Test tasks. Perspective trends in the development of transport
But such aspiration alone is not enough for the exchange to take place; there must be prerequisites, or in other words, certain objective circumstances that will allow a person to realize this aspiration in practice. They are also mentioned in the above quote. So from the words of the author it follows that a person who makes bows and arrows is faster than others, it is they who use them in exchange. Such a statement means that A. Smith believed that if a person produces these goods in the same way as everyone else, or more slowly than others, he will not be able to use them for exchange. Since in order to receive more instead of less through exchange, he, from the point of view of his partner in the transaction, must offer him something more, because he also makes an exchange, and therefore benefits from the same plan. But this is possible only if the thing alienated during the exchange is produced by each of the parties faster than its partner. . Strictly speaking, what matters here is the relative, not the absolute, rate of production of a certain good. So in the above example, it was shown that the exchange can make sense for both parties involved in the transaction, even if one of them, in absolute terms, both products are manufactured faster than the other. The difference in production capabilities necessary for exchange (substitution) is here manifested in the relative rates of production of exchanged products. By the way, this is precisely why less developed countries, lagging behind in terms of labor productivity, can participate in the international division of labor, supplying their products to countries where these products are manufactured at a lower cost of all types of resources. This will be discussed in more detail later, but for now I have the right to talk only about how A. Smith saw the problem. The fact that the conclusion drawn from his words is true can be confirmed by another quote from his work. " Anyone who offers another a deal of any kind is offering to do just that. Give me what I need, and you will get what you need - that is the meaning of any such offer. It is in this way that we receive from each other a much greater proportion of the services we need. It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect to get our dinner, but from their self-interest. We appeal not to their humanity, but to their selfishness, and never tell them about our needs, but about their benefits. Adam Smith. "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations". BOOK 1. Chapter II "On the cause that causes the division of labor." So A. Smith saw not only inequality, which is the essence of exchange, but also inequality, which is one of the prerequisites for its occurrence, consisting in the unequal abilities of people to produce various goods. It is striking that he did not see the true meaning of any of them or the other. Since in the following, speaking about the quantitative side of the exchange relation, he proceeds not from the inequalities indicated by him, but from the equation, thereby showing inconsistency in judgments. " In a primitive and underdeveloped society, which preceded the accumulation of capital and the conversion of land into private ownership, the ratio between the quantities of labor necessary for the acquisition of different objects was, apparently, the only basis that could serve as a guide for exchanging them for each other. Thus, for example, if a hunting people usually takes twice as much labor to kill a beaver as to kill a deer, one beaver will naturally be exchanged for two deer, or will have the value of two deer. It is quite natural that a product usually produced in two days or two hours of labor will have twice the value of a product usually produced in one day or one hour of labor. . Further, regarding the exchange relation of labor to capital, he again returns to inequalities, since it is simply impossible not to see them in this case. In particular, he notes " When the finished commodity is exchanged for money, for labor, or for other products, besides the payment of the price of materials and the wages of workers, a certain amount must also be given for the profit of the entrepreneur who risks his capital in this business. ... He would not have had any interest in hiring these workers if he could not expect to receive anything from the sale of the works made by them in excess of an amount sufficient only to replace his capital. Adam Smith. "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations". BOOK 1. Chapter VI "On the Components of the Price of Commodities".
1. World world economy, its essence
The modern world economy (world economy) is a naturally developing and increasingly complex system of interaction between the national economies of various countries of the world, which manifests itself in various forms of their international economic relations based on the international division of labor.
The world economy is a complex system that includes many interconnected, dependent and interacting elements. The basis of this system is formed by the international and national production of material and spiritual goods limited by the framework of individual states, their distribution, exchange and consumption. Each of these phases of the world reproduction process, both on a global scale and within individual states, depending on their place and share, generally affects the functioning of the entire world economic system.
Although the world economic system has long become a reality, there is still no single definition of the concept of "world economy" due to its complexity and diversity.
World economy, or world economy,- this is a set of national economies that are in constant dynamics, in motion, with growing international relations and, accordingly, the most complex mutual influence, subject to the objective laws of a market economy, as a result of which an extremely contradictory, but at the same time more or less integral world economic system is formed.
The formation of the world economy took place gradually, as the appropriate prerequisites were created. At the final stage of the formation of the world capitalist economy, world market, which became one of the characteristic signs of the development of the world economy in the second half of the 19th century, played an important role in the formation and development of the world economy.
The modern world economy is heterogeneous: the states included in it differ in social structure, political structure, level of development of productive forces and production relations, as well as the nature, scale and methods of international economic relations.
Leading position in the world economy occupied by seven industrialized countries: USA, Japan, Canada, Germany, France, Great Britain and Italy. They account for more than 80% of the industrial production of the group of industrialized countries (IDC) and about 60% of the total world industrial production; respectively 70 and 60% of electricity production, more than 60% of exports of goods and about 50% of services.
2. The main stages of the formation and development of the world economy
There are several periods in the development of the modern world economy and the involvement of national economies in it.
First period- 20-30s of the XX century, which were characterized by crisis phenomena in the development of the world economy. When Russia dropped out of world economic relations in 1917, the economic blockade carried out by Western countries could not lead to the restoration of world economic relations on the former basis. The deep socio-economic crisis of the world economy was accompanied by a general instability of economic ties caused by the First World War, the Great Depression of the late 1920s and 1930s in the development of the economies of the leading countries of the world.
Second period development of the world economy - this is the end of the 40s - 80s of the XX century - is characterized by an intensive growth in the export of entrepreneurial capital in the world capitalist economy. During this time, the growth of foreign production has had a major impact on the organizational and economic parameters of the world economy. The main force in industrial relations was transnational corporations (TNCs), which formed international production complexes, including the creation of a product, its implementation, payments, lending.
Very important economic processes took place in the world economy during this period. Among them, the following should be noted.
The United States, which sharply increased in its economic power during the Second World War, assisted in the economic revival of Western Europe. After finishing "Marshall Plan" (1951) as the colonial empires collapsed, aid programs were redirected to developing countries in order to keep them in the system of relations between Western countries. The liquidation of the colonial system in the mid-1960s brought to the forefront of international life a large group of developing countries, which still occupy a special place in the world economy.
In the 1950s–1980s, the levels of development of the United States and other industrialized countries converged. The global economic dominance of the United States began to degenerate into a multipolar system.
The crisis period in the world economy in the 1970s and 1980s was not accompanied by a trend towards economic autarky, as was the case in the 1920s and 1930s. On the contrary, foreign economic relations had a steady tendency to expand and deepen.
The beginning of a new third period in the development of the world economy can presumably be considered the last decade of the XX century. In the Eastern European countries, there are processes of formation and creation of economic and political structures close to the similar structures of Western states. The economic reforms carried out in Russia since the early 1990s are aimed at transferring the country's economy to market economic conditions and its deeper integration into the world economy.
3. Subjects of the world economy
Purposeful economic activity in the world economy is carried out by entities that determine the state and development of factors of production, as well as ways to combine them. The subjects of the world economy are business units that are capable of organizing production activities on an international scale and have certain international rights and obligations in terms of their financial and material capabilities. These main economic entities include national states, TNCs, regional integration economic associations, and international economic organizations.
main subject world economy is state.
The role of the state in the economy is manifested primarily in the creation of guaranteed markets for companies within the country and abroad, its participation in the accumulation of capital, the regulation of internal and external economic relations in the national interests, directly in the production of gross domestic product (GDP).
In modern conditions of globalization of world economic relations, the state impact on other subjects of the world economy and on the system as a whole is commensurate with the economic potential of the state and the role of national economic entities in international markets.
In accordance with the International System of National Accounts (SNA), the subjects of world economic relations are private (individual) persons and organizations (legal entities), carrying out international economic transactions.
From the standpoint of belonging to the national economy, the subjects are divided into residents and non-residents.
Residents- these are economic entities permanently located on the territory of a given country, regardless of their national (state) affiliation.
Non-residents- these are economic entities permanently located in the territory of a foreign state, even if they are citizens of this country, but permanently reside abroad, or branches of economic units of this country located outside it.
Under the SNA, all residents and non-residents, or business entities, qualify as institutional units. These are individuals and legal entities that own factors of production and have the ability to produce products or sell services, on their own behalf to conclude transactions with other persons.
The SNA does not distinguish between the subjects of national and international economic activity, since in an open market economy all legal entities and individuals that actually exist in the economy of any country, at the same time and in the same capacity, have the right to be subjects of the world economy, i.e. enter into economic relations permitted by law with any subjects of other countries or participants in international economic unions.
4. System of National Accounts and its indicators
To analyze economic events and complex economic relationships, a system of reliable, complementary indicators is needed. The modern SNA was approved by the UN in 1993, which somewhat modified the names of sectors of the economy, standard accounts and main macroeconomic indicators.
Most widely In economic analysis, two important indicators are used: gross product and national income. The central indicator of the new SNA is gross domestic product (GDP); its second macroeconomic indicator is the gross national product (GNP). Both of them reflect the results of activities in two areas of the national economy - material production and services; both are defined as the value of the total volume of final production of goods and services in the economy in one year (quarter, month). These indicators are calculated both in current (current) prices and in constant (prices of any base year).
The difference between GNP and GDP is as follows.
GDP calculated on the so-called territorial basis. This is the total value of products in the sphere of material production and services, regardless of the nationality of enterprises located in the territory of a given country.
GNP- this is the total value of the total volume of products and services in the national economy, regardless of the location of national enterprises (in their own country or abroad).
Thus, GNP differs from GDP by the amount of so-called factor income from the use of resources of a given country abroad (profit transferred to the country from capital invested abroad, property available there, wages of citizens working abroad) minus similar income exported from the country foreigners.
Usually, in order to calculate GNP, the difference between the profits and incomes received by enterprises and individuals of a given country abroad, on the one hand, and the profits and incomes received by foreign investors and foreign workers in this country, on the other hand, is added to the GDP indicator. This difference is small - for the leading Western countries no more than ±1% of GDP.
In our country, the transition to new indicators of GDP and GNP is carried out by recalculating the gross social product (GSP) and national income (NI), which are, respectively, the sum of gross output and net output of material production sectors.
5. National income. teaching staff
national income- this is the value newly created for the year, characterizing what added the production of this year to the well-being of society. Therefore, when calculating it, unlike GDP, it does not include the amount of depreciation, indirect taxes, and government subsidies.
This is the net "earned income" of society, and this determines the importance of ND as a macroeconomic indicator and its widespread use in comparative analysis.
In Russian practice the breakdown into two funds still applies:
consumption fund - a part of the ND that ensures the satisfaction of the material and cultural needs of people and the needs of society as a whole (for education, defense, etc.);
accumulation fund - part of the RD, ensuring the development of production.
The SNA usually defines the rate of accumulation and the share of consumption, but as a percentage of GDP, and not of ND.
For international comparisons and other purposes, it is more convenient to have an integral indicator of the scale and level of economic development. This role is usually played by a monetary indicator expressed in dollars - GDP or GNP.
For international comparisons, GDP is converted into one currency, usually US dollars. This raises a number of problems. First, it turns out that the relative performance of a particular country, its place in the world economy is highly dependent on the current exchange rate, which can change dramatically.
By the 90s of the XX century. a solution to this problem was found: the concept of purchasing power parity appeared - PPP (from the English. purchasing power party - PPP). Since 1992, the UN, within the framework of the program of international comparisons, as well as the OECD, the EU, the IMF and the World Bank, began to introduce PPP calculations.
PPP is a coefficient for converting national currencies into dollars, however, not at the bank rate, but based on the ratio of the purchasing power of two currencies in the countries where they are issued. For the convenience of the PPP, 1 dollar is taken as a unit.
For such calculations, they take a uniform “basket” of goods and services and calculate its cost by country. Here a new problem arises: the inadequacy of the standard basket to the structure of consumer spending, which varies dramatically in different countries. This means that there is no standard "basket" that is the same for all countries.
Price differences are not the only source of distortion in GDP comparisons; in addition, the shadow economy and labor costs in the household are not taken into account.
6. The main features of integration in the late XIX - early XX century.
The integration of economic life in the world goes in many directions:
a) internationalization of productive forces through the exchange of means of production and technological knowledge, as well as international specialization and cooperation, linking economic units into integral production and consumer systems; through production cooperation, international movement of production resources; through the formation of a global material, information, organizational and economic infrastructure that ensures the implementation of international exchange;
b) manifestation of internationalization through MRI;
v) increase in the scale and qualitative change in the nature of traditional international trade embodied goods. The main factor in the impact of international trade on national economies is not so much its outstripping growth, which reflects the process of deepening MRT, but its fundamental qualitative shifts. The very functions of international trade have changed- from short-term transactions "goods - money" to a means of direct servicing of national production processes, linking them into a single production mechanism that knows no national borders. The emphasis in such maintenance is shifting to the final stages of production (finishing, assembly operations);
G) international movement of financial and production resources, providing interweaving and interdependence of economic activity in different countries. This movement takes the form of an international loan or foreign investment;
e) an increasingly important area of international cooperation is services sector, which develops faster than the sphere of material production;
f) rapidly growing international exchange of scientific and technical knowledge: no single country alone is able to solve all the issues of scientific and technical progress, and even more so to be a leader in all its areas. All this leads to an intensive process of formation of the international intellectual division of labor. There is an international specialization of scientific and experimental design centers, the establishment of sustainable cooperation between them;
g) the scale of international labor migration is increasing, to which Russia and other states formed on the territory of the former USSR are beginning to connect as exporters;
h) along with the increasing internationalization of the impact of production and consumption on the natural environment, need in the international cooperation aimed at solving global problems of our time(protection of the natural environment, exploration of the World Ocean, space, assistance to the starving population of developing countries, etc.). The solution of the increasingly aggravated global problems that put humanity on the brink of survival requires the combined efforts of all countries of the world community.
7. International division of labor
The basis for the unification of national economies into a single world economy is international division of labor(MRI), i.e. specialization of individual countries in the production of certain types of products, which countries exchange with each other.
MRI is the basis of the world economy, allowing it to progress in its development, to create prerequisites for a more complete manifestation of general (universal) economic laws.
The essence of MRI manifests itself in the dynamic unity of the two processes of production - its dismemberment and association.
A single production process cannot but be divided into relatively independent phases separated from each other. At the same time, such a division is at the same time the unification of isolated industries and territorial production complexes, the establishment of interaction between the countries participating in the MRT system.
The need to increase labor productivity, which determines economic and social progress, is the driving force in deepening the division of labor, including the international one. MRI performed in order to increase the efficiency of production, serves as a means of rationalizing the social productive forces.
The main motive for MRI for all countries of the world, regardless of their social and economic differences, is their desire for economic benefits. The implementation of the effect obtained by the MRI participants in this case occurs as a result of the operation of the law of value, which manifests itself in the differences between the national and international cost of goods.
MRI is the “integrator” that has formed the global economic system – the world economy – from separate elements.
Types of MRI.
1. Territorial: a) interregional - the division of labor between regions of the same country; b) international - the division of labor between individual countries.
2. Functional: a) general - the division of labor between large areas of material and non-material production (industry, agriculture, transport, communications, etc.); b) private - the division of labor within large areas by sectors and sub-sectors (for example, such as heavy and light industry, animal husbandry and crop production, sea, air and land transport, as well as within them: mining, metallurgy, engineering within heavy industry ; machine tool building and transport engineering within the framework of mechanical engineering; automobile, aircraft, shipbuilding within the framework of transport engineering, etc.); c) single - the division of labor within the enterprise (in this case, the enterprise is interpreted broadly, as a full cycle of creating the final product).
8. Scientific and technological revolution as a determining factor in the development of modern MRI
The scientific and technological revolution (STR) at the present stage causes profound changes in the structure of productive forces, inter- and intra-industry proportions in the national economies of an ever-growing number of countries and the world economy as a whole.
New technological base, availability of information since the early 80s change the conditions of production and consumption. The individualization of demand, the growth of saturation of mass needs, the reduction in the time for satisfying demand, the constant threat of overproduction, a number of socio-economic increased the role of consumer demand as an incentive for the qualitative development of production and services, or, in other words, the formation of directions for technical progress, the ultimate efficiency of material and spiritual production.
