Contents №1-2018
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PUBLIC POLICY
THE BUDGET FOR CITIZENS: ANALYSIS OF THE RUSSIAN REGIONS USING THE QCA
Smorgunov L.V. pp.6-17
Abstract: Citizens’ participation in forming, monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of the public budget has become the most important form of collaboration between citizens and the government. This form takes on special significance in the conditions of the digital government, when a platform is formed for the “co-production” of public budgets. Modern budgeting on the basis of collaboration transforms the designs of budget policy, responsibility systems, processes of revealing public values, etc. This paper analyzes the Russian case of an open budget for citizens in the context of various conditions: socioeconomic and informational, which create inclusive capacity of regions. This practice was introduced in 2013 at the federal and regional levels. Although the institutions of the “budget for citizens” are used to legitimize the regimes, they are also factors of mutual learning for collaboration. Transparency of budget data, participation of citizens in budgeting, initiative budgeting affect the Russian designs of inclusive budgeting in the regions. Based on various ratings of open budgeting and the study of the structure of opportunities for participation, a complex configuration of the conditions for the openness of the budget and participation in the budgeting of citizens is explained. Three models of the policy of electronic participation in budgeting are singled out. The main hypothesis of the study is that the higher the level of inclusive capacity of the region, the higher the openness of budget data and citizen participation in budgeting. To compare the 22 regions of Russia, the method of comparative qualitative analysis (QCA) was used.
Keywords: open budget, budget for citizens, requisites of open budget, inclusive capacities, Russian regions, method QCA.
POLITICAL INSTITUTES AND PROCESSES
VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL DIVISIONS IN PARTY SYSTEMS OF STATES IN WESTERN BALKANS: CASES OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA, SERBIA AND CROATIA
Elsakov A.S. pp.18-41
Abstract: The article investigates the degree of heterogeneity of the Western Balkans’ party systems, and applies the concept of Bardi and Mair in order to define whether there are pronounced vertical and horizontal divisions in their party systems. The examples are the party systems of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Croatia. Mentioned divisions are able to influence both the composition and the quantity of the system actors, as well as the prevailing mode of interparty competition in the system. The significant presence of those divisions can insulate particular party system’s functional arenas, where the competition takes place, to such an extent, that it is almost impossible to speak of one unified party system, but rather of a range of subsystems, or, even some party systems inside one polity. In the long run, the integrity of any given party system is defined by the degree of presence of the divisions in the national party system, and, hence, by the degree of separation of particular parts of the party system from each other. The data on the particularity of the electoral systems, on the administrative-territorial structure and on the main political actors which are related directly to the mentioned divisions suggest that they can be important in a varying degree for the functioning of party systems of the countries concerned. First, there are actually several, well-insulated from each other, party systems in Bosnia and Herzegovina, especially at the electoral level; second, the Serbian party system comprises a regional subsystem that differs significantly from the national level; and, third, the party system of Croatia remains unified but contains the pronounced regional cluster inside.
Keywords: political parties, party system, electoral system, subsystem of a party system, functional arena, vertical division, horizontal division, social cleavage, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia, Western Balkans.
THE MIGRATION-DEVELOPMENT NEXUS WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE GLOBAL MIGRATION REGIME
Loshkariov I.D. pp.42-60
Abstract: The article assesses the prospects for the functioning of the global regime in the sphere of migration given the active integration of the migration-development nexus into the international agenda. The author reveals the evolution and essence of this concept, defines the concept of «international regime» and identifies specific characteristics of norms and principles of the global migration regime.
The migration-development nexus treats the role of migrants very narrowly and assumes their active participation in the transfer of capital, knowledge and skills to the countries of origin as well as the use of migrants’ specific information in the investment business. As a result, this is expected to bring positive macroeconomic results. At the same time, it implies to direct efforts mainly in the countries of the global South, which does not correspond to the existing trends of the global migration. In its current form, the migration-development nexus is very unprofitable for the low-income states of Africa and Oceania and also contributes to the growth of migration flows, rather than to their gradual reduction.
The active implementation of the ideas of migration-development nexus adversely affects the global migration regime, it leads to increased inequality of states within the regime and shifts the priorities of the regime toward strengthening supervisory (and not mediatory) functions. The final outcome is «the democracy deficit» within the regime. The author comes to conclusion that migration-development nexus and the whole global migration regime can be transformed with the help of key recipient states as well as non-state migrant communities and diasporas.
