DOI: 10.17072/2078-7898/2019-1-44-54

The problem of social functions of the modern state: philosophical analysis

Anton V. Sharkov
Senior Lecturer of the Department of Philosophy,
Senior Lecturer of the Department of Cultural Studies
and Socio-Humanitarian technologies

Perm State University,
15, Bukirev str., Perm, 614990, Russia;
e-mail: av.sharkov@yandex.ru
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9326-5654

Russian and foreign scientists are increasingly turning to the concept of the social state, its problems and prospects of existence. There are grounds for believing that in addressing issues related to the future of the welfare state and problems of its development, philosophical thought should contribute among others. Scientists set the task of describing and explaining significant changes in the role of the modern state in the management of public affairs (especially in the social sphere). This problem is solved by researchers from different, sometimes opposite, theoretical and methodological positions. Based on the modern scientific theory of the historical process, the paper studies the problem of the implementation of social functions by modern states. It attempts to identify the anthropological foundations of the state and its social function in terms of the philosophical concept of human nature. The author gives his own definition of the social function of the state, which is presented in a wide and narrow sense. The paper proves the idea that the problem of social functions of modern states is a consequence of the crisis of the anthropological foundations of the modern human civilization. The crisis of the homo economicus determines the revision and subsequent optimization of the social obligations of the modern state, the reduction of its social functions. The poverty of the working population, its aging and debt load, job cuts due to the introduction of automated production, deep class differentiation, and other manifestations of this crisis require new approaches to managing the affairs of society. «Departure» of the state from the social sphere inevitably leads to the increased religiosity in society, enhanced role of major international corporations that have a significant potential for the replacement of the state’s social functions. The paper provides basic recommendations and suggests the main ways to overcome the anthropological crisis in modern Russia.

Keywords: state, social function, neoliberalism, human, crisis, homo economicus, Malthusianism, Social Darwinism, capitalism.

References

Anan’in, O., Khaitkulov, R. and SHestakov, D. (2010). Vashingtonskiy konsensus: peyzazh posle bitv [Washington Consensus: landscape after the battle]. Mirovaya ekonomika i mezhdunarodnye otnosheniya [World Economy and International Relations]. No. 12, pp. 15–27.

Andreev, V.V., Kadyshev, E.N., Kortunov, A.I. and Semenov, V.L. (2016). Sotsial’no-ekonomicheskie prichiny rasprostraneniya terrorizma [Socio-economic causes of terrorisms proliferation]. Vserossiyskiy kriminologicheskiy zhurnal [Russian Journal of Criminology]. No. 2, pp. 289–300.

Buzgalin, A.V. (2018). Zakat neoliberalizma (k 200-letiyu so dnya rozhdeniya Karla Marksa) [Decline of neoliberalism (on the 200th anniversary of the birth of Karl Marx)]. Voprosy ekonomiki. No. 2, pp. 122–141.

Doklad Mezhdunarodnoy organizatsii truda OON o sotsialnoy zaschite v mire 2017–2018. Vseobschaya sotsialnaya zaschita dlya dostizheniya tseley v oblasti ustoychivogo razvitiya [Report of the UN International Labor Organization on social protection in the world 2017–2018. Universal social protection for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals]. Available at: http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_protect/---soc_sec/documents/publication/wcms_614330.pdf (accessed 22.01.2019).

Doklad o chelovecheskom razvitii (2016) [United Nations Human Development Report]. Available at: http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/HDR2016_RU_Overview_Web.pdf (accessed 22.01.2019).

Engels, F. (1955). Polozhenie rabochego klassa v Anglii [The position of the working class in England]. Marks K., Engels F. Sochineniya: v 50 t. [Marx K., Engels F. Works: in 50 vols]. Moscow: Politizdat Publ., vol. 2, pp. 231–517.

Fromm, E. (2010). Imet’ ili byt’ [To have or to be]. Moscow: AST Publ., 320 p.

Foucault, M. (2007). Germenevtika sub’ekta: Kurs lektsiy, prochitannykh v Kollezh de Franse 1981–1982 uchebnom godu [Subject Hermeneutics: Course of lectures given at the Collège de France 1981–1982 academic year]. Saint-Petersburg: Nauka Publ., 677 p.