New technologies bring into action qualitatively new economic ties: they are aimed at saving resources, individualization and specialization of production and consumption. The cumulative result of new connections goes not so much along the cost chain, but along the axis of the growing effect of their application. The chain reaction here has a consequence saving all kinds of resources. Increasing the role of consumers in the "producer - consumer" system results in the implementation of a set of organizational and managerial measures at the corporate level of a marketing nature (strengthening the connection between research and development (R&D) and production activities with marketing policy, preliminary identification and assessment of consumer capabilities , focus on meeting a narrow specific demand).
Application of new technologies affects world economic relations. The nature of the MFA is changing as the latest forms of automation deprive developing countries in a growing number of economic activities of part of the benefits associated with the presence of a large cheap labor force, which affects the traditional incentives to export capital. They're shifting away from savings on labor costs to cost savings, associated with lower standards for environmental cleanliness and labor safety, which developing countries go to for the industrialization of national economies. In addition to the export of goods and capital, industrialized countries are increasingly using the export of scientific and technical information and scientific and technical services as a "ram" of great punch to establish and expand their positions in the world market.
The modern world is moving to a new, synthesized model of development, which is characterized by: a) a qualitative renewal of the technological base of production, b) the widespread introduction of resource- and energy-saving technologies, c) shifts in the structure, content and nature of production and consumption processes.
9. Strengthening the trend of globalization in the development of the world economy at the beginning of the XXI century.
Globalization how the process is a movement towards over-internationalization, over-integration, manifesting itself in all world markets.
The process of globalization has led to a new qualitative state of the world economy, the so-called globalized space. Globalization as a new qualitative state of the world economy is a new stage in the development of human society, at which the features of the integrity of the world economy, the interdependence of all its parts become obvious, noticeable at the level of both phenomena and individual events.
The revolution in finance and technology, as well as the availability of information, has led to a new state of society: neither governments nor national media are able to isolate economic agents from the full amount of information about the economy, politics, problems and ways to solve them in other countries.
In the economic aspect globalization means the reduction of barriers between national economies (the role of the World Trade Organization - WTO is increasing, numerous agreements on telecommunications and financial services are being developed), the over-integration of national economies.
At the beginning of the XXI century. under the influence of the global information system, the boundaries between technologies, industries, and sources of capital disappear. Various computer technologies are merging into a single integral information system, carrying along not only the information environment and information technologies, but also the markets of capital, goods and services, and labor. Now it is often difficult to determine the country - the manufacturer of the goods, the country - the source of capital.
Globalization is especially pronounced in the capital market: thanks to the information and technical power of modern means of communication, huge masses of financial resources are rapidly moving from one point of the planet to another; the speed and direction of this movement is difficult to predict, they are instantly invested in where they work best.
In 1980, 4.6 million Americans owned shares in various funds, and in 2000 half the US population invested their money in the securities markets. At the same time there was a "narrowing of space"; in the commodity market, this manifested itself in a sharp increase in world exports, which increased from $53 billion to $7 trillion in half a century.
Technological preconditions for globalization became computerization, miniaturization, fiber optics, the expansion of the use of satellites, the introduction of the Internet. Important indicators of the development of a country are the number of computers per capita, the number of CDs and digital disks, as well as the number of individuals using e-mail, as well as the number of Internet users.
10. Correlation between globalization and global problems in the world economy
The deepening of the process of globalization, unfortunately, not only does not lead to the solution of global problems, but also contributes to the prosperity of a small group of industrialized countries and the degradation and impoverishment of the least developed countries of the world.
None of the global world problems known since the middle of the 20th century has yet been completely resolved: the creation of a mechanism for resolving issues of war and peace, disarmament, conversion, overcoming poverty, hunger, and disease. There is no paradigm for the development and survival of man in the face of global warming, a unified program for protecting the environment, and a joint search for new sources of energy. Today, more than 80,000 chemicals are used in daily production that adversely affect human health.
Moreover, herself globalization generates new global problems. Direct investments of transnational corporations do not always give an unambiguously positive result, for which they are called “instruments for maintaining underdevelopment”, producing products that are unnecessary for the country using unnecessary technology. Financial resources attracted through the process of globalization "run away" as quickly as they come. In mid-1997, Western capital left Thailand, and in 1998, South Korea and Indonesia, causing a financial shock in each of these countries.
Even in countries that are reaping the “sweet fruits” of globalization, protests against alien values, sold as universal ones, periodically flare up. (anti-globalism movement). The sharply increased severity of competition on a global scale leads to growing inequality in income, lack of job security. In the industrialized countries, globalization is being pushed back from both the left and the right of the political spectrum. The left sees the differentiation of consumption: the suffering of the poor and the super-enrichment of dozens of citizens, the right sees the erasure of national borders, the unification of national identity, the loss of jobs, the loss of clearly expressed national sovereignty.
Protest against globalization and trade unions in developed countries. It is known that in the US a worker on average receives about $19 an hour, and a Mexican worker $1.5, which causes a massive outflow of production to Mexico.
The capital that has escaped to the global expanses finds those areas where wages are minimal, taxes are insignificant, state regulation is almost absent.
11. Ecological crisis as a global problem of mankind
The environmental problem has a long history, but it has become aggravated since the second half of the 19th century as the planet was industrialized.
The exacerbation of the environmental problem means a transition to a qualitatively new dependence of the population of the world community on the depleting natural environment as a result of the barbaric impact of human activity on it.
The main directions of the aggravation of the ecological crisis:
Increased withdrawal from land use (area) of cultivated lands as a result of excessive use of chemical fertilizers, soil salinization, wind and water erosion, etc.;
Chemical impact on agricultural and livestock products, water, human environment, deforestation, etc.;
The growing volume of pollutants released into the Earth's atmosphere (hundreds of thousands of tons of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, sulfur dioxide, etc.), leading to the gradual destruction of the protective ozone layer around the Earth's atmosphere;
The rapid build-up of waste, the transformation of significant land areas into dumps for various industrial waste. As a result, useful land areas are reduced and territorial foci with increased danger to human life are expanding;
Growth in the number of nuclear power plants.
The so-called local wars - in Vietnam, Kampuchea, Laos, Afghanistan, Africa, Central America - also influenced the acceleration of the ecological crisis. Huge expanses of the jungle, which had been untouched for centuries, turned out to be literally scorched.
The links between the environment and the economy are seen in many phenomena. The recent famine in sub-Saharan Africa was more the result of severe environmental and economic deterioration than the result of the drought alone, which undoubtedly catalyzed the disaster.
The problem of environmental security is closely related to the achievement of economic security, approval of equal economic relations, excluding the predatory exploitation of natural resources, the export of polluting industries and hazardous waste - this idea was emphasized at the UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, held in 1992 by the American scientist Brown, director of the Washington Institute for World Observation , emphasized in this regard that the extensive destruction of natural support systems and deteriorating environmental conditions pose a threat to national and international security, which now competes with the traditional military threat.
This is where the most developed forms of international cooperation based on common criteria and universally recognized universal approaches are required.
12. International economic aspects of the food problem
Although food consumption is generally increasing in all regions, it is unevenly distributed across continents and individual states:
1) industrial zones of the world, including Western and Northern Europe, North America, Australia and Japan - regions that are faced not with a shortage of high-quality food, but with its excess;
2) areas of southern Europe and Central Asia, as well as most of the countries of Latin America, the countries of the Maghreb and ASEAN, in which the food supply is at a level approaching the norm in terms of the UN WHO requirements;
3) the countries of Eastern Europe, the CIS and the Baltic countries, as well as India, Egypt, Indonesia, whose food supply is at the “permissible” level of deviation from the norm according to the UN WHO standards;
4) developing countries, the vast majority of whose population is experiencing all the hardships of the food crisis (a vivid example is the countries south of the Sahara).
Level of food production in countries of Eastern Europe, CIS and Baltic countries does not correspond to their real capabilities. Russia alone, having vast territories for cultivating various agricultural crops and animal husbandry, has a huge potential not only to fully provide the necessary food for its population, but also to provide assistance to other countries. However, at present, the CIS countries and the Baltic countries are food importers.
Feeding a rapidly growing population developing countries is one of the most urgent global problems of our time. The solution of the food problem of the developing countries is connected with overcoming their economic and scientific and technological backwardness and lies on the path of radical socio-economic transformations, the elimination of backward forms of land ownership and land use, the rise of agriculture based on the introduction of advanced scientific methods of its management.
FAO estimates that the total number of people suffering from acute hunger in the early 1990s due to the food crisis in Africa is from 600 million to 700 million people. The criterion of hunger in this assessment is its extreme degree, determined by the "critical level" of the body's energy needs, sufficient only for survival. If a less rigid approach is taken to define hunger, then the number of hungry in developing countries will be even greater. Hunger in the liberated countries is a massive and constant phenomenon that accompanies the daily life of large sections of the population.
Chronic hunger causes irreparable damage to the reproduction of labor resources, reduces life expectancy, and contributes to a high mortality rate.
13. Global international cooperation and the UN. ECOSOC
United Nations is the largest, universal and most authoritative international organization at the present time, designed to deal with the main political problems that concern humanity. The political activity of the UN is inextricably linked with economic and social tasks directly related to world politics.
The preamble to the UN Charter states that its purpose is to promote the economic and social progress of all peoples. In charge United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) includes the organization of research and the preparation of various kinds of reports and recommendations on a wide range of international economic, social, cultural and other "related" issues. The Council prepares draft conventions for submission to the UN General Assembly and may convene international conferences on these issues. Being the main coordinating body in this area, ECOSOC coordinates work with other UN organizations, conducts consultations, involving for this purpose non-governmental organizations that specialize and are interested in the issues under consideration.
The main questions of ECOSOC:
The state of the world economic and social situation and the preparation of fundamental reviews and other analytical publications;
The state of international trade;
Problems of environmental protection;
Economic and scientific and technical assistance to developing countries;
Various aspects of the food problem;
Problems of socio-economic statistics;
Population problems;
Problems of natural resources;
Problems of settlements;
Problems of planning and mobilization of financial resources, etc.
In the system of ECOSOC bodies there are five regional economic commissions: Economic Commission for Europe (ECE), Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLA), Economic Commission for West Africa (ECWA).
Meeting on environmental protection held EEC in 1979, adopted the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution (entered into force in 1983) and the Declaration on Low-Waste and Zero-Waste Technology and Waste Reuse.
As part of ESCAP a project of trans-Asian railways and highways has been developed and is being implemented.
The document that determined the economic policy of the states of the continent for the 90s was adopted at the 24th session ECA(1989). It is "The Framework for an African Alternative to Structural Adjustment Programs for Economic Recovery and Transformation." The "alternative" is the real basis for stopping Africa's slide into the now deepening economic crisis.
14. United Nations organizations
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) designed to regulate global trade relations. The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was created and operated outside the UN. Therefore, many countries set the task before the UN - to have in its structures an independent and universal body, called on behalf of the world community to regulate the complex problems of international trade. For these purposes, an autonomous UN body was founded in 1964 to promote international trade, negotiate and develop international treaties and recommendations in this area, and currently includes about 170 states. The main body of UNCTAD is the conference, which is convened in session twice a year. Sessions of UNCTAD committees are convened more often - on commodities, on finished products and semi-finished products, on shipping, technology transfer, economic cooperation between developing countries, etc.
United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). Within its framework, a Section of Integrated Industrial Projects was created: development, coordination and control over the implementation of individual large-scale technical projects, development and management of joint technical cooperation programs with FAO. During the year, UNIDO is working on more than 100 interregional and global projects for Latin America and Asia in all sectors of the economy and training.
Environment Program(UNEP): protection of soils and waters, flora and fauna, socio-economic aspects of energy, urban problems, cooperation in the field of education and exchange of information on environmental protection, practical implementation of environmental safety tasks.
The International Labour Organization(ILO): development of international conventions and recommendations on labor and trade union rights.
Food and Agriculture Organization(FAO): collection and compilation of information on nutrition, environmental management, agricultural production, forestry and fisheries. The main field of activity is the agriculture of the world.
Target European Bank for Reconstruction and Development(EBRD) to provide financial assistance to the new states of Eurasia and Eastern Europe in economic reforms, in particular in the financing of "privatization programs" and the promotion of "private initiative" and "entrepreneurial spirit". The real functioning of the bank began only in 1993. During 1994-1997, certain technical assistance was provided to a number of countries, but it is clear that the EBRD's capabilities are limited and it is unrealistic to expect any significant financial impact on the CIS members, the Baltic countries and Eastern Europe.
15. Natural resources and their role in the global economy
The world economy is based on the use of significant reserves of natural resources. The economic activity of economic agents is unthinkable without soil cover, minerals, fresh water, solar and wind energy, rainfall moisture, biological (flora and animal) resources.
All elements of nature used in economic activity and being the means of human existence form the natural resource potential of the world economy. All natural resources are divided into real, i.e. identified by modern survey methods, technically accessible and cost-effective, and potential, i.e. resources, the volume of which is established theoretically and has a predictive character.
Potential resources are the resources of the future. Due to their current economic unprofitability, they will be able to be involved in production under conditions of a qualitatively new level of development of scientific and technological progress.
The important thing is the classification according to the principle of exhaustion. From this point of view, all resources are divided into exhaustible and inexhaustible.
Demands for exhaustible resources sharply exceed their volumes and the rate of their natural replenishment, which leads to the depletion of these resources.
Based on the intensity and speed of natural renewal exhaustible resources are divided into non-renewable (all types of mineral and land resources), renewable (flora and fauna) and relatively renewable (productive arable soils, mature forests).
16. Reserves of mineral raw materials and energy resources in the world (coal, oil)
Despite the significant development of geological exploration (primarily in developed countries), the knowledge of the subsoil is still insufficient. The proportion of proven reserves for certain types of minerals sometimes amounts to several percent of geological reserves.
Among the fuel and energy resources, the largest reserves in the world are coal. Its geological reserves, according to some estimates, reach 9-11 trillion tons (in conventional fuel), and brown coal and lignite - 2.2 trillion tons. If we compare the figure of world reserves with world coal production - more than 4.3 billion tons in 1994 (in terms of standard fuel - 3.1 billion tons), then it will be enough for 3000–3700 years at modern production (and for 1000 years at the level of production possible in 2020). Explored coal reserves are much less than geological ones - 1.2 trillion tons.
Of this total, the United States accounts for 430 billion tons, Germany - 100 billion, England - 50 billion, India - 29 billion, Canada - 50 billion, Australia - 90 billion and the CIS - 290 billion tons. The bulk of coal is mined in the CIS, USA, China, Germany, Poland, Slovakia and England.
By the mid-1990s, about 900 million tons of coal were mined annually in the United States. Approximately 1/10 of coal is exported. The coal industry has excess capacity, which is associated with the displacement of coal by other more efficient fuels. Reduced coal production in European countries. In England, mines are being closed due to the depletion of coal reserves and the rise in the cost of its production, as well as the displacement of coal by oil from the North Sea. Decreased production in France, in Russia.
The share of coal in the world consumption of energy resources (in terms of standard fuel) at the beginning of the 20th century. was 56%, and in 1995 - 27%. In the coming years, the ratio between the types of energy resources consumed in the world will change towards a decrease in the share of oil, the sources of which are limited. The share of consumption of coal, natural gas and nuclear energy will grow.
Proven reserves oil amount to 127 billion tons of standard fuel and probable - 360 billion tons of standard fuel. In addition, the probable reserves of oil from unconventional sources - oil shale and tar sands - amount to up to 750 billion tons. The proven reserves of oil from traditional sources in the world are distributed as follows (in%): in the Near and Middle East (in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iran, Iraq) - 70, in Africa (in Nigeria, Algeria, Libya) - 9-11, in North America - 8-10, in Central and South America - 5, in Western Europe - 5. Currently, slightly less than half traditional oil reserves are located on the coastal shelves.
Oil is likely to remain the main fuel and energy resource for a long time to come. According to estimates, in 2020 the share of oil in world energy consumption will be at least 10%. At the same time, it should be taken into account that with the existing production technology, on average, only 30–35% of the oil available in the bowels of the Earth is extracted to the surface.