Keywords: international regime, migration, migration-development nexus, diasporas, norms and principles.
POLITICAL CONFLICTOLOGY
ETHNICITY AS A CONTEXT OF CONFLICT INTERACTION: PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SOCIO-POLITICAL ASPECTS
Rogochaya G.P., Savva, E.V., Ul’ko E.V. pp.61-75
Abstract: The article examines the ethnicity on the psychological and socio-political aspects of interaction, the impact of ethnicity on the perception of conflict, behaviour in conflict and the technology of regulating conflicts. From the point of view of methodology, researching ethno-political conflicts between the three competing a paradigms of ethnicity: instrumentalism, and constructivism, and primordialism a crucial marker of ethnicity are called ethnic identity. Mediation is an example of a procedural approach and a new social technology to build a constructive interaction between the parties to the conflict, taking into account the cultural characteristics and value orientations. The article offers the author’s definition ethnomediation as a procedure for resolving conflicts when at least one of the conflicting parties creates it is own requirements, guided ethnic attitudes, values and stereotypes. The methods of research of conflict perceptions of respondents about the ordinary life situations of conflict was the interview, the evaluation procedure of Proverbs from the Abkhaz and Russian folklore, standardized methodology: test “strategy of behavior in conflict” by K. Thomas, the test for the assessment of the level of conflict of personality. The knowledge of the specificity of perception of conflict situations representatives of various ethnic groups should be included in the design and procedure of ethnomediation. Without the development of the ethics of dialogue given the ethnic aspect of the communications will always remain the threat of escalation can occur between people of differences in ethnic and ethnopolitical conflicts.
Keywords: Ethnicity, ethno-political conflict, psychology of conflict interaction, mediation, ethnomedicine, the perception of conflict situations.
SOCIOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION
THE EMPIRICAL TYPES OF HOUSING DEPRIVATION: EVALUATION OF INTRAAND INTER-REGIONAL VARIATION (AS EXEMPLIFIED BY KALUGA REGION)
Kazakova A.Y. pp.76-90
Abstract: The theme of housing deprivation in contemporary sociology is almost entirely lacking, and attempts to build a typology of causing deprivation conditions are just rare. In this article we try to highlight those forms of living conditions that make it impossible to meet objectively housing needs regardless of their assessment by population. On the basis of data of census 2010 according to RF regions and municipalities inside the regions, we allocated the amount of several empirical types of deprivation in housing situations that allow to clearly identify the social composition of those experiencing the most acute and urgent need of housing, whose the housing-associated needs in different ways (not just economic) reasons, stay suppressed for a long time. These include: explicit and latent homelessness; living in institutional housing as a part of collective households; the coexistence of private households in conditions of communal apartments and dormitories; life in dilapidated and unsafe buildings and houses belonging to objects of cultural heritage; “voluntary deprivation” that occurs in conditions of semi-nomadic way of life “in two houses”; mass deprivation of entire villages due to their degradation, depopulation and stigma; finally, the living area deficit and Vice versa, the excess of the square. We not only do evaluate the size of the segments of the housing deprivileging of Kaluga region population. The share of those segments as a part of total population is so small that they are usually stay invisible to researchers as a kind of “particular”, “emissions”, “error”, which can be neglected without any violation of the representation of the picture. On the material of Kaluga region, we also estimate a structural ratio of these segments in terms of intra and inter — regional variation to identify the degree of housing impact due to social tensions in the region.
Keywords: deprivation, needs, housing deprivation, types of depriving situations, the scale of housing deprivation.
PERSONALITY PSYCHOLOGY
VARIABILITY OF SOCIO-COGNITIVE PREDICTORS OF OBEDIENCE TO AUTHORITY DEPENDING ON THE DEGREE OF EXPRESSIVENESS OF SELF-PERCEPTION AN OBEDIENT PERSONALITY
Belykh T.V., Knyazev E.B. pp.91-101
Abstract: Results of the research directed to identification of social and cognitive predictors of obedience to authority depending on degree of its expressiveness among the young people are presented in the article. 170 students of Saratov State University participated in this research. All respondents were divided into four groups according to the degree of expressiveness of obedience detected on the basis of a technique of T. Leary “The Interpersonal Diagnosis of Personality”. Furthermore, on the basis of the multiple regression analysis, four regression models were constructed and obedience predictors for each of its degree are revealed. It is shown that regression models have different predictive value, so the models constructed for low and extreme degree of expressiveness of obedience have the greatest reliability in forecasting of obedience of the personality to the authority. Among predictors of obedience appeared: social installation on egoism, assessment by respondents of the requirement to have warm relations with surrounding people, self-perception as the personality respecting the other people and self-perception as the personality inclined to domination. It is revealed that the social and cognitive characteristics of the personality that are predictors of the obedience to authority are variable depending on its degree of expressiveness. The social and cognitive predictors of obedience of the personality to authority found during this research and also their variability indicate that there is no general, clearly defined predictor that could unambiguously predict obedience or non-obedience of the personality to authority. On the basis of the analysis of the constructed regression models, it is shown that obedience of the personality to authority is a complicated social and psychological phenomenon that is impacted by the complex of the reasons. Among those are social and psychological characteristics of the personality relating to process of social knowledge.
