The author s systematically examine the data of variou s Russian sur veys of the society social stru ctur e dur ing the 2000-s and give a negative answer to the question abou t the existence of the Russian middle class. The author s indicate theor etical weakness and lack of methodological grou nds in overwhelming major ity of middle class research in Russia, consider the estimations of its «size» to be extremely exaggerated. They emphasize that the num ber of the mo st important attributes of middle class (stable financial situation, considerable savings, incomomes from rom enterprising activity and not from rom redistribution of raw materials rent, possession of power and influence on political decisions in the cou ntry; interest in society mo dernization and willingness to participate in it; shaped collective identity, etc.) are lacking in the Russian society. Interm ediate layers of the Russian society without class, status and the party can't exist as an independent, author itative and influential social grou p. In the «myth» abou t middle class in Russia spread in the circles close to the Russian author ities the author s see the relic of the myth about convergence – Epigonic at present ideas that soo ner or later the whole wor ld will appro ach the Western, mor e exactly American, pattern of economomic and social development.
В статье анализируются предписания уголовно-правовой нормы об отсрочке отбывания наказания (ст. 82 УК РФ): условия применения отсрочки, ее продолжительность, основания отмены. В рамках условий предоставления отсрочки (ст. 82 УК РФ) исследовано содержание понятия «наличие ребенка», признаки отсутствия осуждения за тяжкие преступления против личности на срок свыше 5 лет, осуждения за преступления против половой неприкосновенности несовершеннолетних, рассмотрены виды наказаний, исполнение которых может быть отсрочено. Указывается на необходимость пересмотра подходов к установлению продолжительности срока отсрочки отбывания наказания. Дана характеристика оснований отмены отсрочки, внесены предложения по совершенствованию законодательства. Выявлены серьезные пробелы уголовно-правового регулирования отсрочки отбывания наказания (ст. 82 УК РФ), предложены рекомендации по их преодолению. Подчеркивается важность детального комплексного – уголовного, уголовно-процессуального и уголовно-исполнительного – правового регулирования института отсрочки отбывания наказания (ст. 82 УК РФ). ; The paper analyzes the criminal law regulations on punishment suspension (art. 82 of the Criminal code of the Russian Federation): the conditions of application of the suspension, its duration, the grounds for revocation. In the framework of suspension conditions (art. 82 of the Criminal code of the Russian Federation) the content of the «presence of a child» notion, the signs of absense of convictions for serious crimes against the person for a term of over 5 years, conviction for crimes against the sexual inviolability of minors are examined. The author considers the types of punishment whose execution may be delayed. The need for reviewing approaches to determining the duration of punishment suspension is stressed, the characteristics of the grounds for cancellation of punishment suspension are suggested. The author proposes ways of improving the legislation. Serious gaps in criminal legal regulation punishment suspension (art. 82 of the Criminal code of the Russian Federation) are revealed, recommendations for the ways of overcoming them are given. The article emphasizes the importance of the detailed complex (criminal, criminal-procedural and criminal-executive) legal regulation of the institute of punishment suspension (art. 82 of the Criminal code of the Russian Federation).
The author estimates social consequences of the so called «demographic transition* or the problem of «population ageing* in the modern world: to what extent is contemporary society ready for effective utilization of the emerged economical, consumer, and cultural resources of aged and elderly citizens. The process of ageing in Russia differs considerably from that in the developed countries. It is taking place against the background of high mortality rate and population diminution, as well as significant gap between the sexes in the rate of life expectancy (in favor of women), the weakness of retirement welfare system, poverty in Russia expressed not only in economical or financial terms but in primitivism of notions of employers and the authorities on the whole about individuals, their needs, abilities and possibilities. Such notions correspond to earlier stages of socioeconomic development and do not meet the requirements of the present day that have become a norm in the majority of the industrially developed countries. This also concerns all aspects of social, economical and political life in Russia, and requires the attention to be paid to it, and reformulating the objectives of social policy and society, the aims and purposes of executive power, as well as reforming the systems of social welfare and healthcare. Without these steps the strategy of long term development of the country, transition to innovational way remain highly problematic, if at all real. ; The author estimates social consequences of the so called «demographic transition* or the problem of «population ageing* in the modern world: to what extent is contemporary society ready for effective utilization of the emerged economical, consumer, and cultural resources of aged and elderly citizens. The process of ageing in Russia differs considerably from that in the developed countries. It is taking place against the background of high mortality rate and population diminution, as well as significant gap between the sexes in the rate of life expectancy (in favor of women), the weakness of retirement welfare system, poverty in Russia expressed not only in economical or financial terms but in primitivism of notions of employers and the authorities on the whole about individuals, their needs, abilities and possibilities. Such notions correspond to earlier stages of socioeconomic development and do not meet the requirements of the present day that have become a norm in the majority of the industrially developed countries. This also concerns all aspects of social, economical and political life in Russia, and requires the attention to be paid to it, and reformulating the objectives of social policy and society, the aims and purposes of executive power, as well as reforming the systems of social welfare and healthcare. Without these steps the strategy of long term development of the country, transition to innovational way remain highly problematic, if at all real.
