INSTITUTIONAL FAILURES AGAINST THE GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS
The article discusses the global competitiveness of Russia inside BRICS. The Global Competitiveness Report compiled by the World Economic Forum (WEF) experts positions Russia behind the other countries in this group for the fifth time. The analysis of the main components of the overall index of competitiveness shows that this lag occurs mainly due to poor institutions: the gap in the assessment of the institutional environment in Russia and other BRICS countries is especially wide. Among the individual components of the institutional environment the most negative role is played by the state of property rights, the rule of law (independence of the judiciary) and the situation with corruption. This fact is confirmed also by the other studies: “Quality of Governance” by the World Bank, Index of Economic Freedom (joint project of “Heritage Foundation" and the magazine "Wall Street Journal ", USA) and the measurement of corruption by "Transparency International". The article concludes that Russia in the XXI century has slipped into a social order named by Douglass North and his co-authors “fragile natural state” which is based on violent entrepreneurship of the state. Without decisive way out of this institutional trap Russia will not be able to make progress in global competitiveness in comparison with other BRICS countries.