Content №3 от 2020
Social dynamics in the Far East: the defect of ideas or the failure of institutions?
The utmost priority for the Russian Far Eastern development and state policy in the region is to reduce population outflow and ensure the growth of human capital, which includes providing beneficial living conditions and high quality of life to its residents. Yet, despite newly established additional institutional incentives, specialfederal programs adopted, and two regions that joined the Far Eastern Federal District in 2018, the factors of social and demographic dynamics in the macro-region are still below the expected. An analysis of population movement indicators, household income and expenditure, quality of life in the FEFD regions (for all its eleven constituent entities, too) shows trends and results achieved in applying “indirect institutional incentives". We conclude that, after 30 years of reforms to improve living standards and raise the quality of life nation-wide while in particular creating comfortable living conditions in the Far East, the obstacles to these processes remain in place. Consequently, failed efforts to stabilize Far Eastern demographic potential and develop a social system are mainly because public policies in this area incorrectly focus on “institutional regulation"; that is, the failure lies in a collapsed institutional paradigm for achieving the programmed goal.
