Future servicing methods of public debt management. Government debt of the Russian Federation

Today you can often hear declarations that this or that country is a social state. And the question arises: what is a social state? What is its specificity? Is every state social?

The concept of a welfare state

In the very general view a social state is a state whose main principle is the desire for a fair distribution of benefits in the country. Its policy is being implemented in an effort to reduce the severe consequences of the material stratification of society; the main emphasis is on helping disadvantaged representatives of the needy strata. Concept social state is closely related to the phenomenon of social security. In such systems, the state undertakes obligations to maintain a decent standard of living for needy citizens by withdrawing part of the income from people who have achieved a high level of material security.

Thus, the essence of the welfare state is the existence of guarantees of providing disadvantaged groups with a decent standard of living. Moreover, the resources for such material support are drawn from the tax burden falling on the shoulders of wealthier fellow citizens.

A little history

The social system of the state was first declared by the German economist Lorenz von Stein back in the mid-19th century. He conducted a deep analysis of the process of formation of capitalism in Germany and came to the conclusion that the state should be built on the ideas of equality and justice, that it should strive to raise the standard of living of the lower strata to the middle and higher levels. The social state in its interpretation is a system that ensures social progress.

The development of Stein's views was presented by Friedrich Naumann, who promoted liberal views on economics. The socio-political state, in his opinion, through active intervention in the economic system, must establish an order in which not only the protection of property and the law, but also social reforms in the name of justice will be a priority.

Such ideas became the platform for the formation of the social democratic movement, which gained strength in Germany at the end of the 19th century. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries in the country, under pressure from the popular labor movement, the protection of socially disadvantaged classes was enshrined in law. These ideas became the impetus for reforms in Germany, in particular, the system pension insurance and employer-funded employee health care. The ideas of the social structure of the state also penetrated into France and England, where, under the influence of trade unions, measures appeared to regulate social relations on the part of the state.

In the USA, the ideas of a welfare state found strong support during the economic crisis of the 30s of the 20th century. President Roosevelt legislated the right of workers to create trade unions that defend their rights, he reduced the working day, and banned the exploitation of child labor. In Great Britain significant role played by the Beveridge report, which talked about the welfare state, essentially synonymous with the welfare state.

The emergence of the Soviet state brought a new surge to the development of the concept of a social state, as it legislated the social orientation of its policies.

After World War II, the German government for the first time enshrined in the country's Constitution the name of the state as a social one. After that it's all large countries The West is beginning to declare the principles of social justice as the main postulate of statehood. The growth in popularity of these ideas continued until the mid-70s, when the concept had many opponents and it began to transform. Economic crises The late 20th and early 21st centuries questioned the rationality of this concept, although Western countries are in no hurry to officially abandon it.

Conditions for the existence of a welfare state

Not every country can call itself a social state. For its formation, a number of conditions must be met. A welfare state is a model that is possible when certain conditions are created:

High level of moral development of citizens. A welfare state is characterized by the predominance of moral values over all others; all members of society, especially management, must adhere to the ideas of equality and justice.
Democratic system. To implement the principles of social security in the state, the principles of freedom must be implemented.
High level economic development states. In order to be able to provide social security to the poor, the state must have large reserves.
Socially oriented type of economy. In order for the state to be able to regulate economic processes, it must have a large number of various enterprises with their participation. This makes it possible to regulate employment and redistribute income in favor of the disadvantaged.
High level of legal development. An obligatory companion of the social state is high level development of legislative and civil initiatives. Civil society and the rule of law are a platform for pursuing socially oriented policies.
Social policy of the state. Priorities public policy there must be social projects to level out the consequences of inequality and various support for the poor. The state must strive for universal justice and set itself the goal of achieving prosperity for all members of society. Among these goals are the creation of equal starting opportunities for people of all classes, social security of all citizens of the country, decent living conditions for everyone, including the disadvantaged.
Reinforcement in legislation. The term “welfare state” must be fixed in the constitution of the state.

