material resources; people as producers and consumers; economic relations, i.e. processes of production, distribution and consumption occurring within and between economic units; economic order, which is constituted by legal and institutional rules that are mandatory for the economic process.28

According to A. A. Lapinskas, the goals of economic systems are always directly or indirectly related to meeting the needs of the elements of the system or the entire system as a whole.29

In our opinion, the economic system is formed on the basis of the interaction of the subjects of the system; the subjects can be economic organizations and enterprises. In our opinion, the economic system underlies the formation of the economic system.

Economic systems are in constant flux. Moreover, such movement is more dynamic and changeable than, for example, that of natural objects due to the influence of numerous subjective factors. And this is not always growth - some indicators, and sometimes the majority, characterize negative trends in certain periods. The development process can be represented as a sequence of evolutionary changes in the states of the region’s system with a transition to a new qualitative level, the spasmodic nature of which means the beginning of the next

The economic system strives to suppress external influences, but to do this it requires a lot of effort. There comes a time when she is unable to cope with these influences. This is followed by a period of instability, from which there are two paths - complete disintegration or self-organization into a new order. Sustainable development of an economic system is a complex category and there are many different approaches to this matter. The term “sustainable development” is very relative. V. Levashov points out this uncertainty of the term: “The concept of sustainable development allows for different interpretations and needs further improvement, especially on the issue of ways of its implementation.”30

The concept of sustainable development has gone through a certain development path. Back in the mid-70s. XX century The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) formulated the concept and concept of “development without destruction”. Later it was replaced by the concept of “ecodevelopment” - environmentally acceptable development or development that seeks to cause the least negative impact on the environment and, therefore, the least environmental damage31.

The concept of sustainable development goes back to the idea of ​​a “stable” (equilibrium) economy (steady-state economy). This concept formed the basis of the famous report of the Brundtland Commission (international commission on environment and development), published in 1987, soon received support from the UN, and in 1992 the second UN conference on environment and development recommended that the governments of all states develop their own national sustainable development strategies. The phrase “sustainable development” entered the lexicon at the end of the 20th century. In 1983, the United Nations International Commission on Environment and Development was created. It was headed by the Prime Minister of Norway Gro Harl Brundtland in 1987. The meaning of this concept is very broad. The Brundtland Commission report defines sustainable development as development that meets current needs without jeopardizing the ability to meet them in the future.

next generation

After the conference in Rio de Janeiro, the World Bank developed a system of indicators for sustainable development.

Currently, there are two fairly bright directions in the very interpretation of the concept of sustainable development. The first direction of research develops the ideas contained in the works of V. Vernadsky32 and members of the Club of Rome33

Research initiated by the Club of Rome paved the way for organizing a discussion of global development issues on an interstate basis within the UN. In the reports of the Club of Rome, based on mathematical calculations, there were

forecasts were made for the environmental consequences of resource depletion

owls due to uncontrolled economic growth.

In 1968, the Club of Rome was founded; this period is characterized as a period of rapid economic growth in many countries of the world. In 1972, the world was gripped by the oil crisis, which had a profound impact on global investment patterns and caused many strategic changes in the development patterns of economic systems. The crisis became a warning to industrialized countries about the vulnerability of their economies - in particular, the dependence of supplies of raw materials and energy on events occurring

walking in certain regions. E. Laszlo, a member of the Club of Rome, emphasizes that the technological imperative becomes dangerous when economic growth curves plateau, the market becomes saturated with goods, the environment reaches the limits at which it can absorb pollution, and energy and material resources become scarce and expensive. Modern society lives in a period of one of the most profound and, undoubtedly, the most rapid transformations in the history of mankind. The transformations taking place today are not inferior in depth to those that led to the transition of pre-industrial development to the industrial era, but this does not happen over the course of centuries, but only over decades. In the 20th century, the world's population almost doubled, but the price was the devastation of natural resources and environmental pollution. Economic and environmental problems have caused social problems. Modern market conditions, created by humanity's desire for economic growth, differ from the conditions that prevailed in the Middle Ages. As the demand for sources of various resources increases and the supply of available resources and other necessities of life decreases, a critical shortage develops34.