Keywords: obedience, predictor, social intelligence, emotional intelligence, level of subjective control, social attitude.
CONNECTION BETWEEN PERSONALITY TRAITS OF MOTHERS AND THE NATURE OF INTERACTION WITH THE CHILD IN A SINGLE PARENT FAMILY
Hozyainova P.M. pp.102-116
Abstract: In contemporary reality, the single-parent family in most cases consists of the mother with one or several children, i. e. is actually maternal one. The women in these conditions have to keep the house alone, have to think about the material well-being of the family, bring up children — performing their maternal functions and compensating the absence of paternal ones. Such restructuring of family roles changes the personality traits of a woman and affects the personality development of her child through their mutual relationships. This situation requires investigation of the phenomenon of motherhood in a single-parent family from the viewpoint of the impact of her personality characteristics on the mutual relationship with the child.
The article describes particular aspects of mother-child interaction in two-parent and single parent families. The comparative characteristics of the interaction between mother and child are given for both groups of women. The specific aspect of mother-child interaction has been distinguished with reference to single parent families, manifested by the destructive nature of their relation to the child. Mothers raising a child in a single parent family are more demanding, controlling, excessively anxious about the child, demonstrating more educational and character-building confrontation than women raising a child in a two-parent family. Further, the interconnection has been observed between the personality traits of a woman being a mother in a single parent family and the nature of her interaction with her child. Such personal traits of women have been distinguished which may be transformed under the impact of the double role load borne in such families: family values and gender aspects. The destructive trends in relation to the child are connected with higher significance of such family values as social activity, household aspects and attractive appearance. The occurrence of masculine features leads to lower degree of the acceptance of child, inconsistency of upbringing and excessive control. Thus, a conclusion has been made about the interconnection between the personality traits of a woman being a mother raising her child in a single parent family with the nature of her interaction with the child.
Keywords: single parent family, personality traits of women, interaction with the child, mother-child interaction, family values.
REVIEWS
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR AS A SUBJECT OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH: OVERVIEW OF SCIENTIFIC VIEWS AND CONCEPTS
Pokul V.O. pp.117-126
Abstract: The article seeks to demonstrate how consumer behaviour is actualized as a subject of scientific analysis in economic, social and humanitarian studies. It is shown that most definitions of consumer behaviour are emphasized on buying an article and making a decision on purchase, and most approaches consider purchase behaviour a synonym of a consumer one.
Different theoretical viewpoints in the studies on consumer behaviour either often lead to its single-sided interpretation or are based on eclectic extrapolation of knowledge from one academic field to another. This very fact explains diversity of applied notions that basically mean the same phenomenon (“consumer behaviour”, “economic behaviour”, “behaviour of customers”, “purchase behaviour”). However, many-sided nature of this phenomenon has not been discovered yet.
In the new age, scientific grounding of impartial markers of consumer behaviour becomes urgent due to the fact that web 2.0 technologies, in particular social media, allow consumers to actively integrate their real life into the online space. The analysis of these processes demonstrates that some aspects of personal behaviour on the Internet are identical to real-life consumer behaviour, others are completely opposite, and finally there are aspects that bear no relation to classical models of consumer behaviour which were formed in marketing theories.
Reflections on vision of consumer behaviour phenomenology in papers of marketing experts, sociologists and psychologists lead to a belief that further development of the theory and practice of consumer behaviour requires an interdisciplinary approach which will allow a group of different-field researchers to pursue joint studies on this complex socioeconomic and psychological phenomenon.
Keywords: consumer behaviour, economic behaviour, marketing psychology, social media