Gorshkov, M.K., Tikhonova, N.E., Anikin, V.A. et al. (2016). Rossiyskiy sredniy klass v usloviyakh stabil’nosti i krizisov [Russian middle class in conditions of stability and crises], Moscow: Institute of Sociology RAS Publ., 34 p.

Indeksy i indikatory chelovecheskogo razvitiya (2018) [Indices and Human Development Indicators]. Available at: http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/2018_human_development_statistical_update_ru.pdf (accessed 22.01.2019).

Kalashnikov, S.V. (2010). Sotsial’naya funktsiya gosudarstva v XXI veke [The social function of the state in the 21st century]. Sotsial’naya politika i sotsiologiya [Social Policy and Sociology]. No. 5(60), pp. 7–13.

Kontseptsiya dolgosrochnogo sotsialno-ekonomicheskogo razvitiya Rossiyskoy Federatsii na period do 2020 goda, utv. rasporyazheniem Pravitelstva Rossiyskoy Federatsii ot 17 noyabrya 2008 g. № 1662-r. [The concept of long-term socio-economic development of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2020, approved Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of November 17, 2008]. Available at: http://www.consultant.ru/document/cons_doc_LAW_82134/ (accessed 22.01.2019).

Lomonosov, M.V. (1950). Izbrannye filosofskie proizvedeniya, pod red. G.S. Vasetskogo [Selected philosophical works, ed. by G.S. Vasetskiy]. Moscow: Gospolitizdat Publ, 759 p.

Malthus, T. (1993). Opyt o zakone narodonaseleniya [An Essay on the Principle of Population]. Antologiya ekonomicheskoy klassiki [Anthology of economic classics]. Moscow: Ekonov-Klyuch Publ., 486 p.

Marinosyan, Kh.E. (2016). Elektronnaya tsivilizatsiya kak globalnaya perspektiva [Electronic civilization as a global perspective]. Filosofskie nauki [Russian Journal of Philosophical Sciences]. No. 6, pp. 7–31.

Marx, K. and Ehgels, F. (1955). Svyatoe semeystvo ili Kritika kriticheskoy kritiki. Protiv Bruno Bauera i kompanii [The holy family, or critique of critical criticism. Against Bruno Bauer and company]. Marks K., Engels F. Sochineniya: v 50 t. [Marx K., Engels F. Works: in 50 vols]. Moscow: Politizdat Publ., vol. 2, pp. 3–230.

Marcuse, G. (1994) «Odnomernyy chelovek». Ocherki po ideologii razvitogo industrialnogo obschestva [«One-dimensional man». Essays on the ideology of a developed industrial society]. Moscow: REFL-book Publ., 368 p.

Musaelyan, L.A. (2016). Istoricheskiy protsess i globalizatsiya [Historical process and globalization]. Perm: Perm State University Publ., 128 p.

Musaelyan, L.A. (2014). Krizis sovremennoy tsivilizatsii i ego antropologicheskikh osnovaniy [The crisis of modern civilization and its anthropological bases]. Novye idei v filosofii [New Ideas in Philosophy]. No. 22(1), pp. 69–80.

Opredelenie Konstitutsionnogo Suda RF ot 05.11.2003 № 343-O «Po zaprosu gruppy deputatov Gosudarstvennoy Dumy o proverke konstitutsionnosti polozheniy federalnogo zakona “O trudovykh pensiyakh v Rossiyskoy Federatsii” i stati 7 federalnogo zakona “Ob obyazatelnom pensionnom strakhovanii v Rossiyskoy Federatsii”» [Determination of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation from November 5, 2003 No. 343-O «At the request of a group of deputies of the state Duma to verify the constitutionality of the provisions of the Federal law “on labor pensions in the Russian Federation” and article 7 of the Federal law “on compulsory pension insurance in the Russian Federation”»]. Available at: http://www.consultant.ru/document/cons_doc_LAW_45177/ (accessed 22.01.2019).

Osipova, E.V. (2009). Chelovek i sovremennaya realnost’ [Human and modern social reality]. Antropologicheskoe izmerenie rossiyskogo gosudarstva, pod red. V.N. Shevchenko [Anthropological dimension of the Russian state, ed. by V.N. Shevchenko]. Moscow: IFRAN Publ., pp. 194–213.