17. Reserves of mineral raw materials and energy resources in the world (natural gas, iron ore, etc.)
The world has natural gas(in terms of standard fuel) 79 billion tons of proven reserves and 276 billion tons of probable reserves (respectively 66 trillion and 230 trillion m 3 in physical terms). The largest proven gas reserves are in developing countries - Iraq, Saudi Arabia and other countries of the Near and Middle East, as well as in Algeria, Libya, Nigeria, Venezuela, Mexico. Of the developed countries, the United States, Canada, Australia have significant gas reserves, and in Europe - Great Britain, Norway and Holland (North Sea reserves). In many of these countries, gas reserves have been discovered over the past 15–20 years, and there is reason to believe that further discoveries are possible.
Natural gas production in the world reaches 1.7 trillion m 3 per year. This figure will increase and may double by the middle of the 21st century. The share of gas in world energy consumption is estimated to be about 15% by 2020.
Geological potential reserves iron ore are estimated at trillions of tons. The resources of known deposits, including those that are currently unprofitable, reach approximately 600 billion tons, while proven and probable reserves reach 260 billion tons. Brazil, Australia, Canada, the United States, South Africa have the largest deposits of iron ore in the world, and among European countries - France, Great Britain, Germany, Sweden and Norway. There are large iron ore deposits in the CIS and China. The content of iron in the known deposits of industrial ores for the most part does not exceed 40%. Poor ores with an iron content of 30–35% or less are processed at mining and processing plants. Rich ores - with an iron content above 45% - are used without enrichment.
Iron ore production in the world is about 870 million tons per year. In recent years, its production has significantly decreased and the production of ferrous metallurgy has decreased. The capacity for steel production has decreased, as the need for it has decreased, in particular in the automotive industry. Steel is being replaced by plastics, heavy-duty ceramics, and other materials.
General stocks bauxite(raw materials for aluminum production) amount to 50 billion tons, of which reliable and probable - about 20 billion tons. Bauxite production reaches 80 million tons, mainly in Australia, Guinea, and Jamaica.
General stocks copper ores are determined at 860 million tons, of which 450 million tons are reliable and probable. There is data on 363 million tons of estimated and 290 million tons of theoretically possible resources. The main part of the total reserves of copper ores is located in the USA, Chile, Zaire, Zambia, as well as in Canada, Panama, Peru. About 8 million tons of these ores are mined annually.
Limited stocks and other non-ferrous metals- lead, tin, zinc. The total lead reserves are 200 million tons, reliable and probable - 100 million tons. Most of the reserves are located in the USA, Australia, and Canada. Lead production annually is about 2.5 million tons. The total reserves of tin are 8.3 million tons, of which 3.8 million tons are reliable and probable (India, then Thailand, Bolivia).
18. Natural resources for agriculture
Natural resources, which are increasingly used in the course of the development of society and create the conditions for its existence, primarily include land - this is the basis, basis, living space of a person. From this meaning of the land as the space on which society exists, its active significance in production, primarily as the basis of agriculture, as the main means of producing food and raw materials, differs. Land covered with forest - a source of wood and other raw materials, should also be attributed to the production sector, since the forest is used and reproduced by society. Finally, the bowels of the earth contain various types of mineral raw materials, are the environment that contains them, fossils also serve as means of production.
Of the total surface area of the Earth of 510 million km 2, land accounts for 149 million km 2. Agricultural land covers 51 million km 2 and forested areas - 38 million km 2 . As part of agricultural land, arable land and perennial plantations make up 13.4 million km 2, hayfields and pastures - 37.4 million km 2. Thus, on average, there is 0.3 hectares of arable land per capita in the world - the main source of food and fodder. In recent years, the area of arable land has been shrinking absolutely, not to mention the relative reduction (per capita), due to population growth, especially in developing countries. In individual countries, the area of arable land per capita differs sharply. Thus, in the United States per capita there are 0.67 hectares of arable land, in Germany - 0.12, in Great Britain - 0.11, in Japan - 0.03 hectares.
There are reserves in the world for increasing cultivated areas: several million square kilometers of land that could be used for agricultural needs, but their development requires significant capital investments. Therefore, in order to increase food production, first of all, they seek to improve the use of available agricultural land. Most of the cultivated land is in the Northern Hemisphere. Over half in Europe and Asia and 15% in North America. These countries also produce the bulk of food.
More than half of the area is occupied grain crops. The production of grain and leguminous crops on the planet in 1994 reached 1658 million tons, including 403 million in China, 359 million in the USA, 227 million in India, 81.3 million in Russia, 57 in France, 1 million, in Brazil - 49.2 million, in Canada - 49 million, in Argentina - 24.9 million tons. Over the past 25 years, the production of grain and legumes has doubled.
Urbanization, the development of industry, transport lead to the alienation of agricultural land, their sale for other needs. The alienation of cultivable land directly reduces the ability to produce food. Significant harm to land resources is caused by the deterioration of their condition, degradation due to erosion, deflation, pollution with waste, which is facilitated by imperfect methods of land cultivation, its overload, and depletion.
19. Use of natural resources for agriculture
Agricultural Development ranked first in the world USA. This is facilitated by favorable natural conditions, vast plains, a temperate climate, turning to subtropical in the south, and sufficient moisture. Agricultural land covers more than half of the country's territory. Agricultural exports are growing, labor productivity has increased while reducing the number of agricultural workers (1.7% of those employed in the national economy, or 3.1 million people). The high level of labor productivity in agriculture is based on its broad mechanization. In recent years, farms have been in a state of growing crisis. Dealers of agricultural products receive big profits, farmers go bankrupt.
The areas of irrigated lands are growing; they gather up to 1/4 of the crop. All surface water in the western United States is virtually distributed; groundwater is mainly used, including from the very extensive underground reservoir Ogallala.
Wind erosion and deflation negatively affect the soil. When the soil dries up and deep plowing, the fertile layer is blown out.
Significant depletion of land resources occurs in Asian countries. This is the result of primitive farming in conditions of rapid population growth, the cultivation of the same crops, the plowing of new unproductive lands, and overloading of pastures. In South and Southeast Asia, a slash-and-slash farming system is used: slash-and-shift, which uses the decay products of cut down forests, and slash-and-burn, based on burning forests and using ashes. Such predatory methods of farming accelerate soil degradation, their disposal, lead to land salinization, and desertification.
Rapid processes of erosion and deflation, as well as general depletion of arable and pasture lands, are occurring in countries Africa, where backward methods of farming are widespread. On pasture lands, the vegetation cover is degraded due to overgrazing. There is a process of desertification in which thousands of square kilometers of semi-desert lands are involved in areas north and south of the Sahara. Dust storms occur in the Sahara, Sahel, and Kalahari plains, and their intensity is so great that sand and dust are sometimes transported across the Atlantic Ocean and reach the West Indies.
In countries Latin America The area of agricultural land is expanding, which is largely due to the decrease in forest areas. The slash-and-burn system of agriculture is widely used, which is why erosion and deflation cover most of the cultivated land in these countries.
V australia the development of pastoralism over a number of decades has led to the deterioration of pasture lands; periodic droughts also contributed to this; plowing in the "wheat-sheep belt" caused erosion processes. Measures are being taken for melioration, backfilling of ravines, plowing across slopes, grassing of eroded lands, and construction of water-retaining ramparts.
20. Forest resources. Their importance in the global economy
The forest is of great importance for life on Earth. With the help of light energy absorbed by plant chlorophyll, i.e. through photosynthesis organic substances are formed to the plants themselves, and to all others living organisms. This is one of the main biological processes taking place on Earth. More than 100 billion tons of organic matter are formed annually on the Earth, half of which is terrestrial vegetation, mainly forests. The forest, with its underground and above-ground multi-tiered structures, covers a larger part of the biosphere than other plants, counting per unit area occupied.
Forested areas worldwide reach 36 million km2, which is 27% of the land area. The main part of the forested territory is located within the CIS - 8.1 million km 2, in the USA - 2 million, in Canada - 2.6 million, in Brazil - 3.2 million km 2. Large areas are occupied by forests in India, Angola, Colombia, Mexico, Peru.
Forest - wood source, building material, raw materials for pulp and paper, woodworking, including furniture, and other industries. The total stock of wood in all forests of the world is 360 billion m 3 . The development of logging depends not only on the available timber resources, but also on the quality of forest management. It is characteristic that in Sweden and Finland, which have a small stock of wood - only 4.1 billion m 3 of all species and 3.4 billion m 3 of coniferous species - the removal of wood is about 100 million dense m 3, or almost 1/8 of the total removal developed capitalist countries.
Taking the annual growth of wood as 1% of its total volume in the forests of the world, i.e. 3.6 billion m 3 , we get that about 80% of the annual forest growth is harvested. But from this ratio it is still impossible to conclude that forests are used rationally. First of all, logging in general is growing rapidly. Thus, in the mid-1950s they amounted to 1.5 billion m 3 per year. By 2000, with the same increase, they reached 3.3 billion m 3 , i.e. almost equal to the annual growth of wood.
Along with wood, a number of other types of forest products: various types of technical raw materials, such as resin for the production of rosin and turpentine, gutta-percha for the production of rubber, tanning agents, organic dyes and other wood chemistry products. The forest has significant food and feed resources(wild berries and fruits, mushrooms, nuts, honey plants, birch sap). The annual harvest of all types of forest food products is measured in tens of millions of tons, but only a small part of this amount is used.
Are important forest products(fruits, foliage, needles, bark, roots) for the production of medicines. Very effective medicines obtained from sea buckthorn, lemongrass, ginseng, lily of the valley and many other forest plants, shrubs, and trees are widely known. It should be noted the role of the forest in soil protection, protection of fresh water sources, recreational functions, etc.
21. General concepts of demography
Population data are obtained from regular (usually every 10 or 5 years) general censuses, and in the intervals between them - by calculations based on census data as a base. Many countries have not had censuses for a long time, so the total population is considered as an approximation to the exact value.
According to the UN in 2005, the world population was 6.5 billion people and will continue to grow and in 2050 will be approximately 9.1 billion people.
The labor resources and the movement of the population as a whole are dealt with demography- a science that, on the basis of social, economic, biological and geographical factors, explores the patterns that occur in the structure, dynamics, as well as the location and movement of the population. On the basis of this, a population policy is developed, forecast estimates are made of changes in the population of a country, a region and within the framework of the world economy as a whole.
In demographic statistics are used odds fertility (number of births per 1,000 citizens of the country, measured in ppm), mortality (number of deaths per 1,000 citizens, in ppm), marriage rates, vital rates - the difference between birth and death rates.
The coefficients are most often calculated for calendar year. Coefficient mortality(birth rate): the number of deaths (or births) in a year is divided by the average population (of the country or other study area) for the same year, after which the quotient of the division is multiplied by 1000.
Average population for a given year: the population as of June 30 of the year in question (or calculate the arithmetic average of the population as of January 1 of the given and next year). In the same way, it is calculated marriage rate: the count may be based on the number of marriages, or on the number of newlyweds, which is twice the number of marriages.
As a result of births and deaths, there is a process of continuous renewal of the population, which is called "reproduction". To monitor the dynamics of the population determine its annual growth. Annual growth rate is the population growth during the year in question (i.e. between two consecutive January 1) as the arithmetic mean:
P = (P r / P m) x 1000,
where R g - growth during the year; P m is the average number of the population during the year.
With the exception of periods of war, epidemics and famine, the birth rate slightly exceeded the death rate; annual population growth, as a rule, reaches several units per 1000, with an upper limit of 10 per 1000, or 1%. To assess the extent to which a given generation provided its replacement, it is necessary to follow this generation from the moment of its birth until it produces its descendants. Complete generation replacement observed if 1000 people of a given generation, counted from the moment of their birth, produced 1000 newborns (live).
22. Types and features of reproduction in various groups of countries
An analysis of the dynamics of the world population shows that in most European countries, as well as in the countries of North America in the 19th and 20th centuries, the mortality rate of the population decreased. In other countries of the world, a noticeable decrease in the mortality of the population began only after the collapse of the colonial system, i.e. mostly after World War II. The prerequisites for reducing mortality were: a) a general increase in the living standards of the population; b) improving medical care; c) carrying out preventive measures to prevent diseases, primarily infections.
Thus, one can point to two characteristic types of demographic transition to a new type of reproduction:
1) "classic", or European, type: the transition from high levels of mortality and fertility to low levels occurs over a long period of time, and the birth rate in most cases exceeds the death rate by an amount significantly less than 10%, which leads to a slowdown in population growth;
2) "modern" type: a decrease in the total mortality rate over a shorter period than in the first case to a level of approximately 10% with a stabilization or increase in a significant birth rate.
This ratio of births and deaths means rapid population growth: doubling its size over a period of about 20 years. Measures to regulate the birth rate in some countries contribute to its decline. Individual countries are characterized by numerous features of these processes, which often complicate the task of classifying them.
Generally developing countries can be attributed to the "modern" type of demographic reproduction. A number of developing countries are characterized by very low overall mortality rates due to the "young" age structure. At the same time, the level of age-sex mortality rates is higher than in economically developed countries of the West.
However, sometimes it appears specific type of reproduction when the death rate begins to exceed the birth rate, and the result is a vital coefficient with a minus sign (i.e., there is a natural decrease in the population - depopulation). Trends of this kind are clearly manifested in modern Russia.
The resident population of the Russian Federation according to the last census (2002) was 145.2 million people, which is 1.8 million more than the current population estimate. As of December 1, 2005, the population was 142.8 million people. In 2005, the population decreased by 0.5% (680 thousand people).
23. Urbanization. Urban and rural population
Urbanization- a multilateral socio-economic, demographic and geographical process occurring on the basis of historically established forms of social and territorial division of labor. In a narrower, demographic and statistical sense, urbanization is the growth of cities, especially large ones, an increase in the proportion of the urban population in a country, region, or world.
The development of the urbanization process is closely related to features of the formation of the urban population, inclusion in the urban environment or attribution to urban administrative subordination of suburban areas, the transformation of rural settlements into urban ones. In fact, the growth of the urban population is also due to the formation of wide suburban areas and urbanized areas. The living conditions of the population in these areas are increasingly approaching those in large cities.
The outstripping growth of the urban and non-agricultural population in comparison with the rural and agricultural population is the most characteristic feature of modern urbanization.
In three parts of the world - Australia and Oceania, North Africa, Europe - urban dwellers predominate; they are being overtaken by rapidly urbanizing Latin America; at the same time, the population of the Afro-Asian countries, due to its large numbers, creates a preponderance of the village over the city on average in the world. The developed countries have the highest percentage of the urban population. In Europe - UK (91%), Sweden (87%), Germany (85%), Denmark (84%), France (78%), Netherlands (76%), Spain (74%), Belgium (72%) ; in North America - USA (77%), Canada (76%); in Asia - Israel (89%), Japan (78%); in Australia and Oceania - Australia (89%), New Zealand (85%); in Africa - South Africa (50%). When the proportion of the urban population exceeds 70%, the rate of its growth, as a rule, slows down and gradually (when approaching 80%) stops.
Urbanization is characterized concentration of the population in large and super-large cities. It is the growth of large cities (with a population of over 100,000 people), the new forms of settlement associated with them and the spread of the urban way of life that most clearly reflect the process of urbanization.
At the end of the XX century. a qualitatively new phenomenon of urbanization - metropolitan areas(cities with a population of more than 20 million people) - has also arisen in developing countries. By the 60s of the XX century. there were only 2 megacities in the world (New York and London), then Mexico City, Tokyo - Yokohama, Greater Bombay, Calcutta, Jakarta, Dhaka, Karachi, Madras, Bangkok were added to them.
In 2000, the urban population made up about 48% of the world's population. The most urbanized region is Western Europe; the least urbanized is Africa.
24. Employment. Economically active and passive population
Employment- this is the activity of the able-bodied population to create a social product or national income. Giving the opportunity to everyone who is willing and able to work in social production leads ideally to full employment.
