ГРАЖДАНСКОЕ ОБЩЕСТВО И ПРАВО СОЦИАЛЬНОГО ОБЕСПЕЧЕНИЯ

This chapter considers pension protection and social services in the post-Soviet space as forms of social policy that can protect older people from risks of social exclusion. We draw on the example of two countries, Russia and Ukraine, which share a common Soviet background. Until relatively recently, both countries held a similar position with regard to the pension protection and social security of old people. However, recent reforms in the area of pensions and social services have generated various possible ways for the development of both countries. In Ukraine, pension reform took place in 2017, and can be described as “softer” in comparison with the Russian version. Ukrainian reform does not involve raising the retirement age, but rather increases the length of service required to retire. Pension reform in Russia has been taking place before our eyes, in 2018–2019. It assumes a sharp rise in the retirement ages for men and women. In addition to addressing pension reform, the chapter considers in more detail social services for older people in Russia and Ukraine. In broad terms, the chapter seeks to answer the following question: How do modern pension reforms and the structure of social services in the post-Soviet space (for example, Russia and Ukraine) affect the social exclusion of older people?

The main function of any ideology is to legitimize the established order of things as true, universal and unshakable. The ideological form is aimed at the formation of the addressee's specific stereotypes of behavior corresponding to the trajectory of officially recognized ideas, values, axioms, principles, norms of law. Legal ideology is a conceptualized expression of normative, political and universal methods of legal understanding. As the methods of ideological influence can be identified scientific-doctrinal and official-legal nomination, legal propaganda, legal education, legal education, etc. Legal propaganda is the systematic and purposeful dissemination in society of certain legal ideas, values, norms and programs of behavior in order to control the addressee and control his thinking and behavior, has a coercive nature in order to prevent deviation from the absolute standards of behavior. Propaganda is often one of the main means of political manipulation. At present," legal propaganda" as the most radical concept has given way to softer methods of ideological influence - "legal education" and " legal upbringing". Legal literacy and legal awareness of citizens in modern Russia is an important area of public policy, the implementation of which is entrusted to the Federal and regional public authorities, local governments, professional legal communities and public associations of lawyers, in close collaboration with civil society structures in the form of social partnerships. The involvement of public organizations for legal education of the population through legal propaganda in order to implement the state policy was actively developed in the Soviet period. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to analyze the phenomenon of the Soviet legal ideology in the context of legal propaganda by public organizations. The study was conducted within the framework of socio-cultural approach. That approach allowed expanding the idea of the place and role of legal propaganda in the Soviet society as a product of the state ideology focused on the identification of Soviet cultural values, its reglamentation and practical realisation.

The article describes issues of structural reforms implementation in Russia directed at forming favorable institutional environment and business climate, as well as macroeconomic financial stability. The author analyzes the derivatives market, compared with the world’s GDP and considers regularities for the global market of mergers and acquisitions as modern crisis indicators in the global economy. The state of the Russian economy, the balance of payments of RF, international investment position and other macroeconomic parameters are analyzed, as well as the influence of cross-border capital flows and the demographic factor on sustainable development of the Russian economy. A model of the system of managing sustainable socio-economic development together with participation of development institutions is presented.

Market Reforms in Russia - Problems and Prospects

Practice has shown that the onset of retirement and pre-retirement age in modern Russia adds new problems to the working older generation, caused by significant changes in lifestyle and new views on human labor activity. The implemented pension reform in Russia, which added five years to the day of retirement, significantly exacerbated the problems associated with the employment of people of retirement age. The article offers scientifically based recommendations for increasing human capital at the expense of the working older generation, taking into account regional and other characteristics. In modern conditions, human capital can play an important role in solving many problems during the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine, especially in increasing the military-industrial potential of our state. In conditions of labor shortage, experienced personnel of engineers, technologists, managers can significantly strengthen Russian industrial and other enterprises

The roundtable discussion held on April 12, 2017 at the XVIII April international academic conference on economic and social development (April 11-14,2017, Moscow, National Research University Higher School of Economics) in cooperation with ARETT. In their presentations the participants of the roundtable considered the most serious issues related to working out and implementation of economic programs and reforms in Russia. The participants tried to understand the reasons of poor realization of program documents, reveal their advantages and drawbacks, and formulate the positive agenda.