Popper, K. (1992). Otkrytoe obschestvo i ego vragi. T. 2: Vremya lzheprorokov: Gegel, Marks i drugie orakuly [Open society and its enemies. Vol. 2: The High tide of prophecy: Hegel, Marx, and the aftermath]. Moscow: Feniks Publ., Kulturnaya initsiativa Publ., 512 p.

Poslanie Prezidenta RF V.V. Putina Federalnomu sobraniyu RF Kakuyu Rossiyu my stroim 8 iyulya 2000 g.( Moskva) [Message from the President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin’s to Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation What kind of Russia we are building]. Available at: http://www.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/21480 (accessed 22.01.2019).

Stat’i soglasheniya Mezhdunarodnogo Valyutnogo Fonda, (2011) [Articles of Agreement of the International Monetary Fund], Mezhdunarodnyy Valyutnyy Fond. Vashington, okrug Kolumbiya, USA.

Stalmakhov, V.A. (2010). Sotsial’nye prichiny terrorizma v sovremennoy Rossii [Social causes of terrorism in modern Russia]. Vestnik Nizhegorodskogo universiteta im. N.I. Lobachevskogo. Seriya: Sotsial’nye nauki [Vestnik of Lobachevsky State University of Nizhni Novgorod. Series: Social Sciences]. No. 1, pp. 158–161.

Sulakshin, S.S., Argunova, V.N., Bagdasaryan, V.E. et al. (2018). Gosudarstvo spravedlivosti — pravednoe gosudarstvo (ot teorii k proektu) [The state of justice is a righteous state (from theory to project)]. Moscow: Nauka i Politika Publ., 512 p.

Sulakshin, S.S., Khvylya-Olinter, N.A. and Kravchenko, L.I. (2017). Sotsialno-ekonomicheskoe polozhenie rossiyan v krizisnyy period [Socio-economic situation of Russians during the crisis period]. Trudy TsNPMI. № 24. yanvar 2017 g. [Works of Center for Scientific political thought and ideology. No. 24 of January, 2017]. Moscow: Nauka i Politika Publ., 47 p.

Ukaz Prezidenta RF ot 7 maya 2018 g. N 204 «O natsionalnykh tselyakh i strategicheskikh zadachakh razvitiya Rossiyskoy Federatsii na period do 2024 goda» [Presidential Decree from May 7, 2018 N 204 «About the national goals and strategic objectives of the development of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2024»]. Available at: http://base.garant.ru/71937200 (accessed 22.01.2019).

Vasil’ev, V.P. (2015). Vliyanie globalnykh protsessov na evolyutsiyu sotsial’nykh funktsiy gosudarstva [The impact of global processes on the evolution of the social functions of the state]. Vestnik Moskovskogo universiteta. Seirya 18. Sotsiologiya i politologiya [Moscow State University Bulletin. Series 18. Sociology and Political Science]. No. 1, pp. 29–42.

Vnutskikh, A.Yu. (2006). Otbor v prirode i otbor v obschestve: opyt konkretno-vseobschey teorii [Selection in nature and selection in society: the experience of a specifically-universal theory]. Perm: Perm State University Publ., 335 p.

Vozzhenikov, A.V. (ed.) (2007). Mezhdunarodnyy terrorizm: bor’ba za geopoliticheskoe gospodstvo [International terrorism: the struggle for geopolitical dominance]. Moscow: Eksmo Publ., 528 p.

Zor’kin, V. (2014). Konstitutsiya zhivet v zakonakh [Constitution lives in the laws]. Rossiyskaya gazeta — federal’nyy vypusk [Rossiyskaya Gazeta — Federal issue]. No. 6560, Dec. 18. Available at: https://rg.ru/2014/12/18/zorkin.html (accessed: 22.01.2019).

Received 01.02.2019

For citation:

Sharkov A.V. The problem of social functions of the modern state: philosophical analysis // Perm University Herald. Series «Philosophy. Psychology. Sociology». 2019. Iss. 1. P. 44–54. DOI: 10.17072/2078-7898/2019-1-44-54