Employment in social production does not exhaust all types of useful employment, such as studying in general education and special educational institutions, serving in the army, employment in the household, raising children, caring for the sick and the elderly, and so on.
Accounting for all types of economic and socially useful activities is reflected in the concept global employment. Those who, for subjective or objective reasons, could not find for themselves a useful area of activity that does not contradict the law remain outside it.
Employment in social production is of decisive importance from the point of view of the development of society itself. productive employment. The ratio of productive employment to other types of useful employment makes it possible to determine rational employment.
In international statistics, categories are widely used "economically active population" and "economically inactive population".
According to the ILO recommendations for economically active the population includes all persons who participate in the production of goods and services, including the production of goods for the market, through barter channels and for personal use: wage laborers - workers and employees; independent workers; unpaid family members; seasonal and casual workers; persons temporarily not working for objective reasons (illness, vacation, etc.); students who combine study with part-time work; apprentices and persons undergoing vocational training at work and receiving either a stipend or a salary.
In different countries, the definition of the economically active population varies somewhat, for example, by the age of entry into active working life (USA - from 15 years old, in Sweden - 16 years old). Differences by category: In the UK, the economically active population does not include students working part-time or looking for work. The economically active population for the current period in market economy countries is defined as "work force".
The labor status of the economically active population is quantified by the number of weeks or days worked in a certain period of time (12 months or one calendar year). According to the number of hours worked, the economically active population is divided into employed, unemployed and underemployed.
TO economically inactive to the population, international statistics include everyone who, regardless of age, is not included in the categories of the economically active population: full-time students, housewives, old-age and disability pensioners, rentiers, persons receiving financial support from public organizations and individuals; employed in unpaid public work, persons providing voluntary, free services, etc.
25. International labor migration
The rapidly occurring internationalization of production and capital is accompanied by the internationalization of the labor market. International migration has become an integral part of the modern system of the world economy.
In countries that actively use foreign workers, entire sectors of the economy are dependent on imported labor. In France immigrants make up 1/4 of those employed in construction, 1/3 in the automotive industry; v Belgium- half of the miners; v Switzerland– 40% of all construction workers, etc. At the same time, for the majority of developing countries exporting labor, abandoning it would mean the loss of an important source of foreign exchange. So, if in Egypt the operation of the Suez Canal in the late 80s made a profit of 970 million dollars, and tourism - 600 million, then remittances from immigrants - 3.1 billion dollars.
Number of foreign workers in Western Europe is 4.1–6.5 million, in USA- 5-5, 6 million, in Latin America– 3.5–4 million, in countries Middle East and North Africa - 2, 8 million, in West Africa- 1.3 million people.
First immigration center was formed in the countries of Western Europe, where foreign labor began to be used on a permanent basis. The EU has 13 million immigrants and their family members, including about 8 million (or 61%) from non-EU countries. In Germany, foreign labor is 8% of the total number of employees, in France - 7, Switzerland and Luxembourg - up to 30%.
But the special role of foreigners as an additional labor force for the countries of immigration was that the interstate movement mainly involved young people, usually under 25 years old, fit for intensive work and physical exertion.
Until recently, foreign workers were used mainly in those areas where the share of manual labor is high (construction, service sector), and in those industries where work is too dangerous, dirty or considered not prestigious for the local population. Here the share of foreigners is very high, sometimes reaching up to 70%, which means that such enterprises are already "oriented" to the use of foreign labor.
Second immigration center traditionally the United States, whose labor resources have historically been formed precisely at the expense of immigrants. Now the incoming labor force is constantly about 5%, and in coastal areas even more (counting those who did not have time to assimilate).
Third center- in the region of the oil-producing countries of the Middle East. Until recently, it was the third immigration center: in the UAE, the proportion of the labor force is about 90%, in Qatar - over 80%, in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain - almost 40% each, in Oman - 34%. The main exporter of labor in the region is Egypt (75% of the total number of immigrants).
fourth center– in Latin America: Argentina and Venezuela accept workers from neighboring countries. The total number of immigrants is 3 million, the vast majority are Hispanics. The most common form is rural seasonal migration. Longer time migration is typical for industrial and service workers.
26. Scientific and technical potential (STP) in the world economy
Scientific and technical potential of the state (industry, a separate industry)- a set of scientific and technical capabilities that characterize the level of development of a given state as a subject of the world economy and depend on the quantity and quality of resources that determine these capabilities, as well as on the availability of a fund of ideas and developments prepared for practical use (introduction into production). In the process of practical development of innovations, the materialization of scientific and technical potential takes place.
Scientific research, especially in the field of natural and technical sciences, is increasingly turning into a direct component of the process of material production, and applied research and development work can practically be considered an integral part of this process.
The science It is a complex and very difficult to measure system that embodies the results of people's intellectual activity, an ordered complex of their ideas, knowledge and experience. As a result, the study of the results of scientific and technical activities is associated with a number of difficulties.
The main components of the NTP: provision of the country with scientific and technical personnel and material and technical support of research activities. The main "quality" components: organization of the science management system; provision with scientific and technical information; main directions of scientific research.
The development of scientific and technical progress indicates the onset of a qualitatively new stage in world development, which is manifested in the following: 1) the economy is experiencing continuous innovation process, during which transformations in the technological, organizational and social spheres merge together. At the same time, it forms a new model for the development and use of human resources, focused on a highly skilled workforce integrated into the production system; 2) takes priority intangible accumulation, including investment in people, compared with material accumulation; 3) turns into the most important productive force information. Its production, processing, distribution, creation of information infrastructure and information networks become necessary conditions for competitiveness and economic growth; 4) industry complex of services, performing important production functions in the modern process of reproduction, becomes the main area of employment; 5) the mobility of public institutions, vocational qualification and social class structures increases; 6) public control over capital is increasing, social expenses of corporations are increasing, the role of social guidelines in the development of the whole society is increasing; 7) the spread of powerful information systems enhances the interconnectedness of the states of the world. However, many critical problems facing society (destruction of the natural environment, limited resources, wealth and poverty, terrorism, etc.) are also acquiring a global character.
27. Scientific and technological progress as a basis for economic growth
An analysis of financial and staffing trends in scientific activity shows that its scale in developed countries continues to grow. R&D spending at the macro level is rising, but the share of R&D spending in GNP tends to stabilize below 3% (except in Japan, where this figure has been surpassed).
Increasing the scale of scientific activity is a positive factor in economic growth. The American scientist F. Scherer formulated "natural law of technological progress": spending on R&D in each individual country should grow faster than the production of the gross national product. At the same time, the optimal scale of resource support for science is 3% of GNP.
The reasons for the sustainable long-term growth of the knowledge intensity of the economy: the rise in the cost of research and development due to the growing use of highly skilled labor and sophisticated science-intensive equipment; "maintaining stable funding for corporate research departments or even increasing it in years of both normal and unfavorable economic conditions; technological convergence, which requires firms to train experts in broader areas of science and technology, to develop in a wider range of related technologies; reducing the duration life cycles of science-intensive goods (frequent change of generations of computers, household appliances), constantly growing demand for science-intensive products on the part of healthcare (diagnostic tools, medicines).
Modern Russia is characterized by a gradual and steady decline in the share of spending on science in GDP, a transition to indicators that are typical, at best, for moderately developed countries. According to the State Statistics Committee, the share of R&D in GDP fell to 1.16% in 2005 (at the level of India, Canada, Brazil).
Process prioritizing involves simultaneously taking into account at least four factors: 1) national ideas (ensuring national security, competitiveness of the economy, development of education, healthcare); 2) the need to solve the most pressing problems of this period, such as energy savings (70s), environmental protection (80s), the fight against AIDS (late 80s - early 90s); 3) the implementation of modern scientific achievements, for example, the results of molecular biology or genetic engineering, and in the longer term, the phenomena of superconductivity; 4) real possibilities of national scientific schools.
Comparison of the list of STP priorities of different countries, such as OECD countries, leads, first of all, to the conclusion that most of the positions are very similar. Among the recurring positions in the lists of state priorities: technologies for the production of new materials, information technology, communications, biotechnology, health and environmental protection; an important role is assigned to space research.
In the future, common priorities will retain their significance, but they will increasingly fit into the solution of global problems of preserving man and nature.
28. The concept of sectoral structure of the economy
Sectoral structure of the economy in a broad sense, it is a set of qualitatively homogeneous groups of economic units, characterized by special conditions of production in the system of social division of labor and playing a specific role in the process of expanded reproduction.
Sectoral shifts at the macro level, if considered in a long historical framework, manifested themselves first in the rapid growth of "primary industries" (agriculture and mining), then "secondary" (industry and construction), and in the last period - "tertiary industries" ( services sector).
In world practice, the basis for the formation of the structural elements of the economy are the International Standard Industrial Classification of all types of economic activity and the International Standard Classification of Occupations, which are components of the SNA. The SNA provides for the use of two types of classifications - by industry and by sector. Grouping by industry provides a characteristic of the sectoral structure of the economy, allows you to establish the contribution of each industry to the creation of GDP, trace inter-sectoral relationships and proportions. Grouping by sectors of the economy, formed depending on the functions performed by economic units in the economic process, allows you to analyze the processes in the field of distribution and redistribution of income, investment financing. A special place in the system of national accounts is occupied by intersectoral balances, which, depending on the goals of economic analysis, can include from several tens to several thousand industries.
Basic sectors for the development of intersectoral balances are industry, agriculture, construction, trade, transport and communications, and other industries (they mainly include service industries). Each sector of the economy, in turn, is divided into so-called consolidated industries, industries and types of production. Each of the enlarged industries includes homogeneous, but specialized industries in the production of certain types of products.
When referring an enterprise, types of production and services to a particular sector of the economy are taken into account the purpose of the product or services, the type of basic raw materials and materials, the nature of the technological process. In a number of cases, difficulties arise in attributing a particular sector of the economy to a particular industry. This is due to the fact that, as a result of specialization, products of the same purpose are often manufactured using different technologies, from a variety of raw materials, etc. In addition, it happens penetration process techniques and methods from one industry to another. From the same raw materials, products of the most diverse purposes are produced.
29. Sectoral structure of modern industry
Industry is the main, leading branch of material production, in which the predominant part of the gross domestic product and national income is created; its share in the total GDP of developed countries is about 40%.
modern industry consists from many independent branches of production, including a large group of related enterprises and production associations located at a considerable territorial distance from each other.
Sectoral structure of industry characterized by the composition of industries, their quantitative ratios, expressing certain production relationships between them. The sectoral structure of industry is determined by finding the share of industries in the total volume of production, the number of employees and the value of fixed industrial assets.
The main one is indicator of the volume of production: allows you to judge the ratio of industries, their relationships, the dynamics of the sectoral structure of industry.
When determining the sectoral structure of the industry according to employment rate the share of more labor-intensive industries will be overestimated, and the share of industries with a high level of mechanization and automation will be underestimated.
The sectoral structure of industry reflects the level of industrial development of the country and its economic independence, the degree of technical equipment of industry and the leading role of this industry in the economy as a whole. The progressiveness of the structure of industry is judged by the composition and relative weight of the branches included in the industry, by how perfect the intra-branch structure of one or another branch of industry is.
Factors determining changes in the sectoral structure of industry: 1) scientific and technological progress and the degree of implementation of its results in production; 2) the level of social division of labor, the development of specialization and cooperative production; 3) the growth of the material needs of the population; 4) socio-historical conditions in which industry develops; 5) natural resources of the country.
The classification of industries is based next principles: economic purpose of manufactured products; the nature of the functioning of products in the production process; homogeneity of the intended purpose of the products, the commonality of the processed raw materials, the affinity of the technology used; the nature of the impact on the object of labor, etc.: 1) V system of national accounts industry classification is used one of the following signs: homogeneity of the intended purpose of manufactured products (machine-building, fuel, food), the commonality of the feedstock (metalworking and woodworking), the affinity of the technology used (chemical industry). The largest part of industries is covered by the feature designated purpose the products they produce; 2) by the nature of the impact on the object of labor: extractive and manufacturing industries.
30. Dynamics of the sectoral structure of modern industry
The current stage of economic development of the leading countries of the world is characterized by major shifts in the structure of the economy, which leads to the irreversibility of the transition to new intersectoral and reproduction proportions. This was also influenced by such factors as the raw materials and energy crises, which contributed to the rise in the cost of raw materials and energy carriers, and, consequently, equipment and construction. The investment process has become more complicated, and production costs have generally increased significantly. All this not only caused, but also intensified the tendencies towards a rise in the cost of the reproduction process itself.
passing structural adjustment aimed at improving the quality parameters of production and manufactured products, strengthening the resource-saving type of reproduction, intensifying national economic processes, and accelerating the development of the latest science-intensive industries. Structural changes occur in the sectoral and reproductive sections. Structural transformations began to be carried out at the micro level - the level of sub-sectors and types of production - mainly due to qualitative shifts within the traditional sectors of the economy.
Wherein industry remains the leading branch of material production and, above all, mechanical engineering, where scientific and technical achievements are accumulated. Therefore, it is in it that the tendency towards a decrease in the share of raw materials, energy carriers, and human labor is most noticeable; the share of the latest high-tech industries is rapidly growing in the structure of industry.
The share of the extractive industry is declining(with an increase in the cost of exploration, drilling and production of gas, oil, etc.). At the same time, the latest progressive technological processes are increasingly penetrating into it, microprocessors and microcircuits are being introduced, which have a huge impact on the structure of production and contribute to the mass release of labor from the production process.
Integrated automation of production, the development of "unmanned" technology are the leading directions of scientific and technical progress.
In general, in recent decades in industrialized countries, the general pattern of sectoral shifts is a noticeable decrease in the share of primary industries and agriculture, the technical modernization of industry and the rapid growth of service industries. The most radical changes are taking place at the level of sub-sectors, within which high-tech industries have the highest dynamics.
31. Fuel and energy complex, development trends
Branches of the fuel and energy complex (FEC) are capital-intensive industries. In industrialized countries, where all its industries are represented, usually the main capital investments in the range of up to 85% fall on the oil and gas industry and the electric power industry (in approximately equal shares) and up to 15% on oil refining and the coal industry. A significant impact on the investment process in the fuel and energy complex as a whole is exerted by investments in the oil industry.
The cyclic nature of the development of business activity in the oil industry This is due to the fact that decisions to increase investment in the oil industry are made at a time when there is a shortage of oil in the markets, accompanied by rising prices and profits. At this time, there is a revival of the investment process in this industry, and an increase in production begins in about 10 years. There is an excess supply of oil over demand in the oil markets, prices begin to decline, which is also accompanied by a decrease in investment until the excess oil disappears. This period also lasts about 10 years. Over the past 100 years, there have been five such cycles, each lasting from 20 to 22 years, and these cycles did not necessarily coincide with the development cycles of the entire economy.
In the period up to 2010, there will be an increase in oil prices, and investment will pick up.
Investment in development power industry less subject to such cyclical changes. Annual investment in this industry will be (with some fluctuations in one direction or another) within the limits of $100 billion a year.
In the future until 2015, according to experts, the average annual growth rate of electricity generation in the world will be about 2.7%; electricity generation.
In the long term, industrialized countries are expected to see a very modest increase in their own production primary energy resources (PER). As a result, with a steady downward trend in oil production emerging in these countries, the dependence of these countries on the import of PER from third countries will increase.
In the structure of PER consumption for oil, obviously, the first place will remain not only until 2015, but also for many years ahead beyond this period. However, the share of oil in total PER consumption will gradually decrease. Natural gas consumption will grow at a faster pace. By 2015, in the structure of PER consumption, gas will take the second place, coal - the third. The main share will be retained by PER of organic origin (more than 92%).
share electricity NPP, HPP and other energy sources in the total consumption of PER in industrialized countries by 2015 will increase to 7.4% compared to 6.5% in 1990. At the same time, the growth rate of nuclear power use will not exceed 0.9–1% per year , while from hydroelectric power and renewable energy will exceed 3% per year.