The article analyses the state of public health in modern Russia, the dynamics of demographic indicators, healthy life expectancy, primary and general morbidity, disability, mortality in infancy and working age. We also present comparisons using international statistics from the World Bank, the World Health Organization and the OECD. Further, we give the characteristic of the factors influencing public health in Russia. The article presents the results of Russian researchers of public health and their foreign colleagues, showing that most of the deaths and diseases of Russians are the result of an incorrect lifestyle. The most significant contribution to mortality and health deterioration has such phenomena as high blood pressure (which itself is a consequence of an unhealthy lifestyle), alcohol abuse, smoking and overweight. The most detailed attention we paid to the underfunding of the health care industry and the negative consequences of the process of its reform.

Books reviewed:Kate Sealey RRahman, Ostrovsky: Realit and IllusionMark Lipovetsky, Russian Postmodernist Fiction: Dialogue withChaosJohn Glad, Russia Abroad: Writers, History, PoliticsW.F. Ryan, The Bathhouse at Midnight: An Historical Survey of Magic and Divination in Russia.Charles A. Ruud, and Sergei A. Stepanov, Fontanka 16: TheTsar's Secret Police.David Moon, The Russian Peasantry 1600‐1930: The World the Peasants Made.Simon Dixon, The Modernisation of Russia, 1676‐1825.Sergei Kan, Memory Eternal: Tlingit Culture and Russian Orthodox Christianity through Two Centuries.Thomas M. Barrett, At the Edge of Empire: The Terek Cossacks and the North Caucasus Frontier, 1700‐1860.David Wolff, To the Harbin Station: The Liberal Alternative in Russian Manchuria, 1898‐1914.B.V. Anan'ich and R.Sh. Ganelin, Sergei Iulevich Vitte i ego vremia.Mark Bassin, Imperial Visions: Nationalist Imagination and Geographical Expansion in the Russian Far East, 1840‐1865.Laura Engelstein, Castration and the Heavenly Kingdom: A Russian Folktale.Richard Haywood, Russia Enters the Railway Age, 1842‐1855.Anna Geifman, ed., Russia under the Last Tsar: Opposition and Subversion, 1894‐1917.Judith Pallot, Land Reform in Russia, 1906‐1917: Peasant Responses to Stolypin's Project of Rural Transformation.O.V. Budnitskii, ed., Evrei i russkaia revoliutsiia: Materialy iissledovaniia.V.L. Telitsyn, Skvoz' ternii "voennogo kommunizma":Krest'ianskoe khoziaistvo Urala v 1917‐1921 gg.Lynne Viola et al., eds., Riazanskaia derevnia v 1929‐1930 gg.: Khronika golovokruzheniia: Dokumenty i materialy.Anthony Heywood, Modernising Lenin's Russia: Economic Reconstruction, Foreign Trade and the Railways.Otto J. Pohl, Ethnic Cleansing in the USSR, 1937‐1949.Lynne Atwood, Creating the New Soviet Woman: Women's Magazines as Engineers of Female Identity, 1922‐53.Pâl Kolstø, ed., Nation‐Building and EthnicIntegration in Post‐Soviet Societies: An Investigation of Latvia and Kazakstan.Michael H. Glantz, ed., Creeping Environmental Problems and Sustainable Development in the Aral Sea Basin.Lilia Shevtsova, Yeltsin's Russia: Myths and Realities.Stephen White, Russia's New Politics: The Management of aPostcommunist Society.Mikhail A. Alexseev, ed., Center‐Periphery Conflict in Post‐Soviet Russia: A Federation Imperiled.Judith Devlin, Slavophiles and Commissars: Enemies of Democracy in Modern Russia.