However, for many decades, humanity has been arguing about the correct choice of direction for the structure of the economy. It is necessary, however, to note situations in which the free action of market forces does not ensure the optimal use (Pareto optimum) of resources. In other words, “market failures” arise due to “external effects”, incomplete information, and limited competition. Market flaws turn into inopportunities

equal losses.

The second direction is becoming more and more confident, in which not the environmental aspects of sustainability are brought to the fore, but the socio-economic ones, which is especially characteristic of modern Russian research. In the approach to the formation and comprehensive study of Russia's development strategy, carried out by a group of scientists led by Academician V.A. Koptyug, the vital interests of Russia, ensuring its security and the transition to sustainable development are named as the highest priority. The meaning of the transition to sustainable development is not only a balanced solution to economic, social and environmental problems, but also the creation of a new system of values ​​for society35.

Within this direction, sustainability is interpreted primarily in the context of the need to ensure the reproducibility of limited resources, and the main emphasis is on the environmental component of sustainability. This concept of sustainable development has earned public recognition, because it is quite positive. The concept of sustainable development reflects the balanced development of a socio-ecological-economic system, where three large areas are distinguished: nature, society and economy. Identification of a subject is the process of separating him from the environment. The term “environment” in the literature most often refers to the totality of currently existing abiotic, biotic and social environments capable of jointly and directly having an indirect or direct, immediate or remote impact on people and their economy, on animals, plants.

bodies and other organisms.

According to A. A. Lapinskas, a balanced economic structure of a mixed type generally corresponds to the concept of “sustainable development,” which defines a set of criteria for progress, taking into account the trends of the last decades of the 20th century. This concept substantiates the need to optimize the use of resources in order to reduce the negative human impact on the environment. The term “sustainable development” at the same time means “sufficient” development, rejecting industrial expansionism, which becomes an end in itself both under capitalism and under the dominance of mega-hierarchies. Thus, the concepts of “sustainable development”, in particular, and convergence in general, merge with the theories of “non-capitalist” or “special”

development paths, except for their radical options.

Sustainable development within the framework of a socio-ecological-economic system assumes that the equilibrium properties of such a system and the balance of social, economic and environmental interests are maintained under external influences. The state of the system, its elements and connections between them with a high degree of reliability determines a number of its future states. Equilibrium can be considered in statics and dynamics. Statics means a zero increase in the parameters of the system under consideration. Statics is an episode in the overall trajectory of development. The system under consideration is characterized by continuous movement, namely, changes in basic parameters: the rate of economic growth, level of economic development, standard of living, state of the environment, population size and, finally, changes in qualitative parameters characterizing the state of the elements of the system.

According to E.S. Ivleva, a moment of equilibrium of a system in statics is theoretically possible. In dynamics, a socio-ecological-economic system is always in a state of approaching or moving away from a state of stable equilibrium. The sustainability of the socio-ecological-economic system is not understood absolutely, but as an approach to a state of stable equilibrium while maintaining a balance of needs and interests of present and future generations, a combination of economic efficiency and environmental safety in the activities of economic entities at all levels, dynamic equilibrium based on the gradual reduction of the gap in levels of economic development of countries around the world, taking into account the environmental components of growth and taking into account

resource limitations of development.

The concept of quality of economic growth includes both environmental quality and quality of life. According to some estimates, the determining factor in economic development is the quality of economic growth and the perfect distribution of the produced product, and not the growth of other macroeconomic indicators. This mutual conditionality should be considered as a variant of the connection between the socio-ecological-economic system. The relationship between economic growth and quality of life is ambiguous and can be traced in two directions: positive and negative. The vector of the positive connection is planned: economic growth is focused on increasing the level and quality of life. The negative relationship is most clearly visible in the processes of environmental pollution. There is no consensus among experts on such an important issue as sustainable development of society and the sustainability of economic systems. Ignoring the factors influencing the degree of stability of the economic system leads to increased economic and social imbalances, an accelerated decline in production and many other consequences. We will try to bring some terminological clarity to the subject of research, bearing in mind both the clarification of terms and the relationship between them.