32. Agro-industrial complex and its development trends
Agro-industrial complex (AIC)- this is a fairly general concept, which means a unified system of agricultural and industrial enterprises and industries that has developed in social production, united by integration (close, long-term) industrial and commercial ties based on property or contractual relations (contracts) and covering the entire agro-industrial chain: production important means of production for agriculture, their transportation, production of agricultural inputs, their storage, transportation, processing and marketing of finished products or products.
The agro-industrial complex is divided into three areas:
1) industries supplying the means of production for agriculture and related industries, as well as providing production and technical services to agriculture;
2) agriculture proper;
3) industries engaged in processing and bringing agricultural products to the consumer (harvesting, processing, storage, transportation, sale).
A number of industries entirely (or almost entirely) serve the needs of the agro-industrial complex (production of agricultural machinery, fertilizers, equipment for animal husbandry and fodder production, etc.). Other sectors are only partially occupied with meeting the needs of the agro-industrial complex. They are included in the functional structure of the agro-industrial complex only to the extent that their products are used for the needs of the agro-industrial complex.
The formation of the agro-industrial complex- a new stage in the development of social production, based on the development of the productive forces of agriculture, the "industrial revolution" in agriculture, which in this sense, as it were, caught up with industry. However, this does not mean that the technical and technological level of millions of peasant farms has reached the level that exists in industry. Unfortunately, in the world, and especially in developing countries, tools and implements are still widespread, which came in our time from the depths of centuries and do not correspond to modern industrial productive forces. But mankind has created new material means of production for agriculture, close in their parameters (productivity, energy intensity, saving living labor, etc.) to the means of production of industry, the technological level of world agriculture has approached the technological level of industry. In developed countries, they already predominate in agriculture, in the developing world they spread in enclaves, islands, covering agriculture in the most economically and socially developed regions and countries.
33. Features of the development of the agro-industrial complex in various groups of countries
The main direction of international agro-industrial integration in the current conditions is solution to the biggest global problem of our time- problems of meeting the growing needs of the world's population in food products.
The process of developing agro-industrial integration and the formation of the agro-industrial complex has advanced far in industrialized countries, primarily in the USA.
To an immeasurably lesser extent, this process is observed in developing world, where, along with the general tendencies and forms of its manifestation, specific features and forms appear associated with the significant lag in the agro-industrial sphere of the liberated countries and their economic dependence on the West.
In most developing countries, TNCs play an important role in this, acting as integrators. This is due to many factors, including the fact that, by creating their processing enterprises in developing countries, TNCs bring with them the forms and methods of activity that have developed in their home countries.
Factor of intensification of agricultural production in recent decades, continued to be decisive in terms of the scale of gross grain production in the group of industrialized countries. Grain farms, like agriculture in general, have essentially become an integral part of the agro-industrial complex, in which direct agricultural production is closely combined with the processing, storage and final sale of products, as well as with the provision of the farm with the means of production. The intensive path of development of grain production in the world will continue to prevail, since only this path can lead to mitigation of the crisis in the supply of food to the ever-growing population of the planet.
Many developing countries have retained archaic forms of agriculture and land use, delayed progressive agrarian reforms. Crop production in many of them, especially in Africa, remains highly dependent on weather conditions. The development of grain production in the group of developing countries is becoming increasingly dependent on the intensive factor, large capital investments in agriculture, infrastructure, related industries, as well as on large-scale land reclamation.
With a significant increase in gross grain production in general, industrialized countries and developing countries continue to deepen disproportion in grain farming: a growing and divergent gap between production and consumption in each of these groups of countries.
In industrialized countries there is a concentration of "surpluses" of grain, since production exceeded the consumption of grain. In developing countries, on the contrary, due to the growing food needs, the shortage of grain increased, the average per capita production increased slightly here, and continued to decline in a number of regions.
34. Transport in the global economy. Automobile transport
Transport complex- one of the main branches of material production, carrying out the transportation of passengers and goods. Based on the difference in functions, transport is divided into passenger and freight. It forms the basis of the domestic and international division of labor.
All means of communication, transport enterprises and vehicles together form world transport system within which individual modes of transport, countries and regions interact.
Transport systems developed countries make up 78% of the total length of the world transport network, 74% of the world freight turnover; the density of the transport network is 50–60 km per 100 km 2 of the territory; It is characterized by a high technical level, close interaction of all types of transport, a complex configuration of the transport network, and high "mobility" of the population.
Transport systems developing countries make up 22% of the total length of the world transport network, 26% of the world freight turnover; transport network density - 5–10 km per 100 km2 of territory; characterized by a low technical level, the predominance of one or two types of (railway, pipeline) transport, the predominance of transport lines connecting the main center (port, capital) with areas of export specialization, low "mobility" of the population.
most developed are the transport systems of North America and Western Europe. North America ranks first in terms of the total length of roads (30% of all world communications) and in terms of cargo turnover of the main modes of transport. Western Europe leads in terms of network density and frequency of traffic, although it is much inferior to North America in terms of transportation distance. In North America, in Western Europe, the leading role belongs to road, pipeline and air transport.
Types of transport are grouped as follows: land (land and pipeline), water (sea and river) and air.
In terms of the structure of world cargo and passenger turnover, automobile transport, which accounts for 8% of freight turnover and 80% of passenger turnover of the total world volume (railway - 16% of freight turnover and 11% of passenger turnover, pipeline - 11% of freight turnover, sea - 62% of freight turnover and 1% of passenger turnover, river - 3% of freight turnover and 1% of passenger turnover, for air - less than 1% of cargo turnover and 8% of passenger turnover).
Road transport is the most expensive mode of transport, which has great maneuverability, speed and the ability to deliver goods directly to consumers. The total length of roads is 24 million km (70% of the total length of all communications). The world road density is 180 km per 100 km 2 of territory.
The largest length of roads in the USA, India, Japan, China, Russia, France; the densest road network in Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain; the highest level of motorization in the United States (600 cars per 1000 inhabitants). It also has the highest turnover of road transport.
35. Other modes of transport in the global economy
Railway transport provides transportation of goods and passengers over long distances. The greatest length of railways is in the USA, Canada, Russia, India, and China. Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, and the Czech Republic have the most dense network of railways. Russia, USA, China, Canada, Poland are leaders in cargo turnover.
In developed countries, there is a tendency to reduce the railway network, in developing countries - to expand.
Pipeline transport. The United States leads in the length of oil and gas pipelines. Russia and Canada have the longest pipelines. The world's largest main pipelines have been laid in Russia (Druzhba, Soyuz, Progress, Radiance of the North).
Sea transport- an important part of the global transport system, performing intercontinental transportation. Sea transport provides 98% of foreign trade transportation of Japan and Great Britain, 90% of all foreign trade transportation of the USA and CIS countries. Sea transport has the lowest cost.
The following countries are leading in terms of the tonnage of the marine fleet: Liberia, Panama, Japan, Norway, USA, Greece, Cyprus, Russia. The tonnage of the maritime fleet of developing countries is growing. This is due to the provision of so-called cheap flags: the use of courts and cheap labor by enterprises in developed countries.
Seaports are an important part of the transport system: universal (typical for developed countries) and specialized (typical for developing countries).
River transport most developed in the USA, China, Russia, Germany, Canada, the Netherlands, France. These countries are leaders in terms of cargo turnover of river transport.
An important role is played by international river basins: the Danube (combining 12 countries), the Nile, the Congo, the Niger (9 countries each), the Rhine, the Amazon, the Zambezi (7 countries each).
Many river basins (the Volga, the Ob, the Lena, the Yangtze, the Yenisei, the Amazon, the Mississippi, and others) have a much greater carrying capacity than the major railroads.
Air Transport, the youngest and most dynamic, provides transportation of passengers and goods over long distances. The largest passenger turnover is noted in the USA, Russia, Japan, Great Britain, Canada, France, Germany.
The largest airports in the world are located in Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Atlanta, London. There are 34 major airports in the world, half of which are in the US and 8 in Europe.
The financing of the transport complex in industrialized countries is traditionally one of the priority functions of the state, because transport, along with energy and communications, is the most important base for the normal operation of production and the social environment in the state.
Under the influence of scientific and technical progress, the role of fixed assets of the transport complex has changed significantly. In this regard, investments are mainly directed to ensure the intensive development of transport.
36. Perspective trends in the development of transport
In the long term, market economies are expected to further development of scientific and technical progress in transport. The structure of the communication network will undergo significant changes.
The length of inactive and unprofitable railway lines and sections will be reduced. At the same time, it is planned to build a number of new, mainly high-speed, lines. The development of work on the electrification of railways is expected.
Length automotive paved roads will increase. The focus will be on improving the existing network.
The number will increase airports(mainly cargo) and the length of domestic airlines.
In the US, the length will increase pipelines, in the first place - gas and oil pipelines.
Both in the USA and in Western European countries in the domestic water transport hydrotechnical works, reconstruction of ports are coming. In maritime transport, it is planned to modernize ports.
Significant changes are coming in the vehicle fleet. Their number will increase somewhat and the proportion of progressive types of traction will increase noticeably. The share of specialized rolling stock, its carrying capacity and specific power will increase.
In the field of interaction between different modes of transport existing means will be improved and new means will be created for non-transshipment door-to-door communications, not only general, but also a significant part of bulk cargo will be containerized, automated information systems of different modes of transport will be combined, integrated systems of different modes of transport, integrated stations and reloading stations will be built. improved terminals, etc.
STP in transport will allow significantly improve its economic performance, improve the quality of customer service and traffic safety. In transport, the following are planned: widespread use of marketing, study of demand, introduction of accounting for needs, application of modeling, etc. It is expected that the Raillink computer system (which currently connects railways, customers and banks) or another similar system will be implemented throughout the network of communications, which will make it possible to include transport in the network of commercial exchanges.
Work will continue to ensure the compatibility of information systems in order to link national computer networks.
37. The main types of states in the world economy. Developed countries with market economies. Countries with economies in transition
In international practice, all countries of the world are divided into three main groups: developed countries with market economies, countries with economies in transition and developing countries. This grouping was chosen for ease of analysis in the ECOSOC (United Nations Economic and Social Council) and is now being revised, especially in light of recent dramatic geopolitical changes.
Group of developed countries with market economies includes 23 countries. It is further subdivided for purposes of analysis into overlapping classification subgroups of the largest industrialized countries, which include the seven countries with the largest gross domestic product (GDP) in the group of developed market economies (MDEMs). These are Germany, Italy, Canada, Great Britain, USA, France and Japan; European Union - EU (Belgium, Germany, Greece, Denmark, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, UK, France, Sweden, Finland and Austria); European Free Trade Association (EFTA): Austria, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden; Benelux (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg); North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA): USA, Canada, Mexico.
Group of countries with economies in transition subdivided into the countries of Eastern Europe, which include: Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Czech Republic, Slovakia and new states that emerged after the collapse of the USSR: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Armenia, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, as well as new countries that emerged after the collapse of Yugoslavia.
Since the beginning of the 1990s, practically all countries of this group have been carrying out economic reforms aimed at ensuring the sustainable development of the national economy through internal and external macroeconomic stabilization, the creation of competitive market relations and the corresponding price reform, the restructuring of production and enterprises on the basis of a clear legislative defining property rights - public and private, limiting the dominance of monopolies and state interference in the activities of economic entities of a market economy, expanding and deepening international economic integration.
Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary achieved the greatest success in carrying out economic reforms in this group of countries. After three years of crisis in the economy at the beginning of the reforms (1991-1993), the situation began to stabilize in 1994, and already in 1995-1996. national income in these countries increased annually by an average of 6%. Since 1995, economic growth has also begun in other countries of Eastern Europe - Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia.
38. Developing countries. Least Developed Countries
Developing countries usually grouped by region based on their geographic location. For the purposes of the analysis, countries with an active balance of payments and capital-importing countries are also singled out separately. The latter, in turn, are divided into countries-exporters and countries-importers of energy resources. A country is considered an energy exporter if it simultaneously satisfies the following two criteria:
1) its production of primary energy resources (including coal, lignite, crude oil, natural gas, hydropower and nuclear power) exceeds its own consumption by at least 20%;
2) energy exports account for at least 20% of total exports. Among developing energy-importing countries, countries with a recent balance of payments surplus stand out, which include four Asian countries that are considered the first generation of successful exporters of manufactured goods (Hong Kong, Republic of Korea, Singapore and Taiwan).
Among developing countries in modern conditions there is a process of further economic differentiation. At present they are at least at three different levels of economic development. The most industrialized developing countries formed a group "new industrialized countries" (NIS). These include Argentina, Brazil, Hong Kong, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Singapore, Taiwan, and Turkey.
intermediate group formed countries that lagged significantly behind the NIS both in terms of total production volumes and in per capita production of goods and services. This group, in particular the countries of the Middle East, is characterized by a great differentiation of sectoral structures, social strata of the population and their position in society.
To the group "least developed countries" includes about 50 developing countries. As a rule, they have a narrow, even monocultural structure of the economy, a high degree of dependence on external sources of financing for activities in the socio-economic sphere. The UN uses three criteria to classify countries in this group: the share of gross domestic product (GDP) per capita does not exceed $350; the proportion of the adult population who can read is no more than 20%; manufacturing industry in GDP is no more than 10%. This group includes 8 countries in Asia, 28 in Africa, 5 in Latin America and Oceania, etc.
39. Indicators characterizing the economic potential of the country
A diverse combination of production factors and development conditions in different countries does not allow assessing the level of economic development from any one point of view. For this use a range of key indicators. one. GDP/GNP or ND per capita. 2. Sectoral structure of the national economy. 3. Production of main types of products per capita (the level of development of individual industries). 4. The level and quality of life of the population. 5. Indicators of economic efficiency.
It should be emphasized that the level of economic development of the country is a historical concept. Each stage of development of the national economy and the entire world community as a whole introduces certain changes in the composition of its main indicators.
The leading indicators in the analysis of the level of economic development are indicators GDP/GNP per capita. They form the basis of international classifications that divide countries into developed and developing countries. For example, developed countries in 2000 included countries with a per capita GDP of more than $9,000 per year (high-income countries).
In some developing countries (Saudi Arabia), GDP per capita is at a high level, corresponding to developed industrial countries, however, according to the totality of other indicators (sectoral structure of the economy, production of basic products per capita, etc.), such countries cannot be classified as developed.
Another indicator is sectoral structure of the economy. Its analysis is carried out on the basis of GDP calculated by industry. First of all, the ratio between the large national economic sectors of material and non-material production (according to the share of the manufacturing industry in the country's economy) is taken into account.
characterize the level of economic development of the country and indicators of production of some main types of products, which are basic for the development of the national economy; they make it possible to judge the possibilities of meeting the needs of the country in these basic types of products.
First of all, such indicators include the production of electricity per capita. The electric power industry underlies the development of all types of industries, and therefore, this indicator hides the possibilities of technical progress, the achieved level of production and quality of goods, and the level of services, etc. The ratio of this indicator between developed countries and least developed countries is currently 500:1, and sometimes more.
The statistics also single out steel smelting and the production of rolled products, metal-cutting machine tools, automobiles, mineral fertilizers, chemical fibers, paper, and a number of other goods.
Close to those indicated are the indicators of the availability (or production in the country) per 1000 people of the population or per average family of a number of durable goods: refrigerators, washing machines, televisions, cars, video equipment, personal computers, etc.
40. Standard of living of the population
The standard of living of the population of the country largely characterized by the structure of GDP by use. Particularly important is the analysis of the structure of private final consumption (personal consumer spending). A large share in the consumption of durable goods and services indicates a higher standard of living of the population and, consequently, a higher overall level of economic development of the country.
An analysis of the standard of living of the population is usually accompanied by an analysis of two interrelated indicators: "consumer basket" and "living wage".
The standard of living is also assessed by indicators:
a) the state of the labor force(average life expectancy, level of education of the population, per capita consumption of basic foodstuffs in calories, in protein content, skill level of labor resources, number of pupils and students per 10,000 population, share of expenditures on education in GDP);
b) development of the service sector(the number of doctors per 10 thousand people, the number of hospital beds per 1 thousand people, the provision of the population with housing, household appliances, etc.).
Economic efficiency indicators characterize the level of economic development, as they show the quality, condition and level of use of the country's fixed and circulating capital, labor resources.
