Modernization of Russia: is it feasible and do we have a potential?

On November 15, 2011, there was held a conference “Social and Humanitarian Potential of Modernization of Russia” at the Russian New University (RosNOU). The conference was organized by the University on behalf of the RF Ministry of Education and Science within the framework of the target 2009-2013 program “Scientists and Scientific-pedagogical Staff of the Innovative Russia”.

Candidate of physics and mathematics, Professor Evgeniy Palkin, vice-rector of RosNOU on scientific work, welcomed the participants. He pointed out that the subject of the conference was crucial. He said that it was essential to determine whether Russia has a potential for modernization or not, and if there is a potential what direction of the development should be considered optimal.

Doctor of Economic Sciences, Professor Mairash Toksanbaeva, of the Institute of Social and Economic Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), presented a report “Modernization in the field of Employment: problems and limitations”. She spoke about the problem of professional education quality drop and shortage of skilled personnel which resulted from educational process deterioration and poor correlation between educational process and labor market demands. She also stressed that many university graduates lack practical experience that is why they cannot work efficiently right from the start.

She added that as a result there exists shortage of skilled personnel not only in the so called “unattractive fields of economy”, but also in the popular and elite ones because it is hard to find and recruit enough skilled personnel. For example, the number of vacant positions in the sphere of finance and real estate in 2008 was higher than in other spheres of economy.

Poor correlation between professional skills of many university graduates and labor market demands causes difficulties when employers seek to fill in the employment gaps that occur due to natural reasons. Mostly it refers to engineers and technicians as well as skilled workers.

As far as vocational training is concerned, it is very difficult to make young people choose occupations of factory workers because in Russia labor conditions and working schedules leave much to be desired. That is why young people make their choice in favor of other professions. Most students of vocational training institutions are not actually eager to learn and work because they are rather passive. It is no surprise that most employers do not want to hire graduates of vocational training institutions: they search for experienced workers, thus aggravating the current problem of skilled workers deficit.

Mairash Toksanbaeva listed other factors, aggravating skilled workers deficit, including young retirement age and the abundance of university students who have chosen professions unclaimed by the modern market.

Candidate of Economic sciences, Associate professor Julia Naumova, a senior researcher of the RAS Institute of Market Problems, presented a report “The Middle Class: problems of self-identification”.

-She said:”Many average Russians regard representatives of the middle class mostly as consumers, whose most important distinguishing feature is their purchasing power. Usually it refers to such members of that social layer whose earnings are stable: they can afford to buy a new car, a house or an apartment, expensive home appliances and electronics, or to go annually for a vacation somewhere abroad. Based on this popular point of view, the Russian middle class around the country (excluding Moscow) has reached 14% in 2010, though before the crisis it accounted for 19% of the whole population.

In Moscow the middle class falls within 32% of the city population (before the crisis it was 35%). Most of the members of the middle class are state employees, bureaucracy and blue collars – not the richest people, but well-to-do ones, who earn 1500-2000 euro per month. By contrast, in Germany the middle class with a monthly income of 1500-3000 euro makes up to 54% of the population, and in the USA 45 % of the citizens earn 2000-8000 dollar per month.

It is worth mentioning that according to some public opinion poll more than half of the population (54%-55%) identify themselves as well-to-do people. Although they are hardly entitled to rank themselves among such a social group, it is quite understandable from the psychological point of view. They try to come nearer to the so called “decent life” level.

It is quite common in many developed countries that career or occupational status is one of the distinguishing features of the middle class. In the USA since 1940 Lloyd Warner assisted in ranking government employees and skilled workers among the so called “Low” middle class. In Japan there are many essential conditions to consider someone a member of the middle class in addition to economical and political ones. They are as follows: the cultural aspect, which includes the level of education, the style of life, access to information, commitment to native cultural and religious values, the habit of reading press and listening to the news every day, and such traits of character as diligence and responsibility.

In early 2000 scientists analyzed a broad range of social characteristics to define the boundaries and the number of the middle class in Russia. They included such issues as attitude towards reform, social state, political views, etc. However, recently mass media does not often mention in their programs active participation in public life as one of the main characteristics of the “Middle class people”. What is more, they promote political indifference as a crucial positive feature of “busy” Middle class people.

Modern experts look at the middle class as a significant layer of the industrial society, which includes well-paid state and office employees and skilled workers. They also include in the category teachers and professors as well as mid-level managers. The attributes of professional and highly educated persons make it possible to mark out an active, responsible, and ready-to-learn social group of the Russian population.

-- “According to the RF Development Strategy up to 2020, in nine years the Russian Middle Class would make 50% of the population”, noted Yulia Naumova. She added:”But many experts believe that, even in case of successful innovative development scenario implementation, the Russian Middle class would not make more than 35-40% of the population”.

Doctor of Philology, Professor Mikhail Gorshkov, director of the RAS Institute of Social Sciences, said:”The country needs a systemic modernization, covering all spheres of activity, which aims not only at industrialization. We need to upgrade our public life and the whole society”. He presented a report “Human Potential of Modernization”. He said:”Today, the Russian people give a great support to modernization: three quarters of the population see modernization as a positive process”.