The presented study is devoted to the study of the practice of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation in relation to issues of local self-government in the context of the municipal reform of 2014-2015. and its legal consequences. The aim of this work is to carry out a comprehensive assessment of the practice of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation on the identified problems of the work of local authorities in the period following the start of municipal reform. The research methodology is built by combining descriptive analysis elements and a case study. It is concluded that the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation has consistently maintained its position on the constitutional nature of the reform of local authorities. The provisions of the relevant regulatory legal acts are limited only partially and only in relation to first-level municipalities - municipal authorities of settlements. Given the deprivation of the latter a significant part of the powers and the observed transition to a singlelevel system of local self-government, the adoption of these restrictions does not significantly affect the implementation of the reform. Of fundamental importance is the position of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation regarding the new powers of regional authorities in relation to municipalities. The increase in the arsenal of legal instruments of the influence of the leadership of the constituent entities of the federation on the heads of local self-government was not interpreted as a violation of the constitutional principle of the independence of municipalities. The latter opens up the possibility for further legalization of the process of embedding municipal bodies in the structure of the informal “power vertical”.

The author argues that in democracies a strong state and strong civil society are not mutually exclusive. Only a democratic, legitimate, and strong state can provide the environment for civil society activities to flourish; in return, only a strong and a participatory civil society can outline the reach of state strength vis-à-vis the society. The author discusses the need for civil society organizations to collaborate with policy-making institutions, in which they can negotiate policy concerns with ministers and officials while retaining an independent distance from the state and the political parties. Further, the author argues that an environment as such would provide for the transformative capacity of human agency to manifest itself in full in a globalizing world. The author discusses how participatory state and civil society structures will enhance the role of the human agency in order to dissolve elite rule, especially in new democracies.

This article presents the results of a pilot study of social networking among immigrants in different types of local contexts. Although systematic research and conclusive evidence is lacking, previous studies suggest that civil society is differently organized in urban environments than it is in rural environments. If accurate, this suggestion implies that variation in local context is a decisive factor in the patterning of social networking among immigrants and, consequently, a decisive factor in the degree of inclusion of immigrants into civil society. In our research material we observe (1) that among first-generation immigrants a differentiation of social networking along the rural–urban continuum does exist and (2) that the historical backgrounds of both the receiving community and the recent immigrants—including the immigrants' motives for immigrating—are important to the success of networking activities. These findings show the need for further research into the co-variation of social networking, local context, and civil society structures.

The paper is devoted to the examination of the Russian system of public power in the context of the constitutional reform. The aim of the study is to carry out a comprehensive theoretical and legal analysis of the current state of consolidation of the public power system in Russia under constitutional law. The author has examined the regulatory legal acts that mediate the implementation of the constitutional reform in Russia; doctrinal sources and significant foreign experience relevant to the subject matter of the study. Methodologically, the study is based on general philosophical, general scientific, private scientific, special scientific methods. The paper defines the fundamental properties of the system of public power enshrined in the Constitution of the Russian Federation with due regard to such parameters as the peculiarities of the construction of federal relations as the fundamental functions and powers of public authorities allocated vertically, the state of the system of separation of powers in the context of checks and balances, the level of legal protection and autonomy of local authorities. The author has determined that the constitutional reform regarding the consolidation of the system of public power has encouraged development and strengthening of the principle of subsidiarity when differentiating jurisdictions and powers in relations between the state authorities of the Russian Federation and its constituent entities; clarification of the spatial limit of the governmental rule of the Federation by means of constitutional legitimation of Federal Territories; creation of the basis for overcoming the “conflict of competences (jurisdictions)” between state and municipal levels of power in order to ensure the constitutional law balance between the branches of state power at the federal level to prevent the development of non-systemic conflicts in the system of checks and balances and the emergence of constitutional crises of power. A suggested system of public power retains the necessary discretionary mechanisms to adjust the mechanism of its individual elements in order to achieve a balance between public functions, powers and tasks to be solved.