Among them are:
1) labor productivity (in general, for industry and agriculture, for individual industries and types of production);
2) the capital intensity of a unit of GDP or a specific type of product;
3) return on assets of a unit of fixed assets;
4) material consumption per unit of GDP or specific types of products.
An important condition in the analysis of this group of indicators is the need to consider their relationship with each other. Thus, high labor productivity can be achieved at the cost of excessive intensification of labor or huge capital expenditures and material resources.
Despite all attempts to formulate an aggregate indicator of the effectiveness of the functioning of the national economy, which would also reflect the level of economic development of the country, such an indicator has not been created due to numerous difficulties in bringing together cost and natural values, the costs of skilled and unskilled labor, etc. However, there is a general approach is to construct an indicator that allows you to correlate the total results of the company's labor for the reporting year (GDP / GNP, NI) with the total costs of all factors of production, reduced to the same reporting year.
The higher the level of the country's economic development, the more active and diverse the forms of its foreign economic relations. Consequently, a country's participation in international economic relations may partly reflect the level of its economic development.
41. International economic integration
International economic integration- this is a process of economic and political unification of countries based on the development of deep stable relationships and division of labor between national economies, the interaction of their reproductive structures at various levels and in various forms. On the microlevel this process goes through the interaction of the capital of individual economic entities (enterprises, firms) of neighboring countries through the formation of a system of economic agreements between them, the creation of branches abroad. On the interstate level integration occurs on the basis of the formation of economic associations of states and the harmonization of national policies.
The development of intercompany relations gives rise to the need for interstate (sometimes supranational) regulation aimed at ensuring the free movement of goods, services, capital and labor between countries within a given region, at coordinating and conducting joint economic, scientific, technical, financial and monetary, social, external and defense policy. As a result, the creation integral regional economic complexes with a single currency, infrastructure, common economic proportions, financial funds, common supranational or interstate governments.
The simplest form of economic integration is free trade Area, within the framework of which trade restrictions between the participating countries and, above all, customs duties are abolished.
Another form is Customs Union: along with the functioning of the free trade zone, a single foreign trade tariff and the implementation of a single foreign trade policy in relation to third countries are established.
In both cases, interstate relations concern only the sphere of exchange in order to provide the participating countries with equal opportunities in the development of mutual trade and financial settlements.
More complex form Common Market, providing its participants, along with free mutual trade and a common external tariff, freedom of movement of capital and labor, as well as the coordination of economic policy.
But the most complex form of interstate economic integration is economic (and monetary) union, combining all the above forms with the implementation of a common economic and monetary policy.
Economic integration provides conditions for interacting parties: 1) economic entities (commodity producers) get wider access to resources: financial, material, labor, to the latest technologies throughout the region, as well as the ability to produce products based on the capacious market of the entire integration group; 2) privileged conditions are created for firms of countries participating in economic integration, they are protected from competition from firms of third countries; 3) integration participants jointly solve the most acute social problems: leveling the conditions for the development of backward areas, easing the situation on the labor market, providing social guarantees, etc.
42. The EU and the socio-economic development of countries
Until November 1, 1993, the leading integration grouping of Western European countries was officially called the European Community (EC). It appeared after the merger in 1967 of the bodies of three previously independent regional organizations: the European Coal and Steel Community - ECSC (1952), the European Economic Community - EEC (1958); European Atomic Energy Community - Euratom (1958).
On February 7, 1992, the Maastricht Treaty was signed in the Dutch city of Maastricht, which provided for a gradual transition from the already established single market to a full economic and monetary union (EMU), the creation of the European Central Bank (ECB) and the replacement of national banknotes with the single euro currency, the establishment citizenship of the European Union. WITH November 1, 1993 after the entry into force of the Maastricht agreements, the European group received the official name European Union (EU). Within the framework of the EU, a common policy is implemented in the field of diplomacy, justice, police, and defense.
At the end of March 1998, the European Commission announced the final composition of the Economic and Monetary Union - it included 11 EU states (with the exception of Great Britain, Sweden, Denmark and Greece). On January 1, 1999, the management of monetary policy in these countries passed to the European Central Bank (ECB), located in Frankfurt am Main (Germany).
Since January 1, 2002 euro entered circulation and replaced the national currency.
Currently full members of the EU are 15 countries: Austria, Belgium, UK, Germany, Greece, Denmark, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Finland, France, Sweden. The strategic plans of the EU provide for the expansion of its membership in the next 10-15 years to 30 countries. These plans are embodied in the EU integration activities. Already since 1998, the EU Commission (CEC) has been negotiating with officially recognized candidates for EU accession - these are 8 states belonging to the "first stage candidates" (Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Estonia, Cyprus, Malta, Turkey), and 5 states - "candidates of the second stage" (Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria).
A single legal space has been formed within the EU.
In the field of foreign trade and agricultural policy, trade and civil law (freedom of competition, monopolies and cartels), tax law (convergence of income tax systems; turnover tax and direct contributions to the EU budget), European Union legislation supersedes national laws.
Conducted jointly structural policy(industry and regional). Supranational regulation is applicable to the least competitive industries and backward regions.
The greatest successes have been achieved in pursuing a joint agrarian policy. Its financing represents the largest expenditure item in the Union's budget. The basis of the common agrarian policy is the subsidization of domestic and export prices. As a result, the EU has become the world's second largest agricultural exporter after the US.
43. Regional integration in the North American region
In January 1989 came into force US-Canadian Free Trade Agreement. As a result, a free trade zone was created, covering bilateral trade of almost $200 billion a year. At the same time, both sides reserved the right to impose their own import restrictions on trade with third countries.
In June 1991, at the initiative of Mexico, negotiations began between this country, the United States and Canada, culminating in the signing on December 17, 1992 of an agreement on the creation North American Free Trade Association (NAFTA), entered into force on January 1, 1994. Key elements of the agreement:
Elimination of all customs duties in mutual trade until 2001;
Gradual elimination of a significant number of non-tariff barriers in mutual trade in goods and services;
Relaxation of the regime for US-Canadian investment in Mexico;
Liberalization of conditions for the activities of US and Canadian banks in the Mexican market;
Creation of the US-Canadian Arbitration Commission.
In contrast to the Western European integration model, NAFTA does not have tools for coordinating economic policy and operating supranational institutions; significant differences persist in the levels of economic development of states. Unlike the EU, which provides financial assistance to less developed countries and regions from joint budgetary funds, NAFTA does not provide such support to Mexico.
According to experts, participation in NAFTA will allow Mexico to shorten the period of reforming its economy and reaching the level of developed countries from 50 to 10-15 years. Mexico's biggest beneficiary of joining NAFTA is a surge in foreign capital inflows, primarily from the United States. In terms of foreign direct investment, which is of paramount importance for the development of production, by the beginning of the XXI century. Mexico ranked first among Latin American countries.
However, US business circles have high hopes for NAFTA, due to the significant expansion of US exports and the resulting increase in the number of jobs. The transfer of labor-intensive, material-intensive and environmentally expensive industries from the United States to Mexico allows to reduce the level of production costs and increase the competitiveness of many products of the American industry. In the long term, with the help of participation in NAFTA, American TNCs expect to expand their economic participation in Latin America, and Canada - to expand sales markets, reduce production costs and increase the profitability of new high-tech industries (computers, telecommunications, etc.). In addition, the formation of a liberalized market space on a continental scale stimulates the inflow of direct and portfolio investment into Canada from third countries, mainly from Japan and EU member countries.
44. Integration processes in Southeast Asia and the Asia-Pacific region
In the Asia-Pacific region, the most significant integration associations are ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and APEC.
ASEAN was established in 1967 after the signing of the Bangkok Declaration; it includes Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines (currently Myanmar, Brunei, Laos and Vietnam are also members of ASEAN). The purpose of the creation of this association is to promote the social and economic development of the member countries of the Association, cooperation in industry and agriculture, and conduct scientific research.
Economic crisis of 1997–1998 left an imprint on the development of the ASEAN member countries. In December 1998, the main ASEAN member countries at a conference in Vietnam discussed and outlined several ways out of the crisis: 1) financial assistance from Japan (in the amount of $ 30 billion from the Structural Reform Assistance Fund organized by Japan for these purposes). In reality, only Malaysia and Thailand were able to use it, having received $1.85 billion each; 2) the introduction of a collective currency of the ASEAN member countries, control over the migration of capital and strengthening the state regulation of national economies in general. However, this path has not yet received universal approval, but is not removed from the agenda for the future development of the region.
In November 1989, the first conference of ministers of foreign affairs and trade took place in the Asia-Pacific Region, which established a new integration economic grouping - Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, uniting 18 states of the region (Australia, Brunei, Hong Kong, Canada, China, Kiribati, Malaysia, Marshall Islands, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, South Korea, Singapore, USA, Thailand, Taiwan, Philippines, Chile), then to these states were joined by Vietnam, Peru and Russia.
Thus, APEC includes countries - members of NAFTA, ASEAN, the Australian-New Zealand Free Trade Area (ANSERT).
From the very beginning, APEC was given a consultative status, i.e. all decisions are made by consensus. However, in fact, within the framework of its working bodies, regional rules for conducting trade, investment and financial activities are developed, meetings of sectoral ministers and experts on cooperation in various fields are held. Such bodies are committees on trade and investment, industrial research and technology, telecommunications, transport, human resources development, energy cooperation, etc.
At a meeting of heads of government in 1994 (Indonesia), it was decided to create a free trade zone and liberalize the investment sphere by 2020 (for developed countries - until 2010), reduce barriers to trade in goods and services in accordance with the principles of the WTO .
APEC is superior to other regions of the world: it (together with the NAFTA countries) accounts for 40% of the world's population, about 60% of the gross world product and investment, and more than 40% of world exports.
45. Place and role of Russia in the internationalization of economic life
The place and role of any country in the world economy, MRI and in the internationalization of economic life depend on the following factors: the level and dynamics of the development of the national economy, the degree of its openness and involvement in MRI, the progressiveness and development of foreign economic relations (FER), the ability of the national economy to adapt to the conditions of international economic life and at the same time influence them in desired direction.
The inclusion of Russia in the MRT and world economic relations will ultimately depend, firstly, on the improvement of the country's economy on the path of its structural reorganization and transition to market economic conditions, and secondly, on the creation of effective legislative, organizational, material and technical prerequisites for this.
The key to creating a viable transition economy in Russia is its openness. In an open economy, world market prices directly and indirectly determine the prices of domestic products and do this much more efficiently than any government agency. In this case, Russian producers have only one main way to prosper - improving the quality and competitiveness of products, expanding their production while reducing costs. The transition to an open economy is a purposeful process, carried out in stages, so that external competition does not turn into a force that destroys the Russian economy instead of a creative factor.
The formation of prices for products in the Russian economy in transition under the influence of the world market brings to the fore mechanism for assessing the main factors of production– natural resources, capital and labor. At the same time, however, the estimates will deviate from the criteria of the world market, since a collision with the world market will reveal their uncompetitiveness and unprofitability.
Hence the task of the state is the centralized redistribution of financial resources, aimed at creating conditions that ensure the survival of the domestic economy in the face of its ever greater openness. Required economic revaluation and economic protection of all public resources- land, natural resources, funds, stocks of raw materials, materials, finished products. The main asset of Russia in the transitional period is its natural resources. They require rational use, evaluation in accordance with the criteria of the world market.
Demography studies the size, territorial distribution and composition of the population, the patterns of their changes based on social, economic, biological and geographical factors, causes and conditions.
home task demography as a science - the identification and knowledge of demographic laws, patterns, relationships. Among practical tasks There are three main demographics:
1) based on the collection and demographic analysis of information, the study of trends and factors of demographic processes;
2) development of demographic forecasts;
3) development of measures for demographic statistics.
Demography uses various research methods, including the descriptive method, statistical and mathematical methods of analysis, abstract analytical method, comparative method, analysis and synthesis, generalization, methods of induction and deduction, the method of putting forward hypotheses and testing them, extrapolation and modeling, sociological methods studies of demographic behavior, cartographic methods, etc. At the same time, statistical and mathematical methods of analysis occupy the main place in demography.
Among the actual demographic methods most commonly used in demographic scientific and practical work are the cohort method, longitudinal and transverse demographic analysis, the potential demographic method, methods for standardizing demographic coefficients, etc.
Demographic models are widely used in scientific and practical work; demographic forecasting (especially often carried out by the method of shifting by age) is usually an integral part of most work with demographic plots.
Modern demography is a complex science of population (population), or more precisely, it is a whole system of interacting sciences that jointly study the reproduction of the population and individual demographic processes. The internal differentiation of demographics is gradually becoming more complex. Three main criteria are distinguished, on the basis of which internal differentiation in demography is substantiated; at the same time, the selection of subdisciplines and sections within demography is based on the joint application of all these criteria. Among them:
1) theoretical level of scientific interpretation of observed phenomena;
2) objective-subjective criterion;
3) connection with practice, the degree of focus on solving practical, applied problems.
In demography, as in other sciences, there is a process specializations. Among the branches of demography, for example, demographic statistics, descriptive demography, formal demography, theoretical demography, historical demography, economic demography, social demography and a number of other sections are distinguished.
There are several areas of work in demography: demographic theory, collection of primary data on the population and demographic processes, description of demographic processes, pure - or formal - demography (considers the quantitative correlations of demographic phenomena, processes, structures, changes in the size and composition of the population under their influence), demographic analysis, historical demography, etc. As a result, seven main components in the system of demographic sciences can be distinguished:
1) theoretical demography, history of demography, descriptive demography, economic demography, modeling of socio-demographic processes, i.e. a kind of theoretical foundation of science;
2) sectoral demographic sciences: medical demography, ethnic demography, military demography, political demography, etc.;
3) sources of information and methods: sources of data on the population, methods - statistical, mathematical, sociological, cartographic, etc.;
4) regional demography;
5) applied demographic research;
6) socio-demographic forecasting;
7) theoretical foundations of demographic policy.
Demography has close relationships with other sciences. Demographics interact especially closely:
1) with socio-economic and historical sciences that study population economics, sociology, social psychology, social and migration policy, population geography, ethnography, etc.;
2) mathematics and statistics (formal demography and statistical demography);
3) biological sciences: population genetics, evolutionary biology, epidemiology, biological prediction of population development, etc. Demography uses methods and draws on the facts established by these sciences. In turn, other sciences use demographic data to better understand their subject of study.
The closest is the connection of demography with history, since it is the consideration of reproduction as a historical process that makes it possible to reveal its social conditioning, dependence on specific socio-economic processes of a particular period of development of society. With the help of ethnography, demography reveals the impact on the processes of reproduction of the population of the characteristics of the culture and life of different peoples. Of the economic sciences, those most closely related to demography are those that study employment and relations in the sphere of distribution. Of the sociological sciences, the closest to demography is the sociology of the family. Social psychology helps demography understand the patterns of demographic behavior. Since such behavior is also regulated by legal norms, there are areas in demography related to jurisprudence. Demographic processes usually have significant regional differentiation, and also depend on the types of settlements and settlements. Therefore, demography draws on information and methods of population geography.
Statistical and mathematical methods are extremely important in demography. It is with their help that most of the data on the population is collected, and then these data are checked and corrected (errors are identified, standardization is carried out, etc.). It is no coincidence that demographics first appeared as part of statistics. The main part of the data is provided by demography, population statistics and medical statistics.
Many demographic processes are based on a biological component. This explains the use in demography of the methods and results of research in genetics, human physiology, psychology, gerontology, anthropology, and other biological sciences. The state of people's health, the impact of working and living conditions on morbidity and mortality is studied by the science of social hygiene, which is also associated, therefore, with demography.
2nd floor 20th century - discussion of the problems of the foundations and prerequisites of scientific knowledge made it possible to expand the problems of the structure of scientific knowledge - the metatheoretical foundations of science, which are implicit. Polanyi is the concept of implicit background knowledge.
As the foundations of science - various forms of axiological and worldview structures.
FUNCTIONS - 1) set strategic orientations for scientific knowledge,
2) largely ensure the inclusion of its results in the culture of the corresponding historical era.
