scholarly journals Concept of the middle class and its features in Russia

Author(s):  
Tamara B. Zavodchikova ◽  
Ekaterina A. Maznaya

The presence in society of a formed middle class, which makes up the majority of the country's population, is a guarantee of stability and sustainable development of state. It is the middle class that represents active economic entities that effectively implement the main economic functions and participate in socio-economic relations. The presence and formation of a middle class should be a priority task for the state. In the article, the authors explore various approaches to the concept and criteria of the middle class. The income characteristics of the middle class are analyzed (average per capita, median, modal incomes, income distribution of the population, indicators of income differentiation). The features of the middle class in modern Russia are revealed, among which there is a significant heterogeneity of the middle class, determined by regional specifics, social characteristics and social status. The ambiguity of the definition of the middle class, the lack of its clear criteria, and as a result, its significant heterogeneity in Russia, complicates the analysis and assessment of the middle class in our country, and, as a result, reduces the effectiveness of measures taken aimed at the formation and development of the middle class. It is necessary to understand that the extraordinary dynamism of the development of modern society, the digitalization of all spheres of socio-economic relations, the consequences associated with the fourth industrial revolution will greatly affect the structure of society, the conditions and standard of living of the entire population.

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 375
Author(s):  
Gylfi Zoega

Differences in productivity account for differences in output per capita between countries as well as changes in output and the standard of living for each country over long periods of time. During the first industrial revolution, one could already see the emergence of two groups of countries: the high- and the low-GDP per capita countries. The list of countries belonging to the highproductivity group has not changed much over the past century. Differences in institutions separate the two clubs. The high-productivity group is, amongst many other differences, characterized by less corruption, a better legal system, superior enforcement of contracts, a lower cost of starting a business and lower tariffs. Historical output series for Britain going back to the mid-19th century show that productivity has increased greatly and improved the standard of living.


2018 ◽  
pp. 118-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. B. Kleiner

The development of the system paradigm in economic science leads to the formulation of a number of important questions to the political economy as one of the basic directions of economic theory. In this article, on the basis of system introspection, three questions are considered. The first is the relevance of the class approach to the structuring of the socio-economic space; the second is the feasibility of revising the notion of property in the modern world; the third is the validity of the notion of changing formations as the sequence of “slave-owning system — feudal system — capitalist system”. It is shown that in modern society the system approach to the structuring of socio-economic space is more relevant than the class one. Today the classical notion of “property” does not reflect the diversity of production and economic relations in society and should be replaced by the notion of “system property”, which provides a significant expansion of the concepts of “subject of property” and “object of property”. The change of social formations along with the linear component has a more influential cyclic constituent and obeys the system-wide cyclic regularity that reflects the four-cycle sequence of the dominance of one of the subsystems of the macrosystem: project, object, environment and process.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Huynh ◽  
Igor Grossmann

Ever since social scientists became interested in understanding intergroup dynamics, the topic of the “middle class” and its distinction from other groups in society became the central feature of a theoretical and empirical research enterprise. In this overview essay we discuss the beliefs, values and behavioral tendencies attributed to American middle class beliefs, and discuss their implications for understanding class-related norms and values. We end with a reflection over the historical trends that impact societal norms and the definition of middle class in the American society.


2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 92
Author(s):  
V. V. Gorshkova ◽  
A. A. Melnikova

The article considers the contradictions and conflicts that are characteristic of modern Russian society. The processes of social disintegration are analyzed and interpreted as a result of fundamental social and economic transformations. The problems of economic inequality are presented in the historical perspective in close connection with the previous stages of Russia's socioeconomic development. Significant polarization of the population is one of the most significant conflict factors in modern society, which leads to an increase in protest moods and may in the long term threaten social upheavals. Nevertheless, dissatisfaction with the socio-economic situation does not lead to ideas of the unification and consolidation of society, but find expression in social conflicts. The emergence and development of social conflicts is influenced by a number of factors: economic, ethnic, religious. One of the most important characteristics of society is its social structure. After the collapse of the USSR, the previous social structure was abolished, and a new social reality was formed in Russia. When considering the stratification structure of society, most attention is paid to the middle class, which is considered the backbone of a stable society. The middle class in Russia is in the stage of formation, it is hardly possible to speak of a complete analogy with the middle class of Western society. The share of middle class in society can be estimated in different ways depending on the methodological approaches used by researchers. An important consequence of the transformation of the social structure was the problem of marginalization, since the dismantling of the old social structure and the slow formation of the new one put the social status and place in the division of labor system of many individuals into question. The sharp impoverishment of representatives of prestigious professions led to a reassessment of their situation, especially for the younger generation. When analyzing the origins of social conflicts in modern Russian society, it is necessary to consider the issue of the attitude of the broad masses of the population to power and national elites. It should be noted that power in Russia historically takes shape around specific leaders and does not have an institutional character. The most significant factor shaping the attitude towards the authorities and the elite in general in Russian society are the economic results of the market reforms that have taken place. Only a small part of the population believes that they won as a result of the changes that have taken place, the natural consequence of which is the population's distrust of the authorities and, in general, political institutions.