The article is dedicated to the problem of state management of the economy based on scientific knowledge. Special attention is paid to the new economic theory - noonomy, its role and significance at the current level of societal development. A comparative analysis is carried out on the scientific concept of “liberalism”, as well as the role and significance of the liberal approach at different stages of capitalism development. The article assesses the impact of this approach in terms of the implementation of economic reforms in Russia in the 1990s. The author expresses regret about the popularity of the theory of Western liberal economists in the Russian scientific community, criticizes the commitment of some scientists to spontaneous economic development while emphasizing the special significance of scientific knowledge. It is noted that at present in developed Western countries there is a transition to a “knowledge society”, market mechanisms are losing their significance, the provisions of a new socio-economic science are being developed based on the augmentation of social utility of the results of activities, in particular time saving. Special attention is paid to the development of a tool system for managing society and the economy, with an emphasis on aspects of national economic planning. The benefits of planning methods in solving problems of both increasing economic efficiency and achieving social justice are given on the example of the analysis of Soviet planning experience. The author comes to the conclusion that spontaneous economic development will be replaced by a scientifically based knowledge-intensive approach as Western economic theory based on the liberal concept is becoming obsolete and is losing its significance. National economic planning is at the forefront, as it is an important tool of noonomy, which will allow combining market principles and planned regulation.

Phenomenological analysis was used to understand how rural low-income families accessed and used child-care resources to meet the needs of their families using data from Wave 1 of the Rural Families Speak Project. In the aftermath of welfare reform, results highlight the continuing need for policy aimed at building stronger supports for families with inadequate access to child care. Key Words: child care, low-income, phenomenology, policy, rural families, welfare reform. (Family Relations, 2004, 53, 201-209) The passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996, commonly known as welfare reform, changed how the government supports low-income families. This legislation changed 61 years of guaranteed benefits to eligible mothers and children, along with many services and programs for low-income families. The safety nets that once existed for these families have been removed and replaced with work-focused programs. In the aftermath of welfare reform, low-income families, perhaps more than ever before, must rely upon many sources within their environments in order to access the resources they need. With the implementation of welfare reform came many policy changes for those families receiving cash assistance and for families relying on other programs and services that changed, such as the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program for children, Food Stamps, child support enforcement, childcare systems, and child nutrition programs. Recent studies have analyzed the impacts of welfare reform by looking at program outcomes using quantitative analysis, econometric methods, and secondary analyses of administrative data to investigate caseload decline, employment status, employment and earnings, welfare spells (Bell, 2001; Loprest, 1999; Weber, Duncan, & Whitener, 2001), and economic well-being (Porterfield, 2001; Weber et al). Although these macro-level studies give insight to general patterns and trends, the family perspective is missing-that is, the voices of families affected by policies often are muted in statistical reports. Instead of allowing families to talk about the triumphs and tribulations of their lives within a changing policy environment, previous studies have offered a generalized picture of their experiences. We argue that to understand the everyday unique experiences of families, policy researchers must begin with the family's perspective. As a decade review of literature on family policy research highlighted, the family's perspective has been virtually ignored (Bogenschneider, 2000). Moreover, few studies have taken the needed qualitative approach to understand the experiences from the perspectives of low-income families, with a few exceptions. Stack (1970) began from the family perspective by describing the survival strategies of a Black community through an ethnographic lens. Edin and Lein (1997) investigated the lived experiences of 379 urban low-income single mothers in four urban cities across the United States to understand how they pieced together the resources needed to meet the needs of their families. Newman (1999) offered an ethnographic view of inner-city poverty by letting families talk about their struggles to survive within their communities. Seccombe (1999) interviewed 47 women from small- and medium-sized communities in Florida to see their perspectives on welfare reform. Monroe and Tiller (2001) described the work of welfare-reliant women and their experiences with participants in the labor force, the rural job market, their use of support networks, and the stigma of welfare. Although these studies provide insight into the everyday experiences of low-income families, missing are those from rural low-income families. Previous studies have focused on urban low-income families or combined all families together, so the impact of one's location as low income was ignored. Rural low-income families face unique challenges due to the variability in availability and affordability of resources to help them get what they need (Lewis, 2000). …

The long-term health effects of welfare reform.