BASIC FORMS of metatheoretical foundations of science:
· outlook
Philosophical principles, paradigms and categories;
general scientific methodological regulations,
a scientific picture of the world,
different models of science development,
style of scientific thinking, etc.
The ideological function of philosophy is considered one of the most important. It manifests the ability of philosophy to act as the basis of a worldview, which is, at the theoretical level, a holistic, stable system of views about the world and the laws of its existence, about the phenomena and processes of nature and society that are important for maintaining the life of society and man. The worldview of the individual acts as a set of feelings, knowledge and beliefs. A special role in the worldview of a human scientist is played by ideas about the principles that determine his attitude to the world, society and himself. The ideological attitudes of the scientist are of particular importance in the study of social and humanitarian processes. This can be clearly seen in the example of the economy.
Philosophical problems of economics are currently becoming particularly relevant, because. in the modern world, global changes are taking place in the field of the world economy, geopolitics and the socio-spiritual life of people.
The economic sphere is a complex multifaceted system. It is part of the wider system of society as a whole. The economy is an objective reality with which we constantly deal in everyday life, it is an indispensable attribute of our being. As Hegel noted, it is the economy that is the foundation of civil society. Various aspects of economic life are studied by many sciences. Among them, an important place is occupied by economic theory, economic psychology, and the philosophy of economics.
Features of socio-economic knowledge:
1. The complexity of the object - the diversity and dynamism of economic phenomena
2. Coincidence of object and subject in cognition (is objectivity possible?)
3. The influence of the personal subjective factor in cognition (experience, etc.)
4. Situational economy. knowledge
5. Limitation of the experiment as a method
The ideological factors of the researcher, therefore, play an important role in the study of eq. Processes. Philosophy has a decisive influence on the formation of the worldview foundations of a scientist's thinking.
The philosophy of economics is aimed at comprehending the foundations of economic life, relying on philosophical categories and principles, it reveals the essential aspects of economic phenomena and processes.
The philosophy of economics is a field of knowledge that has found itself in a difficult position in the modern world. Having become pragmatic, technological - in accordance with the spirit of the times - economic science claims the status of an exact discipline, which, in fact, is not. There is a noticeable narrowing of its subject field, at a time when, on the contrary, at the modern turning point in history, a broader humanitarian view of the economy as a cultural phenomenon is needed. Today, a discussion of the economic problems of society in intensive interaction with philosophical and cultural approaches is required.
The philosophical point of view involves revealing the essence of human behavior and activity in the economic sphere.
The intensification of scientific efforts in the interpretation and solution of economic issues is especially noticeable within the framework of social philosophy. The philosophy of economics is engaged in the study of general deep processes in the economy, this analysis is carried out on the basis of the achievements of philosophy.
Firstly, we are talking about the philosophical epistemological interpretation of economic knowledge - this is the desire to identify and describe the actual structures of economic knowledge and their adequacy to objective realities.
Secondly, philosophy acts as a methodological basis for considering economic problems. Of fundamental importance here is the knowledge of the laws and categories of dialectics, as well as the use of forms and methods of cognition developed by modern philosophy.
Thirdly, we are talking about the philosophical worldview interpretation of economic knowledge - this is the desire to identify and describe the actually existing structures of economic knowledge and their adequacy to the value orientations of a specific historical time.
These methods, being applicable in combination with other methods, can help economists in solving complex theoretical and fundamental problems. There is not a single economic theory, the formation of which would have done without the use of philosophical ideas about causality, space, time, etc. Without worldview concepts and principles, the progress of economic science is impossible.
However, the philosophical methodology of economic research is limited not only by dialectical materialistic approaches, it also has methodological ideas, value-based and cultural orientation (M. Weber), and ethical aspects.
In economics, there are strategies of two research programs - naturalistic and anti-naturalistic. Already in the very construction of an economic theory or an economic mathematical model, it should be taken into account that the economy deals with the phenomena of everyday experience. This should broaden its empirical base. Next comes the stage of theoretical research, where dependencies and concepts known from everyday experience appear. And only after that a more difficult stage begins - the proof of the possibility of using this theory to predict real processes in the economy and its applications.
In the main opposing approaches - spontaneous or regulated economy - one can find orientations towards both naturalism and cultural centrism. It is quite obvious that the concept of spontaneous economic activity creates more prerequisites for substantiating the natural nature of the economic process and applying positivist approaches to its analysis, as well as mathematical models and methods. One can note the influence of G. Spencer on V. Pareto, who proposed the idea of economic equilibrium. The idea of economic equilibrium was supported by a number of other researchers who turned to the analysis of business cycles. This created opportunities for mathematical modeling in the economy (P. Samuelson, V. Leontiev).
Along with these concepts, among the theories of unmanaged economy received distribution of marginalism coming from the subjective theory of values and psychologism. Marginalists (F. Wieser, E. Böhm-Beverk and others) replaced the labor theory of value of classical bourgeois political economy, which, from their point of view, does not correspond to the most optimal modes of operation of the economic system, with the theory of marginal utility and productivity, designed to rationalize the subjective aspirations of trading partners and any other agents of economic relations. They assumed that the entrepreneur seeks to maximize his income, and the buyer - to acquire the most useful thing. These motives of the agents of economic relations seemed so obvious to the marginalists that their identification did not require any analysis. Therefore, in these subjectivist concepts, the method of understanding is not used in any developed form.
In view of the abstract interpretation of the interests of individuals, as always, unchanged, marginalists remain within the framework of a naturalistic research program. Since the human factor is always, one way or another, taken into account by social science, those economic concepts that proceed from the historically and psychologically variable nature of the subject's participation in the process under consideration should be classified as cultural-centric. In this case, it becomes necessary to understand the motives, to identify the historical context of the activity.
However, the above condition for classifying concepts as cultural-centric is necessary, but not sufficient. Thus, in the theories that allow state intervention in the economy, the role of a person, by the very essence of these concepts, is presented to a greater extent. But even here there are naturalistic tendencies. For example, John. Keynes is looking for an explanation of the unevenness of the economic process in the variability of the psychological motives of the entrepreneur and the buyer. And yet, with all this variability, he finds a “basic psychological law”: people increase their consumption with income growth, but not in direct proportion to income growth. Therefore, demand depends not so much on solvency as on the psychological propensity to consume and save, the ratio of which is a variable. Keynes's economic concept is aimed at eliminating this volatility through measures of state-monopoly regulation (tax, inflationary policy, subsidizing entrepreneurs from the state budget, etc.). In the course of state intervention, the economy undergoes a kind of naturalization by maintaining the proper quantitative ratios of a constant set of factors that affect reproduction.
Along with this naturalistic, albeit artificially constructed, economic model, in the theories of the state-regulated capitalist economy, there are (and predominate) cultural-centric approaches originating in the historical school of M. Weber, W. Sombart, G. Schmoller.
G. Schmoller set himself the task of analyzing the changing modes of activity of agents of economic relations, taking into account a combination of psychological, geographical, economic and other factors. Non-economic aspects of economic activity were the main subject of his interests. Economic changes were considered by him as a consequence of changes in those contents of mental life that a person manifests in the economy.
W. Sombart denied economic laws and made the nature of economic activity and institutions dependent on place and time. Exploring the cultural paradigms of the economy, he tried to discover the motives for economic activity in any society, interpreting capitalism as a universal phenomenon. The economic system, according to Sombart, is the embodiment of the economic spirit, which has a cultural and creative role. Therefore, economic activity must not only be studied, but understood.
M. Weber, in his more rationalistic theory of economy, sought to turn political economy into a rigorous science, capable of understanding at the same time. His "ideal type" turns into a method of discovering the unique aspects inherent in a particular historical situation. By introducing "relevant understanding", Weber actually takes a step towards extending this method to the natural sciences, which could be fully extended by applying the culture-centric research program to natural science. In economics, Weber is interested in the institutional aspects of economic activity, the connection between religion, sociology and economics. The basis of the development of capitalism, according to the scientist, is the development of the "spirit of capitalism", which is influenced by religious ideas.
It should be noted that the basis of any economic research and economics is labor productivity, as an indicator of the efficiency of the use of labor resources (labor factor), measured either by the quantity of products in physical or monetary terms produced by one worker for a certain, fixed time (hour, day, month, year); - or the amount of time spent on the production of a unit of marketable output. In this regard, it is possible to distinguish various worldview directions:
Liberalism
From the very beginning, this direction declared itself as a manifestation of bourgeois social thought. The ideas of liberalism were substantiated in the XVII-XVIII centuries. English philosopher J. Locke and English economist A. Smith. A great contribution to the development of the theory of liberalism was made by outstanding Russian thinkers, specialists in the field of philosophy, history, political science and law B.N. Chicherin, N.M. Korkunov. Representatives of liberalism, comprehending society, its economic, political and spiritual life, the activities of its legal institutions (we are talking at the same time about the main methodological approaches to the study of social phenomena, including economic, political, etc.), used certain criteria, mainly of which was (and is) the idea of human freedom1 - first of all, the freedom of expression by each individual of his views and interests, as well as the freedom of his activities and other civil liberties associated with it. The subject of the study is the state of society in terms of the presence or absence of certain economic, political and civil freedoms in it and finding ways for their most complete implementation.
In this regard, theorists of liberalism solve the following problems:
Freedom of the individual in society and his personal responsibility for his actions and the results of his activities;
The role of private property as the economic basis for individual freedom and the functioning of the economy;
Conditions for free enterprise and free market relations.
Since the time of A. Smith, liberals have traditionally assigned the role of a "night watchman" to the state, protecting the property of citizens, their rights, order in the country and protecting it from external encroachments.
Monetarist theory.
It was created by representatives of the so-called Chicago School, headed by the prominent modern economist Milton Friedman. This theory is theoretically and methodologically based on the idea of a free market and non-intervention of the state in the development of the economy. At the same time, M. Friedman and his followers substantiate the idea of the primary role of money circulation and, mainly, monetary operations in the functioning of a market economy. This will be discussed in more detail below. We only note that the theory of monetarism, based on the ideas of self-organization and self-regulation of economic processes and contributing to their study, proves the relevance of the fundamental ideas of liberalism in the study of modern economic phenomena and processes.
Conservatism
This direction of social thought was formed as a reaction to liberal theory and ideology. His predecessors - the English thinkers E. Burke and T. Carlyle, as well as the French thinkers J. de Maistre and L. de Bonald - countered the ideas of bourgeois individualism with the ideas of preserving and developing society as total, i.e. holistic education. The same ideas were substantiated by representatives of Russian conservatism K.N. Leontiev and K.P. Pobedonostsev and others. In solving the problems of interaction between society and the individual, which they interpreted as the interaction of the whole and the part, they preferred society as an integral organism in which each person must have the necessary conditions for his existence and development. At the same time, it was pointed out that the individuals themselves bear obligations to society, aimed at preserving and strengthening it for the common good.
Any social phenomena (spiritual, political, economic, etc.) were considered by them in relation to society as an integral social and natural organism. In their opinion, the freedom of the individual, his entrepreneurial activity, as well as freedom of speech and other civil liberties, should be supported only if they do not harm society, contribute to its evolution and strengthen it, since these freedoms can be destructive, lead to an unreasonable breakdown of traditional social institutions that have been formed in the field of politics, economics, morality, and religion.
One of the most significant manifestations of conservatism in the field of economic research of the XX century. the works of the famous English scientist J.M. Keynes, who announced the end of the liberal doctrine of the spontaneous development of the economy, based on unlimited freedom of enterprise and competition and the denial of any state intervention in the economy, due to the complete theoretical and practical failure of this doctrine.
Social Democratic direction
The theoretical origins of this trend go back partly to Marxism, partly to social reformism, neo-Kantianism and other teachings. Soon after the October (1917) Revolution in Russia, the final break between the Social Democrats and the consistent Marxists took place. Now it is an independent and widespread direction in Europe in theory, ideology and politics. The Social Democrats, having long ago abandoned the idea of abolishing private ownership of the means of production, are now advocating the preservation of state, cooperative and private property in society, i.e. for a mixed economy. They are increasingly inclined to recognize the advantages of the free market, although they do not deny the need for partial state influence on the development of the economy. Here they are unanimous, on the one hand, with modern conservatives, and on the other hand, with modern liberals. For them, the main method of social change is not revolution, but reform. The main goal of the theoretical studies of modern social democrats is to identify and substantiate the possibilities of building a society of democratic socialism.
Marxist direction
The founders of this trend are, as you know, the German thinkers K. Marx and F. Engels. Their prominent adherents, who played a significant role in the spread and further development of Marxism, were A. Bebel (Germany), A. Labriola (Italy), G.V. Plekhanov and V.I. Lenin (Russia), Mao Zedong (China) and others.
The initial theoretical and methodological position of Marxism in the study of the economic, political and other processes taking place in society is the consideration of society itself as a self-developing social system. Each such historically formed system is considered as a socio-economic formation, which, on the one hand, appears as a certain social organism developing on the basis of its own mode of production, and on the other hand, as a qualitatively unique stage of the world historical process. The nature and content of social relations in a particular society determine to a decisive extent the nature and content of the socio-economic and political processes taking place in it, their social nature.
The leading role in the system of social relations (economic, political, legal, moral, religious, etc.) is assigned to economic relations, the totality of which is characterized as the economic basis of society, above which rises the political, legal and ideological superstructure, a derivative of the economic basis. As the founders of Marxism emphasized, this does not detract from the importance of political or spiritual phenomena in the life of society (on the contrary, their importance is constantly increasing), but it shows that, in the final analysis, their nature and content are determined by the economic basis of society.
Alexander Nikolaevich Kostenko,
professor (Kiev)
Mother Nature - Supreme Legislator
for all things for all time
INTRODUCTION
What is happening in the world today raises the question: is this evidence of the progress or regression of modern civilization? The most dramatic thing is that every day it becomes more and more difficult to distinguish between good and evil, truth and untruth, beauty and ugliness, justice and injustice, heroism and crime, good people and bad people, entrepreneurship and pseudo-entrepreneurship, freedom and self-will, reality and illusions, order and anarchy, right and wrong, democracy and pseudo-democracy, morality and immorality, and so on. Same-sex marriages are equated with marriages between men and women, political fraud is cynically called an innocent "political technology", the exploitation of biological properties (instincts) of a person in literature, they replace real art with music and television, they try to “correct” reality with mysticism, and the like. And all this in modern societies is masked under the guise of progress.
Self-will and illusions will strike more and more people, manifesting themselves in all areas of human life in the form of immorality, crime, extremism, mysticism, voluntarism, utopianism, obscurantism, and the like. It's getting harder and harder for people to understand each other. Abuse, that is, the use for the creation of evil of the means that exist for the creation of good, becomes the norm of life. Bad people live in better prosperity than good people. On closer examination, one can see that these are all symptoms of a crisis in the social order in which people cannot live happily...
It seems that all this and many other things like this are not signs of social progress, but of social regression. Mankind must muster up the courage to admit this, because only then will it turn to the Newest Enlightenment, which will lead it to the path of social progress, as it was, in particular, in the 17th-18th centuries.
It is thanks to the Newest Enlightenment, which will propagate progressive social ideas obtained by science, that a new social order must be formed that can become the basis for a new life for people.
To form a new social order in society, a new social science is needed that would illuminate the path to
The following theses can serve to search for confirmation of this hypothesis:
Thesis 1.
Today there are enough symptoms that point to the crisis of the social order in the world.
In particular, K. Jaspers, E. Fromm, F. Hayek, Jose Ortega y Gasset, F. Fukuyama, S. Kapitsa, religious figures and others pointed out the sharpening of the problems of modern social life of people. The challenge for civilization today has become the problem of the relationship between freedom and human security, the solution of which depends on the concept of a new social order in the context of globalization. In particular, the modern concept of human rights leads to liberalism "without limits", which destroys the social order.
Thesis 2.
Social self-will and social illusions, which consist in ignoring the natural laws of people's social life, give rise to any social crisis.