Methodical approaches to the integral measurement of social sentiments dynamics of Russia's population are set forth in the article. The author analyzes changes in sentiments of Russia's society during the recent few years on the basis of Social Sentiments Index (SSI), which is the most general indicator of societal mass sentiments development that estimates actual dynamics of the situation in the society and expresses the influence of mass conscience on the development of the country. The necessity of further improving the technique of the SSI construction is grounded that is connected, first, with the need of verifying actual effectiveness of the instrument developed ten years ago and second, with the desire to extend the spectrum of social-economical and political evaluations that are important for constructing the integral index. The results of developing and applying the new methods of constructing the SSI are presented in the article. Factor analysis shows that new points developed instead of "controversial" points of the existing technique of SSI calculation meet the task of constructing the consolidated index also from the formallystatistical point of view. Statistical analysis of the possibility of including new indices in calculations of a consolidated index of social sentiments allowed suggesting a new, extended version of SSI that also takes into account the population attitude to power structures the President and the Government. High level of positive correlation between indices calculated by different techniques also proves that these methodical changes meet the task of measuring the consolidated dynamics of social sentiments. The development of a new instrument allowed not only to replenish the existing technique of constructing the consolidated index of social sentiments dynamics Social Sentiments Index (SSI), but also to widen the understanding and ways of measuring the processes of mass sentiments formation. Both new indices confirm the dynamic evaluations of social sentiments that are now being measured by the SSI. But the disturbing fact is that extension of the factors spectrum of social sentiments formation provided by the improved technique of calculation shows much more significant aggravation of social sentiments. ; Methodical approaches to the integral measurement of social sentiments dynamics of Russia's population are set forth in the article. The author analyzes changes in sentiments of Russia's society during the recent few years on the basis of Social Sentiments Index (SSI), which is the most general indicator of societal mass sentiments development that estimates actual dynamics of the situation in the society and expresses the influence of mass conscience on the development of the country. The necessity of further improving the technique of the SSI construction is grounded that is connected, first, with the need of verifying actual effectiveness of the instrument developed ten years ago and second, with the desire to extend the spectrum of social-economical and political evaluations that are important for constructing the integral index. The results of developing and applying the new methods of constructing the SSI are presented in the article. Factor analysis shows that new points developed instead of "controversial" points of the existing technique of SSI calculation meet the task of constructing the consolidated index also from the formallystatistical point of view. Statistical analysis of the possibility of including new indices in calculations of a consolidated index of social sentiments allowed suggesting a new, extended version of SSI that also takes into account the population attitude to power structures the President and the Government. High level of positive correlation between indices calculated by different techniques also proves that these methodical changes meet the task of measuring the consolidated dynamics of social sentiments. The development of a new instrument allowed not only to replenish the existing technique of constructing the consolidated index of social sentiments dynamics Social Sentiments Index (SSI), but also to widen the understanding and ways of measuring the processes of mass sentiments formation. Both new indices confirm the dynamic evaluations of social sentiments that are now being measured by the SSI. But the disturbing fact is that extension of the factors spectrum of social sentiments formation provided by the improved technique of calculation shows much more significant aggravation of social sentiments.