Characteristic features of a welfare state

A social state can be recognized by the following characteristics:

Fair wages. The state guarantees decent wages for all working citizens, regardless of their position.
Satisfied consumers. Residents of the welfare state have high consumer level, they can satisfy not only the primary needs for food, shelter, security, but also choose high quality items that satisfy these needs. In addition, the population must be able to implement plans for self-realization and satisfy social and spiritual needs.
Adjusted social protection system. The population's satisfaction with their life depends on social policy state, it must create a system that helps people with limited resources satisfy your needs at a decent level. A sign of a social state is a well-functioning institution of assistance to those who cannot provide for themselves: the disabled, pensioners, children, large families, unemployed.
Leveling social differences. In a social state by various types assistance should reduce the gap in living standards between rich and poor through income redistribution. The emphasis is on bringing the poor to a decent standard of living. The gap between the incomes of the top and bottom strata of the country's population should be approximately six times.
High-quality socially significant service industries. For a social state, it is extremely important to establish effective work in such areas as medicine, education, housing construction, and transport. Social services provide a decent level of living and satisfaction for the population.
Legal resolution of conflicts. A social state is characterized by a low level of social conflicts, but if they arise, they are resolved peacefully through the instruments of civil and legal society.
Embodiment of the principles of social justice. The distribution of the country's wealth, ensuring opportunities for everyone to satisfy not only their primary needs, must be based on the interests of all residents of the country. Each citizen receives from the country as much as it gives.
The primacy of moral principles of behavior. In a social state, the moral standards of behavior are charity, mutual assistance, altruism, and mercy. Moreover, they are characteristic not only of government policy or certain groups of people, but also of the majority of citizens of the country.

Social functions of the state: reality and declaration

Like any other state, the social state performs all traditional functions: political, economic, social, law enforcement, environmental and many others. However, the emphasis in their implementation is always placed on the social security of the population. At the same time, there are specific social functions states, these include:

Support for vulnerable groups of the population. It can be material in the form of subsidies for the unemployed, disabled people, pensioners, and socio-psychological, in the form of various consultations, trainings, courses on psychological relief and correction of depressive conditions.
Occupational safety and public health. The state creates decent conditions for performing any work and monitors compliance with norms and laws. Also provides regular medical service at a qualitative level, with an emphasis on disease prevention.
Encouragement and stimulation of charity. The state has tax mechanisms that can make charity not only a socially approved activity, but also economically profitable.
Support for motherhood and childhood. The state creates institutions to help parents raise their children, regardless of income level. It provides quality medical care and a system of educational services, and also develops mechanisms for material support for families in need.
Smoothing out the consequences of social stratification in society, by redistributing income, the state reduces the gap between rich and poor.
Providing employment for the population. The state creates conditions so that every person can find a job according to their abilities and capabilities, stimulates entrepreneurship to create jobs, and supports low-paid but socially important industries.

Caring about the solution environmental problems, about preserving peace.
Support for various projects, initiatives and programs in the social, cultural and educational spheres.

Thus, the social state is a complex system institutions and mechanisms to support the population and create a quality standard of living for citizens. No state has yet managed to fully implement these functions, but there are countries that are significantly closer to the ideal.

Types of welfare states

The socio-economic development of a state can take different paths and leads to the emergence of different types of social states. Researchers identify such varieties as:

Positive social welfare state. A type built on the desire to create a society of equal opportunities. The United States is an example of this type.
State of social security. In this type, social protection requirements are added to ensure stable income all citizens are at least the minimum subsistence level. Sample - Great Britain.
Social welfare state. The state strives to equalize the level of income and opportunities for all residents. Example - Sweden.

There is also an attempt to build a classification depending on the dominance of market or social requirements in state policy. In this case, conservative, liberal and social-democratic types of welfare state are distinguished.

Implemented projects

The concept of a welfare state in several different types has taken root in many countries. Thus, social states are Western countries, as well as Australia, Canada, and Japan. They implement various models, all of them based on moral principles and the professing of liberal ideas. A slightly different format of the welfare state is being implemented in countries where the source of wealth is oil production, this United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, where national income is distributed according to local ideas of fairness.

Russian reality

The question naturally arises: is Russia a social state? Despite the fact that social priority in politics has been legislated in the country since 1993, there are still doubts about the reality of this declaration. Social protection institutions exist in Russia, but the gap between rich and poor is too large, the healthcare and education systems are far from high standards civilized countries. Therefore, it is not yet possible to say with certainty: Russia is a social state.

Difficulties in building a social state

The social development of the state faces many problems, the main of which are:

Instability of the world economy. Crises recent years showed that not all states can afford social orientation due to falling incomes.
Ignorance of citizens. The welfare state is faced with the fact that some segments of the population turn into dependents and strive to receive benefits without giving anything away. This problem is especially exposed by the migration crisis in Europe, when thousands and millions of citizens begin to apply for benefits and the state is not able to provide for everyone with dignity.

Thus, the social state and society have not yet become the dominant type in the world order.

Criticism of the welfare state

The concept of a welfare state has many opponents and critics, which have increased significantly due to protracted financial and political crises. The population of European countries is accustomed to receiving more than giving, which leads to an increase in social discontent, especially in a situation of lack of resources to fulfill social guarantees. Critics say that today the concept of a welfare state, if not outdated, then requires significant revision.

