REGIONAL POWER GROUPS: BASIC SOCIAL AND STRUCTURAL CHARACTERISTICS AND A ROLE IN DEVELOPMENT OF TODAY RUSSIAN SOCIETY
Th is article represents the results of the research of basic sociostructural characteristics of regional elite and some conclusions about the prospects of their infl uence on development of today Russian society. Methodological frame includes the position approach to identifi cation of elites and the structural and biographic method. Th e research concerned following regions: St. Petersburg, Moscow, Leningrad, Rostov, Kaliningrad, Kostroma, Novosibirsk regions, the Stavropol and Khabarovsk regions, the Republic of Dagestan (936 persons, the database for 2015). Th e subject of investigation was the characteristics associated, according to literature, with the level of consolidation and homogeneity of elite. Th e results demonstrate considerable heterogeneity of regional power groups in conditions of primary socialization and type of the fi rst higher education that could cause considerable cultural diff erentiation. From the other hand, the tendency to homogenization is distinctly observed recently. Th e uniformity of the social and professional pool of recruitment shows a steady trend of a plutocratization and professionalizing of regional power groups, that demonstrates their closeness as well as their consolidation around capitalistic values. Formation of the special social base of power elite, which minimizes arrival of persons from the «lowest» layers, has become an evident tendency. Mechanisms of vertical mobility became stable, which can signify the stabilization of this group. Th e corruption remains a mechanism of consolidation of elite groups, a factor of their functioning and solidarity of the power and the population. High level of social closeness, plutocratization and homogenization of elite groups allows drawing a conclusion about high extent of consolidation of power community and stabilization of Russian social order.