Possibility of creating the consolidated indices of social Мониторинг общественного мнения № 1 (57) январь-февраль 2002 dispositions for describing the dynamics of totality of social, political and economical notions of Russia's population is analyzed in the article. Constructing the generalized evaluations of individual dispositions of society members allows to determine and to measure quantitatively the extent of the influence of a subjective factor reflecting the impact of totality of individual preferences and dispositions of particular persons on the development of society as a whole. Evidently, the very way this problem is posed presumes that particular citizens enjoy rather high degree of freedom in their activity (as "homo political", "economical"). Transformational processes going on in Russia during the recent decade are aimed at the extension of civil and economical freedom of private citizens. The factor analysis of distributions of the answers to a series 'of questions about the population attitude to the changes in political and economical life, evaluations of the present situation and expectations of the future prove the grounds for using the Index of Social Dispositions (ISD) for generalized evaluation of the dynamics of social dispositions. "Social dispositions" are considered as an independent factor of forming people's behavior in the process of their everyday activity (as a factor of forming the political as well as electoral and economical behavior). Well-foundedness of using the ISD as the index measuring the state and dynamics of social dispositions is supported by the analysis of intercorrelation of ISD and objective characteristics of economical behavior of the country's population. The hypothesis about the influence of social dispositions on people's behavior at macro level is verified by the analysis of intercorrelation of the ISD and dynamics of the volumes of country's retail trade (measured by the data of the State Statistics Committee of the Russian Federation). The function of Russia's population demand including the ISD as an explanatory variable is constructed (function's parameters are evaluated by the method of regression analysis based on the data of 1995-2000 years). The analysis based on this function indicates that social dispositions are a significant factor of forming the dynamics of retail trade though (and it's natural) their role is less significant as compared to the main economical factors of forming the dynamics of consumption (personal money incomes and prices). Increase in social dispositions promotes enhancing population's consumption activity and this activity has been getting more intensive during the recent two years and the magnitude of elasticity coefficient of retail trade from ISD is increasing. ; Possibility of creating the consolidated indices of social Мониторинг общественного мнения № 1 (57) январь-февраль 2002 dispositions for describing the dynamics of totality of social, political and economical notions of Russia's population is analyzed in the article. Constructing the generalized evaluations of individual dispositions of society members allows to determine and to measure quantitatively the extent of the influence of a subjective factor reflecting the impact of totality of individual preferences and dispositions of particular persons on the development of society as a whole. Evidently, the very way this problem is posed presumes that particular citizens enjoy rather high degree of freedom in their activity (as "homo political", "economical"). Transformational processes going on in Russia during the recent decade are aimed at the extension of civil and economical freedom of private citizens. The factor analysis of distributions of the answers to a series 'of questions about the population attitude to the changes in political and economical life, evaluations of the present situation and expectations of the future prove the grounds for using the Index of Social Dispositions (ISD) for generalized evaluation of the dynamics of social dispositions. "Social dispositions" are considered as an independent factor of forming people's behavior in the process of their everyday activity (as a factor of forming the political as well as electoral and economical behavior). Well-foundedness of using the ISD as the index measuring the state and dynamics of social dispositions is supported by the analysis of intercorrelation of ISD and objective characteristics of economical behavior of the country's population. The hypothesis about the influence of social dispositions on people's behavior at macro level is verified by the analysis of intercorrelation of the ISD and dynamics of the volumes of country's retail trade (measured by the data of the State Statistics Committee of the Russian Federation). The function of Russia's population demand including the ISD as an explanatory variable is constructed (function's parameters are evaluated by the method of regression analysis based on the data of 1995-2000 years). The analysis based on this function indicates that social dispositions are a significant factor of forming the dynamics of retail trade though (and it's natural) their role is less significant as compared to the main economical factors of forming the dynamics of consumption (personal money incomes and prices). Increase in social dispositions promotes enhancing population's consumption activity and this activity has been getting more intensive during the recent two years and the magnitude of elasticity coefficient of retail trade from ISD is increasing.
