The Social Control of Food Quality in Russia: Theory and Practice of Self-Regulation
The paper describes the transformation of the mechanism of quality control for food products in Russia. It is shown that global trends of deregulation have been leaden to shift from state regulation mechanism of self-regulation in Russia. It was assumed that the organization of self-regulation and organizations of consumer rights protection form the basis of social control mechanism. They contribute to standardization, advocate for the interests of bona fide consumers and producers, organize voluntary certification program. However, in fact, in terms of information asymmetry and the weakness of the non-government mechanisms originated in the failure of the system of quality assurance. The authors explained the situation from the standpoint of the institutional approach. We give some recommendations for improving the efficiency of the regulatory system in Russia. In conclusion, the subject-functional diagram showing the mechanism of social control food quality is presented.