A.V. Lusse, considering the problems of sustainability of the economic system, notes: “... at present there is no single, agreed upon concept. This situation is explained by the insufficient elaboration of the problem, as well as its versatility.” He gives four translation options for the term “sustainable development”36.

Firstly, these are the terms “stability” and “stabilization” (stability, stabilization), used to characterize socio-economic stability and stability of economic development.

Secondly, this is the classical term “equalibrium” (equilibrium), used in micro- and macroeconomic analysis to characterize the equality of supply and demand, dynamic equilibrium and sustainable effective development, as well as “steadu state” (steady state, state of stationary stability), introduced by R. Solow. It also reflects the conditions of dynamic equilibrium.

Thirdly, this is the term “sustainable development” - sustainable development, used to characterize the type of economic development that ensures environmental safety, reproducibility of limited resources and the quality of economic growth (fair distribution of income) supply.

Fourthly, this is the term “sustained positive economic growth”, used to characterize dynamic equilibrium and sustainable effective development.

Stability and equilibrium are different terms; however, if, under external influence on a system, the equilibrium properties of the system are preserved, then this state of equilibrium is called stable.

Stability is one of the basic concepts of cybernetics, closely related to the idea of ​​invariance. Sustainable economic development presupposes positive economic growth values. Sustainable economic growth is the basis of sustainable development. Economic growth is usually understood as the movement of economic life, trends in the main elements and indicators that characterize them (production volume, prices, employment, income, etc.). Growth is expressed in an increase in potential and real GDP and an increase in national wealth. The problem of growth is the central task of all territorial systems.

The general points of the concepts “sustainable economic growth” and “sustainable development” include the following: firstly, in both concepts the term “sustainability” is used as a key semantic characteristic. Secondly, despite the existence of conceptual differences within each theory (meaning growth theory and sustainability theory), in both cases the same criteria for sustainability are often put forward. Thirdly, both theories have a pronounced macroeconomic orientation, that is, they relate to the characteristics of the functioning of the economy as a whole.

System analysis specialists have substantiated the conclusion that “stability” should be defined as a certain regular repeatability (i.e., the property of repeating itself unchanged), and, accordingly, instability - as a condition that occurs sporadically and may not be repeated.37

The instability of development, as an internal property of a transition economy, is associated with changes in old relations in the absence of new institutions; with a clash of old and new economic interests; with a violation of established social standards of life support for the population and its division into opposing groups. The manifestation of instability occurs as a result of constantly emerging socio-economic contradictions between the old and the new, which causes an imbalance in the system and the emergence of crisis conditions that take different forms of manifestation (open and hidden) and the scale of spread from local conflicts to a general catastrophic state.

A.I. Popov emphasizes that a transition economy is characterized by an alternative approach to solving major economic problems, which is accompanied by a clash of alternatives in the form of deep economic processes that develop into clashes and struggles between social strata supporting certain directions of economic development. The duration of transformations during the transition period is due to the inertia of previous directions of development of economic processes, the scale of work on the structural restructuring of production, and the creation of new political and economic institutions38.

Thus, the functioning of heterogeneous economic systems, the use of various incentives, and special forms of interaction between labor collectives and individuals with government authorities give rise to specific economic relations in the form of trends that unite certain segments of the population. In these conditions, socio-economic development is unstable, changeable, and accompanied by crisis phenomena. Overcoming instability, creating an integral unity of a functioning system and stable development is the main purpose of a transformational economy. According to A.D. Ursula, in the model of unsustainable development, all differences in the level of development of countries are “tied to the economy.” This one-dimensional economic dimension underlies the division of countries into developed, developing and transition economies. In this sense, the model of unsustainable development can rightfully be called a market or economic model based on the type of criteria (indicators) that underlie such a classification. In the model of sustainable development, first of all (along with economic ones, which remain) indicators of development of the social sphere and environmental safety, economic security, i.e. are taken into account. interprets the “3-dimensional” model of sustainable development39.