The corruption agenda is be best reviewed in the context of public opinion on the government authority, public perception of the government authority, public discontent with the authorities and, therefore the civil identity. The vast amounts of available research materials on the subject usually miss the actual public's behavior, which is typically more tolerant towards informal corrupt practices of the common public. Sociological study of the public opinion on the nature, the reasons and scope of corruption in our society documents the discrepancy between the general public's idea of corruption in the society and government, and personal involvement is such corrupt connections and deals. «Small» favors and «gifts» – an archaic form of communication in a society where trust is exclusively personal, as opposed to formal and institutional, by nature – are not viewed as evil and corrupt, as the informal interaction with the government, as opposed to modern formal and impersonal bureaucratic institutions. This system of ideas legitimizes any forms and strategies of a «common» man's adaptation to the all-powerful and impersonal, but always a repressive state. The acceptance of informal social interaction between the «insiders» entrenched in our society creates a perfect environment for total common corruption of both the society and authorities. This is not about the corrupt deals, but rather a whole system of social standards and ideas, which make social life more flexible and meeting the populations' needs, compensating the immature, undifferentiated and inefficient social system. The price Russian society pays for such pseudotraditionalism is an extensive stagnation in the key areas of social infrastructure, which should actually welcome the legal regulations, specialized knowledge, formal and special social mediators and communication channels. The research registered ambivalent attitude towards corruption which heavily depended on two conditions. On the one hand, it is the size and the form of the «appreciation» (extremes would be – a cash bribe and a «small» non-monetary gift or a reciprocated favor), on the other hand, the informal interaction (interaction with a public officer or the «insider», i.e. affected by the personal involvement: the family doctor, an influential or important acquaintance or a relative, etc.). The public therefore shrugs off any moral responsibility for corrupt practices. In fact, a good portion of such type of practices is not even classified as deviant or unacceptable. The society does not understand the direct link between the archaic traditional channels of communication and thriving corrupt practices in the modern society, as the cash-based social institutions and interface structure grow deeper and more complex. The ideas about the corruption being the result of existing authority's structure and its interface with the general public, primarily with the economy, are poorly articulated in the Russian society. They rather exist as a common moralistic «power corrupts» notion (84% respondents supported this statement). Russian society practically has no idea of the actual ways to resist corruption or specific social institutions which would be responsible for bringing the solution to the problem. The public is usually concerned with low level corruption. The financial and banking sectors are usually viewed as the least corrupt. The recent increased public concern with corruption is an important component of the solution, but provided the focus is on the institutional reasons and the direct connection to the problems relating to the relationships between the public and the government (not the low level corruption).
The article is focused on analysis of consuming behaviour of the population in the domain of educational and medical services, based principally on findings of sociological surveys of the general public. The authors have left beyond consideration value-related estimates of expenditure on education and health. Collection of primary information for analysis of involvement of households in payment for services in the domain of education and health, and the frequency of instances of turning them down for the reason of lack of money for payment, determine the specific features of this study. Findings of the survey conducted testify not just to a high frequency of paid forms of medical treatment and education but also that this tendency is to a considerable extent involuntary. In the first place this conclusion refers to medical treatment. The prices that have settled in the market of medical and educational services are rather high in relation to the population's average per capita incomes, therefore a majority of chargeable medical and educational services are available only for wealthy strata of the population. If paid services on education or health are required, even families with a middle level of wealth experience serious economic difficulties. The differentiation by expenditure on education and health is practically twofold greater than that by the entire complex of expenses. In combination, these two factors urge to assess in a different way the standard of living as well as the scale of poverty. Government policy of allowances for expensive medical services and Pharmaceuticals does not solve these problems since in 5060 per cent of cases the respective categories of citizens cannot actualise available privileges because of the nominal financing of social programmes. Against the background of the declining standard of living of Russia's population, this situation essentially aggravates the already great differentiation in the level of wealth among residents of the country, which is an additional factor intensifying social inequity. ; The article is focused on analysis of consuming behaviour of the population in the domain of educational and medical services, based principally on findings of sociological surveys of the general public. The authors have left beyond consideration value-related estimates of expenditure on education and health. Collection of primary information for analysis of involvement of households in payment for services in the domain of education and health, and the frequency of instances of turning them down for the reason of lack of money for payment, determine the specific features of this study. Findings of the survey conducted testify not just to a high frequency of paid forms of medical treatment and education but also that this tendency is to a considerable extent involuntary. In the first place this conclusion refers to medical treatment. The prices that have settled in the market of medical and educational services are rather high in relation to the population's average per capita incomes, therefore a majority of chargeable medical and educational services are available only for wealthy strata of the population. If paid services on education or health are required, even families with a middle level of wealth experience serious economic difficulties. The differentiation by expenditure on education and health is practically twofold greater than that by the entire complex of expenses. In combination, these two factors urge to assess in a different way the standard of living as well as the scale of poverty. Government policy of allowances for expensive medical services and Pharmaceuticals does not solve these problems since in 5060 per cent of cases the respective categories of citizens cannot actualise available privileges because of the nominal financing of social programmes. Against the background of the declining standard of living of Russia's population, this situation essentially aggravates the already great differentiation in the level of wealth among residents of the country, which is an additional factor intensifying social inequity.