The social state is new stage in the development of the state, which became possible if the state had sufficient resources to ensure real responsibility for the fate of society, of every citizen.

A social state is a type of state that strives to create for each citizen the most favorable conditions for existence, the realization of their individual talents and abilities, and provide a high level of social security.

Of course, few states can be classified as social, but only those where the majority of the population has achieved a high standard of living and per capita consumption of goods and services. For example, Sweden, Norway, Japan, Switzerland, and Germany can be classified as social states. France, etc.

Among the features of a welfare state, we note the following.

1. Decent standard of living. The state is responsible for providing every citizen with a living wage that guarantees a decent existence. The state carries out this function through the fair redistribution of social wealth from the rich to the poor. Usually living wage is compiled based on the cost of two hundred items of products, goods and services that are necessary for a normal human life.

Of course, this does not mean that a healthy adult should expect social benefits; he is obliged to earn money himself and feed his family. The state takes responsibility only for those citizens who themselves cannot satisfy their needs due to age, illness, disability, etc.

It is customary to classify as social states those countries in which the cost of living is 7-10 thousand dollars per person per year.

2. Social equality. This is not about equalization. Social equality should be understood as equality of starting opportunities, and not equality of performance results. Manifestations social inequality many: this includes age, education, area of residence, health, specialty, gender, etc.

The state seeks to mitigate and, where possible, eliminate social inequality by actively intervening in various areas human life. So. it enshrines the principle of equal access to public positions, which eliminates the legal prerequisites for the non-participation in governance of any population groups.

In addition, the state intervenes in labor relations, equalizing the rights of men and women when hiring for work. The state smooths out property differences with the help of tax policy, redistributing the collected funds in favor of the poor.

3. Social protection for those who have lost income or livelihood (due to illness, disability, old age, loss of a breadwinner, unemployment), as well as payment of medical expenses.

The social security system originated in the form social insurance. She drew a line between self-earning and funds coming from social security and insurance. These funds include, for example, pensions, unemployment benefits, payments from state budget, charitable foundations.

4. Raising the well-being of the entire society. An indicator of well-being is the level of poverty. Usually in developed countries it does not exceed 10%. and in Sweden - slightly more than 5%. This allows you to use material benefits(payment of housing, scholarships for students, child benefits, etc.) to an increasingly wide range of people.

The functions of the welfare state are the main activities that express its essence. Unlike the social functions inherent in any state, which in the early stages of development state forms appear in the form general principles activities of the state (for example, redistribution of wealth, regulation of labor activity) or in the form of economic functions, the functions of the welfare state appear in the course of the evolutionary development of the state. Their appearance is associated with a change in the dominance of state-society relations to state-individual relations. Moreover, social functions appear in the state only at certain stages of development industrial relations, with a change in the place of man in the structure of productive forces, with the emergence of a new evolutionary type of industrial state, which occurs no earlier than the first third of the 19th century.

The emergence and development of the social functions of the state is characterized by a dual process. On the one hand, there is a quantitative increase in social functions at higher levels of state development, and on the other, the inclusion of social functions in complex functional systems on a par with legal, political and economic functions. Only a social state sets the satisfaction of social needs as its goal, developing a social market economy.

A social state, unlike others, has a number of features, which include:

A) legal basis social policy;

b) the presence of a social insurance system;

c) the existence of budgetary social payments;

d) existence government systems social protection, social security and employment;

d) accessibility social support to all members of society in need without exception;

f) acceptance by the state of responsibility for the level of well-being of citizens;

g) the existence of civil society institutions.

The social state is designed to: create and maintain legislative and legal prerequisites for effective economic basis for the development of society in order to maximize the satisfaction of the material and spiritual needs of members of society; ensure consistency between the natural rights and responsibilities of a member of society and his remuneration. In accordance with this set of characteristics, the social state, carrying out state social and economic policy, implements the following social functions:

Ensuring employment and constant income growth of the population;

Providing social insurance for all members of society;

Ensuring accessibility to education, healthcare and spiritual and cultural development;

Social protection of needy categories;

Smoothing out social inequality in society, creating decent living conditions through the redistribution of benefits;

Providing social services.

Each of these functions is mandatory for the welfare state, but can be expressed with varying degrees of intensity. The formation of these functions does not occur simultaneously. The functions of the welfare state have a certain focus on achieving both social and economic goals. Leveling living conditions, smoothing social inequality, increasing the level of personal consumption, simultaneously with social tasks, solve economic problems - motivating increased productivity, increasing consumer demand, preventing social conflicts and taking into account the changing role of man in production.