For example, A.V. Kolosov40 believes that sustainable economic development should be understood primarily as long-wave cycles that express long-term processes of economic activity with a period of about 50 years and, as is known, are called “Kondratiev cycles.” The process of sustainable economic development is a process of growth of economic results not of a short-term, but of a permanent nature. The consequence of such cyclical development is irreversibility, i.e. the impossibility of the reverse transition of a newly formed structure, perfect in terms of functioning characteristics in situations of inevitable progress, to the previous, outdated one. Irreversibility, stability and loss of stability are characteristics of the state of any developing economic system. In the process of transition to a new qualitative state, the economic system at some point may turn out to be unstable, which requires special attention to procedures for ensuring its safety from destabilizing influences of any nature.

Also, according to A.I. Popov, regional units are identified as components of the national strategy for sustainable development. According to the law of divergence, the loss of controllability of the state occurred as a result of the sovereignization of territories. He emphasizes that the severance of economic relations led to the relative isolation of the subjects of the Federation, the destruction of the whole, and a manifold increase in the differences between the isolated parts. As a result, an imbalance of the system occurred, which, according to Ashby’s law, can be overcome by reducing the diversity of the controlled system53.

The nature of the state of any system is determined, on the one hand, by its external environment, and on the other, by the structural and functional features of the system itself.54 In the most general form, three groups of factors can be distinguished55 on which the functioning of socio-economic systems depends (Table 1).

Table 1

Factors in the socio-economic development of the region Types of factors Characteristics Direction and level of influence on the economic development of the region Natural and climatic In the early stages of human development (theory of comparative advantage) Positive - an incentive for the social division of labor; negative - desert highlands, northern zone in Russia Production and economic means and objects of labor, technology, quantity and quality of labor, forms of organization of labor and production, volume of product, nature and To a dominant extent determines the stability of a particular system, requires certain changes, shifts, i.e. transient processes 53 Popov A.I. Economic theory: textbook for universities. - St. Petersburg: Publishing house "Peter", 2001. - P. 403. 54

Luzin G.P., Selin V.S., Istomin A.V. Sustainability and economic security in the regions: trends, criteria, regulatory mechanism. - Apatity: KSC Publishing House. - P. 95. 55

Factor - an essential circumstance in any phenomenon or process; the original component of something. Big encyclopedic dictionary / Ch. ed. M. Prokhorov. - M., 1968. - P. 776.

forms of product appropriation Sociocultural Manifestation of spiritually conscious activity of a person and society, his value orientations, attitude towards work and society, social behavior, mentality In transitional states of society, they provide certain restrictions, they can have both a positive and negative orientation. At the conceptual level, sustainability of development ( accordingly, stabilization of the equilibrium state) can be represented as ensuring (respectively, the desire) by the state and society to achieve some rational development process (respectively, dynamic development between these components). The peculiarities of finding the desired balance are the natural resource, environmental perspective of considering emerging problems and the specificity of the existing modern economic situation41.

S. A. Dyatlov understands by “sustainability of an economic system” the ability of a given system to adequately respond to external and internal influences and function, behave in such a way as to maintain a stable internal structural and functional organization and develop towards achieving the genetically specified goals of its existence -

The problem of the transition to sustainable development, in addition to the national one, also has a regional aspect, during which the contradictions between the tasks of developing productive forces and maintaining economic security in the region, as well as the preservation of unique natural objects, must be overcome. The region's raw materials export focus consumes environmental resources at a certain cost. The result is some deterioration of natural resources. The environmental goal of sustainable development of the region is defined as maintaining some balance in environmental management.

The economic goal implies ensuring economic growth with rational use of natural resources. The extensive economic growth observed in many regions of Russia contradicts the principles of sustainable development. Therefore, scientific support for economic security measures is of great importance for ensuring sustainable development.

The ability for self-development and progress, one of the main goals of the national economy, is especially important in the modern, dynamically developing world. The stability and self-preservation of the national economy become mandatory conditions. We consider the stability of the economy and the self-preservation of the economy from the point of view of ensuring economic security.

