Social policy in the Russian Federation: development levels and controversies in its implementation
The article analyzes the changes in the social sphere of Russian society and social policy of institutional subjects: state, municipal government bodies and businesses. The paper deals with the contradictions arising in development and implementation of social policy at all three levels. Manifestations of these contradictions are: maintaining unjustified differentiation in the level of incomes of various population groups, lack of prerequisites for the increase of the share of middle class, reduction in funding of health and education systems, lack of financial capacities of municipalities to pursue an active social policy in the context of their responsibility for implementation of municipal programs, the development of group egoism of employees of major corporations that are able to provide social benefits to their employees due to higher prices for the products and so on. The authors develop a point of view, according to which in the last few years there are prerequisites for the relative decline in protection of population from social risks, which may result in political instability and the lack of incentives for economic growth.