Modern Concept The social state brings to the fore the relationship between the state and the individual in a free market economy. Even A. Smith, J. Mill, B. Constant, J. Locke proceeded from the assessment of freedom as the highest value that the state is obliged to guarantee to every individual. They proclaimed the main principles of the social state in the socio-economic sphere economic freedom, personal autonomy in economic sphere, without recognizing social functions of the state.

J. J. Rousseau complemented the relationship between the state and the individual with the responsibility of the state to promote socio-economic rights or, in other words, human rights of the second generation.

This or that form and measure of government influence on economic life are always necessary, because without his active assistance it is impossible to implement the so-called “second generation” rights (the right to work, to fair wages, labor protection, the right to rest, to social Security etc.). The fundamental question remains of maintaining a balance between a free economy and the search for ways and means of eliminating the injustice generated by market relations. How to determine the limits of state intervention in the economy so that it does not become a brake on its development, on the one hand, and ensures social protection citizens - on the other? From these limits, as the laureate noted Nobel Prize Friedrich von Hayek, it depends "whether the government decides EVERYTHING that EVERY person ALWAYS gets, or only SOME things that SOME people SOMETIMES get on SOME conditions...". This brilliant formula clearly expresses the difference between the “socialist” understanding of the welfare state and its true essence or, as F. Hayek himself writes, between a totalitarian and a free economy.

Complete and general harmonization of the principles of freedom and equality in the implementation of the socio-economic function of the welfare state is hardly possible. However, only their coexistence can be the fundamental basis for the formation and development of a social state. The noted function of the welfare state is to eliminate sharp differences in property status and increase the social status of the individual. This problem is solved in modern states with a market economy by influencing economic processes through the budget, flexible taxation system, social programs. A socially oriented state has to constantly worry about maintaining a balance between market freedom and its impact on the economy, because the implementation of large social programs is associated with increased taxation, and this over time becomes a brake on the development of production.

Today, both social and economic function social state. State in social sphere on an ever-increasing scale it acts not as an institution of power, but as a national, authoritative corporation with corresponding initiative-private organizations.

a state that provides a certain standard of living for its citizens, satisfaction of their material and spiritual needs (decent existence)

S.G. implies a guarantee state support education, healthcare, social security, employment, labor protection, environmental protection.

Excellent definition

Incomplete definition ↓

SOCIAL STATE

concept characterizing a modern state, which, in relations with civil society, decides socio-economic, cultural and environmental challenges. The principle of social statehood is the redistribution of national income in the interests of society as a whole, in particular in favor of the socially weak. S.g. - this is a characteristic of only one of the parties modern state, which in general should be considered as a social legal state - a historically new type of state, in the activities of which the principle of legal statehood (the rule of law, formal equality) competes with the principle of social statehood. Post-industrial society is objectively capable of ensuring a universal high level of consumption while maintaining relatively high profits for the owners of the means of production. In such a society social regulation according to the principle of law, without redistribution of national income in favor of the socially weak, it becomes inappropriate from the point of view of economic development. After the Second World War, in most developed countries, new political elites came to power, implementing some of the ideas of social democracy, Keynesianism and neoliberalism, agreeing with limited government intervention in the affairs of civil society. In these countries (primarily in Western Europe, to a lesser extent in the USA), a social and legal state is emerging - the state post-industrial society which not only guarantees freedom, security and property, but also provides social world And the economic growth, creates social guarantees(especially in the areas of employment, education and health), allowing the majority of society members to more effectively achieve well-being through independent activity. In the legal sphere, this is expressed in the formal recognition by the state and its guarantee by real policy of the so-called social, economic and cultural rights of man and citizen, or human rights of the second generation (this includes the rights to the minimum wages, ensuring a decent existence, for labor protection and protection from unemployment, for recreation, family support, social security for age or disability, for free or social housing, for free or affordable education and healthcare, etc.). Recognition of some of these “rights” in the most developed countries begins in the first half of the 20th century, and after the Second World War they are included in the number of generally recognized human rights. This state also solves general social problems: through a flexible tax policy, it supports competition and promotes the development of lagging sectors of the economy, stimulates restructuring National economy; finances social programs aimed at improving qualifications work force, growth of educational level, preservation of the physical and spiritual health of the nation, etc. Lit.: State law Germany. M., 1994. T. I; Dzoaziev V. Problems of establishing a democratic state in Russia. M., 1996. VA. Chetvernin

Excellent definition

Incomplete definition ↓