A.I. Popov, considers sustainable development as the creation of a unified ecological and economic system, which involves the inclusion of the national economy, nature and society into a single system. It reflects the interests of both present and future generations. Unlimited extraction and use of material resources (fuel combustion, deforestation, release of gases into the atmosphere) has led to serious contradictions between society and nature, which have grown to an international scale. In these conditions, foreign economists have put forward the concept of limiting economic growth and consumption of material resources, but such a policy is acceptable only for

developed countries.

Without refuting the thesis about the protection of economic interests, we note that the ability to satisfy social needs is the prerogative of not only a protected economy, but of any national economic system. A protected economy satisfies social needs better than an unprotected one. However, the ability to satisfy social needs is the task of any economy.

Having studied various concepts of sustainable development, we note that currently there are many definitions of “sustainable development”, which indicates the extraordinary versatility, volume, and elasticity of the category. We can talk about the parameters of sustainability of economic, social, political systems, the entire social system as a whole and the regional or national system.

Within the framework of the concept of sustainable development, a dispute involuntarily arises about the primacy of environmental or economic factors of development. Based on views about the origin and formation of humanity, the emergence, reproduction and functioning of living things, nature is primary. In relation to the process of development of society, when economic relations have already taken shape, when the economy operates in the phase of post-industrial development in sustainable development, the economy takes on the guidelines. In this context, the economy as a factor ensuring a normal environmental situation becomes fundamental not only for a particular region, but also for the state as a whole. Therefore, in our opinion, the key factor in sustainable development is the interconnected triad of “economic security - social security - environmental security”.

The sustainability of the regional economy appears to be the consistency of three strategic components:

system of economic interests;

position, state of the regional economy and its institutions;

situation developing in the external environment. From the point of view of V.P. Fofanov, it is most advisable to develop a model of sustainable development acceptable for a particular country at the regional level, where the inertia of processes is lower than at the macrosystem level, and the possibility of promptly making management decisions and maneuvering forces and means is higher. The need to use the concept of sustainable development is largely determined by the fact that the principles of sustainable development:

^ provide an opportunity to understand the problems of modern Russia in a global context;

^ help to systematically comprehend one’s own patterns of society’s development;

^forced to solve local, regional problems with

taking into account limited resources.

Alekseev Yu.P., Shpilev B.E. consider sustainable

development as:

d-one of the fundamental properties of material and immaterial systems is to perform functions in conditions of various, often multidirectional exogenous and endogenous factors, causes and circumstances;

^sustainability manifests itself simultaneously as immutability and variability, sustainability and sustainable development, and in crisis conditions - as survival and subsequent forward movement in the main spheres of life;

The stability of a complex system is ensured not only by the stability of connections between its elements, but also by the ability for internal restructuring of the structures themselves. According to A.V. Kolosov, the process of economic transition to sustainable development, as a task of managing economic activities at the level of an economically independent economic entity or a separate region as a whole, is aimed at ensuring a balance of decisions to preserve a favorable living environment and natural resource potential in order to meet the growing needs of society with the objectives progress of civilization42.

Thus, a retrospective analysis and generalization of various points of view of both foreign and domestic scientists and specialists on sustainable development issues allowed us to draw the following conclusions:

Every country has its own economic system. It consists of different components, each of which is dependent on the others. An economic system is a specially ordered system of connections between producers and consumers of material goods and services. Thus, the economic system, from our point of view, is considered as a system that includes such elements as: 1)

subjects - function to meet the needs of the population, based on its capabilities and natural resource potential; 2)

objects - people as producers and consumers, natural and material resources; 3)

connections, relationships - economic infrastructure and economic institutions (a set of economic institutions and economic relationships);

it is necessary to distinguish the stabilization of the economy from the state of its sustainable development. The process of stabilizing the economy of a region is a process, limited within a certain period of time, of bringing it to a state of reducing factors of decline (threats to economic security) and deterioration of functioning parameters as a prerequisite for intensifying activity;

instability of development is an internal property of a transition economy. The manifestation of instability occurs as a result of constantly emerging socio-economic contradictions between the old and the new, which causes an imbalance in the system and the emergence of crisis conditions that take on different forms of manifestation and scale of spread from local conflicts to a general catastrophic state.