Author(s):  
Gianfranco Pacchioni

About 10,000 years ago, at the beginning of the agriculturalrevolution, on the whole earth lived between 5 and 8 million hunter-gatherers, all belonging to the Homo sapiens species. Five thousand years later, freed from the primary needs for survival, some belonging to that species enjoyed the privilege of devoting themselves to philosophical speculation and the search for transcendental truths. It was only in the past two hundred years, however, with the advent of the Industrial Revolution, that reaping nature’s secrets and answering fundamental questions posed by the Universe have become for many full-time activities, on the way to becoming a real profession. Today the number of scientists across the globe has reached and exceeded 10 million, that is, more than the whole human race 10,000 years ago. If growth continues at the current rate, in 2050 we will have 35 million people committed full-time to scientific research. With what consequences, it remains to be understood. For almost forty years I myself have been concerned with science in a continuing, direct, and passionate way. Today I perceive, along with many colleagues, especially of my generation, that things are evolving and have changed deeply, in ways unimaginable until a few years ago and, in some respects, not without danger. What has happened in the world of science in recent decades is more than likely a mirror of a similar and equally radical transformation taking place in modern society, particularly with the advent ...


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 266-285
Author(s):  
Jack A. Goldstone

AbstractNew data on Dutch and British GDP/capita show that at no time prior to 1750, perhaps not before 1800, did the leading countries of northwestern Europe enjoy sustained strong growth in GDP/capita. Such growth in income per head as did occur was highly episodic, concentrated in a few decades and then followed by long periods of stagnation of income per head. Moreover, at no time before 1800 did the leading economies of northwestern Europe reach levels of income per capita much different from peak levels achieved hundreds of years earlier in the most developed regions of Italy and China. When the Industrial Revolution began in Britain, it was not preceded by patterns of pre-modern income growth that were in any way remarkable, neither by sustained prior growth in real incomes nor exceptional levels of income per head. The Great Divergence, seen as the onset of sustained increases in income per head despite strong population growth, and achievement of incomes beyond pre-modern peaks, was a late occurrence, arising only from 1800.


Author(s):  
Vladimir Shcherbakov ◽  
Galina Silkina

The customer-oriented approach is actively developing within the global trend of the modern industrial revolution that is Industry 4.0. The focus on customer interests has led to cooperation and integration in supply chains, improving their efficiency and increasing transparency, awareness, and trust. However, an issue emerging in this scenario is that conventional supply chain management (SCM) procedures are unable to identify the potential proposal for a particular user. Modern businesses need to build integrated supply chains, which require well-developed infrastructure and easily available complementary services, relying on logistics as a networking technology. Supply chains of this generation grow from traditional individual desynchronized economic relations (linear models with some feedback and the simplest network configurations) to scalable, adaptable, harmonized partner networks. The logistics potential allows additional income by reducing the total costs of participants in the network, thus increasing the competitiveness of companies; this can be implemented based on new models of interaction in the current digital environment through, firstly, system integration. Our goal consists of identifying the essential characteristics of system integration and substantiating the methods for its implementation in the digital economy. The study is based on the analysis of global best practices, considering the reports from leading consulting companies and competent analytical agencies. We have confirmed that the role of a virtual system integrator of supply chains belongs to logistics platforms; the effects of a transition to platform business models are discussed in detail.


2002 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 289-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire Nicolay

THOMAS CARLYLE’S CONTEMPTUOUS DESCRIPTION of the dandy as “a Clothes-wearing Man, a Man whose trade, office, and existence consists in the wearing of Clothes” (313) has survived as the best-known definition of dandyism, which is generally equated with the foppery of eighteenth-century beaux and late nineteenth-century aesthetes. Actually, however, George Brummell (1778–1840), the primary architect of dandyism, developed not only a style of dress, but also a mode of behavior and style of wit that opposed ostentation. Brummell insisted that he was completely self-made, and his audacious self-transformation served as an example for both parvenus and dissatisfied nobles: the bourgeois might achieve upward mobility by distinguishing himself from his peers, and the noble could bolster his faltering status while retaining illusions of exclusivity. Aristocrats like Byron, Bulwer, and Wellington might effortlessly cultivate themselves and indulge their taste for luxury, while at the same time ambitious social climbers like Brummell, Disraeli, and Dickens might employ the codes of dandyism in order to establish places for themselves in the urban world. Thus, dandyism served as a nexus for the declining aristocratic elite and the rising middle class, a site where each was transformed by the dialectic interplay of aristocratic and individualistic ideals.


Author(s):  
Elena A. Bragina

The article analyzes the conditions for the formation of the middle class in India. Shown is its important balancing role in the politics and economy of the country. The nature of the definition of "middle class", its special significance in developing countries is considered. Due to the difference in the applied criterion - the initial unit of account (employee, family, population group), due to the weakness of statistical services, the results of sociological studies, statistical estimates of the size of the middle class are often approximate. The work shows that the official and infor-mal (shadow) parts of the middle class coexist in the economies of developing countries in parallel.  The pressure of the COVID-19 pandemic on the development of the Indian middle class is taken into account.  The article examines the national characteristics of the formation of the middle class inherent in India. Due to the unclear definition of the criteria, the inconsistency of its assessments, the insufficient level of work of statistical organizations, information on the size of the middle class is inaccurate (according to various estimates, about 210-360 million people). Attention is paid to the formation of the rural middle class in India, rural residents make up a significant part of it (estimated at 48-66%).The forecast of the recovery of the Indian middle class ispresented. It is assumed that its quantitative growth, which was observed before the pandemic, and a gradual increase in influence will continue and will allow in the future. The topic is relevant, in demand by the Russian reader.


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