According to the RAS Institute of Social Sciences poll, 41% of respondents think that the key aim of modernization should be the equality of citizens before the law, 28% of respondents think the priority should be given to the struggle against corruption and 31% of respondents believe the main goal should be social justice.

A quarter of the population believes it is possible to take the country on a new level of development within the next decade. While more than 60% of the Russian people say they are sure that Russia could become the world leading power.

Mikhail Gorshkov said:”The Russian people think that the government and society should play the key role in Social Management. What does the government means to the Russian people? The government is associated with “a Leader”, who sets up targets and defines ways of achieving them. 88% of the Russian people approve of the private property institution, though the number of supporters of classical market economy with a minimal state participation is less than 10%. Most of the respondents consider the best economic development option to be a hybrid type of economy with the government playing the dominant role.

Therefore, there is a social mandate to make the government play an active role in the social life. The Russian people prefer to live in the country where social equality is guaranteed (2/3 of respondents) and support the idea of an equal opportunities society, not that of an equal earnings. The government is expected to maintain dynamic policy in the social sphere, where everybody has equal rights and at least minimal social security is provided.

-- For an average Russian it is far more important to live a decent and fair life, than to be rich, - noted the Institute of Social Sciences director. – Everybody wants to be well-to-do and have a beloved job. The Ideal pattern of life is to have a family with children and enjoy the company of friends. These are the priorities. However, there are business women who want to get the most out of life, but they make only 16% of women in Russia”.

Paradoxical as it may seem, but about 60% of the Russian people say that they like living in a constantly changing world. There is a great number of people who are interested in getting additional education. They see it as a way to change their lifestyle. Many people try to reach a higher standard of living. Lots of energy is directed to self- realization. According to the RAS Institute of Social Sciences poll, more than 5 million people were retrained last year, at the same time only a quarter of the Russian people consider existing educational opportunities appropriate.

The level of political interest in the Russian Society is very low. Only 18% of the people show a slight interest in political matters, and only 3% of adult population actively takes part in politics. 33% of respondents said they had lost interest in this subject for the past year. There had appeared a whole generation in Russia that does not expect anything from the state or social associations: they just live their free-running lives. They do not really care about elections, and for them it does not matter who and how would be elected.

Nowadays, the degree of involvement in social life in Russia is very low, though that is one of the basic things in western countries. The Russian Society has become a consumer society where altruistic motives of public activity have been suppressed. Nevertheless, against the background of falling interest in politics, there is a growing interest in self-realization in small non-governmental social organizations such as the” Khimki Forest Defenders” movement, associations of defrauded depositors, strata councils, etc.

Thus the key target of modernization in Russia is to build an equal opportunities society, to develop ways of transforming private interest into public one, and harmonization between Business and Society life.

Candidate of Historical Sciences Konstantin Gulin, deputy director of the RAS Institute of Territories Socio-Economic Development, said:” The Society and the Science do not touch the question of location. Among the main impediments to modernization there are relatively low per Capita GPD in most regions of the Russian Federation, key assets deterioration, low level of investment into basic assets, poor financial support of Science and Scientific research, poor innovative activity and as a result poor science linkage of production, labor force distortion which makes either excess or shortage of labor force in many regions, low life expectancy, aging of the population, huge social and economic differentiation.

All the problems differ significantly by region, which makes it difficult to implement innovative reform in the Russian Federation.

Doctor of Economic Sciences Alexander Bolshakov, head of a laboratory in the RAS Institute of the Market Problems presented a report “Humanitarian Aspect of the Russian Economic Modernization”. He stressed in his report that from the humanitarian point of view, the problem of competitiveness lies mostly in the efficiency of the economic entities motivation system, whether it appeared spontaneously within the definite institution or was created intentionally by the government. He said:” The measure of the effectiveness can be the performance rate.

Social and humanitarian potential of the economic development is an opportunity to increase economic benefits by means of implicit channels of communication between economic entities, mostly between those having cross-cultural background. Based on the perspectives of the industry development, we can speak about restoring of the economic relationships in the CIS region or within the framework of the Eurasian Union. The humanitarian factor is the most important one in the process of development of cooperation within the CIS region, which includes building up scientific and economic ties and preserving those advantages that Russia had and still has in the sphere of innovative development of its Economy.

Doctor of Economic Sciences, Professor Boris Porfiriev, head of a laboratory of the RAS Institute of Economic Forecasting presented in his report “Modernization Development and Green Economy: international practices and perspectives for the Russian Federation”. He noted:”Since 2004 international investments in the development of green energy sector have increased as much as by 5 times and in 2010 they totaled 243 billion dollars. In 2008 the USA spending for energy research and development totaled $6,648 million, in China – $14,772 million (based on the purchase power parity), in Russia – no more than $1, 45 million”.

During the final plenary session Doctor of Economic Sciences, Professor Oleg Bogomolov, a RAS academician and adviser, pointed out in his report “Non-economic problems of the Russian Economy Modernization”:”Modernization of the Russian Society depends not only on the efforts in the technical and economic spheres, but also on the enhancement of social, spiritual and moral principles. The state of mind of people always affects their public activity and work”.

The conference ended with a strategic debate “Modernization in Russia: social and cultural aspects”

The Russian New University arranged direct transmission of the event through the Internet.

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