The cause of any social crisis is people's defeat by social self-will and social illusions, which in particular manifests itself in the form of ignoring the natural laws of people's social life, including ignoring the laws of natural (natural) law. This is what causes social crises. Legal willfulness and legal illusions (a kind of social willfulness and social illusions), which consist in recognizing only the will and consciousness of people as the source of law, become dominant in public life when this life is not consistent with the laws of social nature, in particular, under totalitarianism or criminalism , which replaces totalitarianism on the way to democracy. Legal willfulness and legal illusions are a symptom of social regression, and naturalistic social science is a remedy for this pathology.
Thesis 3.
To overcome the crisis of the social order and enter the path of social progress, a new social theory is needed
Modern social science cannot solve the problems associated with the crisis of the social order. In particular, this concerns the problem of whether there is exploitation of man by man in the world community today? If so, is it a social norm or a social pathology? And if this is a social pathology, then how should it be treated - through a revolution, as K. Marx suggested, or is there another way? New scientific tools are needed to answer these and other questions. A new social science is called upon to help overcome the crisis in modern social life, capable of discovering the natural (natural) laws of people's social life, which are ignored by those who limit themselves to social voluntarism and social utopianism. Scientific research, including social research, is impossible without the use of a certain theory, which has as its purpose to discover patterns that are inaccessible to direct perception. A crisis of practice is always a consequence of a crisis of theory. The better theory the researcher uses, the more practical the result of his research will be. Knowledge without theory is "blind". A researcher who does not have a theory for his scientific research is a "headless horseman". Only with the help of a new theory can the crisis of modern social science be overcome.
Thesis 4.
A new social doctrine can be productive if it is based on the principle of the naturalness of the social (the principle of social naturalism), which is the result of the development of the ideas of the Enlightenment
The way out of the crisis of people's social life should be carried out by basing this life on a doctrine that would eliminate social self-will and social illusions. Such a doctrine can be developed on the basis of the theory of social naturalism, which is the result of the development, in particular, of the ideas of the Stoics, the ideologists of the Enlightenment, Emile Durkheim, F. Hayek and other thinkers. To overcome the crisis of jurisprudence, which is a “concentrated expression” of the social sciences, it is also relevant to turn to the ideas of naturalist lawyers of the past: Cicero, Hugo Grotius, Puffendorf, Locke, Radbruch and others. The theory of social naturalism is based on the principle of the naturalness of the social, which consists in interpreting social phenomena as those that must exist according to natural laws (laws of social nature) acting through the will and consciousness of people.
Thesis 5.
To create a productive doctrine of social science, it is necessary, based on the idea of the natural integrity of the world, to solve the problem No. 1 of modern civilization, which is formulated as follows: “Is the social natural?”
Problem No. 1 of modern civilization, on the solution of which the solution of all other problems depends, can be formulated as follows: “Is the social natural? Or, in other words, what is the social role of the human will and consciousness in the world that exists according to the laws of Mother Nature? Based on the idea of the natural integrity of the world, as well as the idea of V.I. Vernadsky about the “planetary significance of the mind”, the following solution to this problem is proposed: “Social phenomena are no less natural than physical and biological ones, and the social role of human will and consciousness is in adapting human life to the laws of Mother Nature! This is the basis for the theory of social naturalism. Social naturalism does not lead to reductionism, that is, it does not mean the physicalization or biologization of social phenomena, because social nature is not reduced to physical or biological nature. Social nature is recognized as the third (along with the other two - physical and biological), independent form of nature, genetically related to physical and biological nature, but such that it exists according to its own laws of nature, peculiar only to it. The theory of social naturalism consists in recognizing the social as natural in accordance with the idea of the natural integrity of the world, which means that nothing in the world can exist outside the laws of Mother Nature, including social phenomena that are generated by the will and consciousness of people. Any other idea should be qualified as voluntarism and utopianism, that is, such that it recognizes the will and consciousness of people who can be in a state of self-will and illusions as the source of laws for social phenomena. Any social evil is a manifestation of a complex of willfulness and illusions, which strikes people as a result of their will and consciousness being inconsistent with the natural laws inherent in the social life of people. According to the theory of social naturalism, the dichotomy "nature and society" is erroneous, because society is also nature. The following position follows from this theory: "Mother Nature is the Supreme Legislator for all things for all time." Only Mother Nature can provide criteria for distinguishing between good and evil, justice and injustice, right and wrong, truth and untruth, beauty and ugliness, enterprise and pseudo-entrepreneurship, and so on. The new sociology, which can be called "naturalistic" sociology, must also be consistent with this position. The transformation of modern social sciences into natural (natural) sciences is possible if the social sciences are based on the principle of the naturalness of the social, that is, on the principle of social naturalism. (This approach is detailed in particular in the book: Kostenko A.N. Culture and law - in counteracting evil. - Kiev: Atika, 2008. - 352 p. (in Ukrainian); Kostenko A.N. Problem No. 1 of modern civilization (in Ukrainian cotext) - Cherkassy - 2008. - 112 pp. (in Ukrainian)).
Thesis 6.
Social science will be able to ensure social progress if it becomes a natural (natural) science - a branch of natural science, that is, it will be aimed at understanding the laws of nature, according to which there is a social life of people (the laws of social nature)
The need to use the achievements of the social sciences in ensuring social progress is indicated, in particular, in the Declaration of Social Progress and Development proclaimed by the UN General Assembly on December 11, 1969. However, modern social science is not yet properly used for social progress. If we explain the position of the noted Delaration in the light of naturalistic theory, then social progress should be understood as political, economic, legal, moral progress as progress in adapting people's lives to the laws of social nature. Therefore, social progress is not possible without the development of social sciences, which would be able to discover new laws of social nature for politics, economics, law, morality and other areas of people's social life. It follows from the theory of social naturalism that all sciences must be recognized as natural - there can be no non-natural sciences. This also applies to the sciences of social phenomena - the social sciences, as well as jurisprudence, which is the "concentrated expression" of the social (and human) sciences. Therefore, jurisprudence must become a "naturalistic" jurisprudence, like social science in general. They must learn the natural laws of people's lives, according to which social and legal phenomena exist. "Naturalistic" jurisprudence is designed to promote the formation of the coherence of the will and consciousness of people with the laws of natural (natural) law, thus contributing to the formation of what is called the legal culture of man. The legal culture of people, which is understood in this way, is higher than any constitutions, codes and laws - it determines their action as instruments in ensuring the rule of law in society. Hence the formula: "Culture is the mother of order!". In accordance with this formula, the social culture of citizens is the basis of the social order and the welfare state. And if this is so, then the fate of peoples is determined not by parties, governments and parliaments, but by universities that form the social, that is, legal, as well as economic, political, and moral culture of citizens. It follows from the principle of social naturalism that the life of people is determined by the degree of consistency of their will and consciousness with the natural laws by which human society exists. This consistency we call the social culture of people, including in it, in particular, the political, economic, legal, moral culture of people. There is the following pattern: "what kind of culture of people - such is their life." This provision can be the basis for a branch of science called social culturology, which studies the laws governing the existence of people's social culture. The crisis of the social culture of citizens leads to a crisis in public life, which manifests itself, in particular, in the fact that the rule of law turns into a pseudo-legal state, human rights - into pseudo-human rights, democracy - into pseudo-democracy, equality of people - into pseudo-equality (into social equalization) , entrepreneurship - into pseudo-entrepreneurship (that is, the exploitation of man by man), religion - into pseudo-religion, morality - into pseudo-morality, art - into pseudo-art, social (social) progress - into pseudo-progress and the like. Now there is a crisis in the world in the field of law, which lies in the fact that the hypertrophy of the role of legislation in public life due to the atrophy of the legal culture of citizens gives rise to the prosperity of hypocrisy, Jesuitism, and corruption. It is “naturalistic” jurisprudence that is able to suggest how to eliminate this, namely: with the help of the formula “legal culture of citizens plus legislation”, that is, by eliminating the hypertrophy of legislation and the atrophy of the legal culture of citizens. Based on "naturalistic" jurisprudence, the doctrine of human rights makes it possible to get rid of the so-called "liberalism without limits", replacing it with the concept of liberalism limited by "natural duties". "Naturalistic" jurisprudence reveals "the stone that the builders neglected," namely, the "natural duties" of man, which must correspond to the "natural rights" of man. According to the laws of social nature, people are endowed not only with “natural rights”, but also with “natural duties” corresponding to them, which should determine the limits of the freedom of human behavior in the concept of liberalism. Consequently, the naturalistic conception of liberalism must be established on the formula: "the natural rights of man plus the natural duties of man." Obviously, only such a "naturalistic" conception of liberalism can contribute to social progress. It makes it possible to dissociate itself from the so-called "wild" liberalism, which, being a violation of the unity of "natural rights" and "natural duties", is a manifestation of the unlimited freedom of people that gives rise to social crises. "Wild" liberalism transforms, in particular, democracy into pseudo-democracy, the signs of which we have in many countries.
Thesis 7.
Being based on the principle of social naturalism, "naturalistic" social science opens the way to a new social worldview, which is based on a new solution to the "basic question of sociology"
“Naturalistic” social science, which is established on the principle of social naturalism, provides grounds for a new solution to the “basic question of sociology”, which is formulated as follows: “Society is a creation of Mother Nature or the will and consciousness of People, or both?” . This new decision has the form of a representation, according to which: a) “Society is a product of the implementation by people of the laws of those natural laws that Mother Nature gives for the public life of people; b) “Any violation of the social order (in particular, the rule of law, as a “concentrated expression” of the social order is a manifestation of a complex of arbitrariness and human illusions in the form of a violation of the laws of social nature (including the laws of “natural law” embodied in the current legislation”); c) “Social order is a state that is formed as a result of the application by people, in accordance with their social (including legal) culture, of the laws of social nature (including the application of the current legislation in which the laws of “natural law” are embodied); d) “Legislation is only a tool in the hands of people, which is applied in accordance with their social culture, and not a self-acting factor in ensuring social order (and the rule of law). The social representation is noted as completely suitable for use both in theory and in practice in all branches of public life of people: in economics, politics, right, morality, and the like. Only with the help of the "naturalistic" theory of social phenomena can adequate answers be given, for example, to such questions: the exploitation of man by man - is it natural or unnatural; what is the difference between democracy and pseudo-democracy; same-sex marriage is a social norm or a social pathology; how to distinguish the equality of men and women from equalization; whether the division of people into an elite and a mass is unnatural, and others. In particular, in accordance with "naturalistic" sociology, the progress of society can only occur when society is naturally divided into an elite and a mass - this is a natural law of people's social life. It should establish a social order that ensures the progress of society, and not on the willful social equalization of people, which leads to the regression of society. As for the exploitation of man by man, according to “naturalistic” sociology, it takes place today in the world, but counteraction to it should not take place in an unnatural way, that is, not willfully, as K. Marx - through revolution, but in a natural way, that is, by promoting the development of fair competition, which tends to oust exploitation.
Thesis 8.
The theory of "naturalistic" social science differs from other social theories in that it is an application of the principle of social naturalism to the interpretation of social phenomena.
"Naturalistic" sociology differs from other social theories (theological, positivist, historical, anthropological, psychological, realistic, postmodern, etc.) in that it is established on the principle of social naturalism, according to which society, with all its attributes (including politics, religion, economics, law, morality, art, etc.) should be recognized as a "third nature", along with the other two: physical nature ("first nature") and biological nature ("second nature"). Therefore, jurisprudence (like all social and human sciences) will become a real science when it receives the status of a natural science (natural science), like physics and biology. The artificial division between the so-called natural sciences and the social (humanitarian) sciences must be eliminated. Only in this case will the social (and human) sciences become truly sciences, discovering the laws of social nature in the same way that the laws of physical and biological nature are being discovered today. Then in the social sciences, including jurisprudence, it will be possible to discover the laws of social nature (in particular, the laws of natural (natural) law), as in physics and biology of physical and biological laws. (By the way, the concept of "law" that is now used in natural science was first created in jurisprudence and transferred to natural science by the ancient Greek philosopher Anaximander.)
Thesis 9.
The role of "naturalistic" social science lies in the fact that it contributes to overcoming social self-will and social illusions, which are the source of the crisis of the social order and lead to social regression, offering the formula "Culture is the mother of order!", which creates immunity against abuse of the achievements of physical and biological Sciences
In accordance with the theory of social naturalism, no President, Government, Parliament or political parties and other institutions of “civil society” can lead society to the path of progress without the decisive role of citizens armed with a social (economic, political, legal) developed on the basis of the ideology of social naturalism. , moral) culture. The significance of the theory of social naturalism lies in the fact that it contributes to the development of people's social culture, which is able to form immunity against social willfulness and social illusions in society, including legal willfulness and legal illusions. These self-will and illusions are the source of the crisis of the social order, and in particular the crisis of the rule of law. The social culture of citizens lies in the unity of "natural (natural) rights" and "natural (natural) duties", which eliminates the so-called "wild" liberalism as a form of abuse of freedom, and hence rights. This is where the "naturalistic" social science is established, which has as its purpose the opposition to social self-will and social illusions, which are the source of the crisis of the social (that is, economic, political, legal, moral) order. In accordance with the "naturalistic" social science, a new doctrine is proposed for ensuring the social (economic, political, legal, moral) order, which consists in the formula: "social culture of citizens plus legislation." As the experience of mankind shows, there is the following regularity: the progress of social life favorable for the happiness of people is determined by the progress of the social sciences, which provide a social order suitable for benefiting from the achievements of the physical and biological sciences and for counteracting the abuse of the achievements of these sciences. Therefore, one should be guided by the doctrine of the priority of the social (including the humanities) sciences over the physical and biological sciences. The notion that the progress of mankind is ensured not by the development of the social (including the humanities) sciences, but solely by the achievements of the physical and biological sciences must be dispelled as erroneous and harmful.
Thesis 10.
« Naturalistic social science makes it possible to adequately respond to the new challenges of the time, in particular, it contributes to solving problems that arise in connection with the process of globalization of people's social life.
As the experience of the Age of Enlightenment shows, the new challenges that appeared before humanity were adequately answered with the help of new social ideas formulated by the social (and human) sciences. Based on this, one should recognize the existence of a social pattern, which can be expressed as follows: "The fate of peoples is determined by universities, and not by parties, governments or parliaments." Consequently, peace, security, and the well-being of peoples depend on the progress of the social sciences. This progress lies precisely in the "naturalization" of the social sciences, that is, in the extent to which the social sciences reflect the natural (natural) laws of people's social life. "Naturalistic" social science encourages, in particular, to consider the globalization of people's social life as the approximation of all national societies to one "common denominator" - to the natural (natural) laws of people's social life, which are common to all peoples. Proceeding from this, the problems that have arisen in connection with the global economic crisis that humanity has today should be resolved, that is, through the reform of economic science (and, thanks to this, the economic culture of people) based on the principle of the naturalness of the social.
CONCLUSIONS:
If we assume that the hypothesis presented here is correct, then this gives grounds for the following conclusion: social science, being doctrinally reformed into the branch of natural science (natural science) with the help of the “principle of the naturalness of the social” (the principle of social naturalism), can contribute to the formation of a new social culture of citizens , which is the basis of a new social (that is, political, economic, legal, moral) order in modern society and the engine of social progress. There is obviously the following regularity - how humanity will take advantage of the achievements of the physical and biological sciences depends on the development of social sciences, which form the social culture of people: what kind of culture people have - such is their life. And this means that in order to adequately respond to the challenges that modern humanity faces (in particular, the challenges that are associated with the achievements of the physical and biological sciences), one should adhere to the doctrine of the priority of the social sciences (including the humanities) over the physical and biological sciences. The development of mankind gives rise to the need for sciences that would adequately explain the new social phenomena that arise as a result of this development. Therefore, in particular, based on "naturalistic" sociology, the global economic crisis that has now arisen can be explained as a manifestation of the crisis of people's social culture, generated by the crisis of the social (and human) sciences. Today, these sciences no longer adequately reflect the new social realities, in particular the laws of a new social nature that have developed in the 21st century. This is also evidence that there is a need to reform the social sciences based on the “principle of the naturalness of the social” and the establishment of the Newest Enlightenment, which will form a new social (political, economic, legal, moral) culture of people - the basis of social progress in the modern world.