Suggestions about the problems of the social development, innovations and teaching of economic disciplines

For the recent years the word “innovation” became popular in the researches in social science, “fashionable” in mass-media. It is the consequence of the key value of the term in the formal documents concerning socio-economic development of Russia and its regions.

The fundamental character of this term for the mentioned priorities of the present and the future development of Russia is included into some contradiction with two factors.

First these are steadily low qualitative characteristics of life of the Russians, including bad working conditions, the low level of the public health services’ development, lack of highgrade food stuffs, bad living conditions, etc.1. In this case the contradiction is caused by the fact, that the criteria of innovational development mean a high level of the development of the human capital which major component is the quality of the population’s life.

Second, in the practice of the governmental administration neither the criteria of the social justice (mean the alignment of the social and economic conditions of life and oppor-

• * The research is carried out with the financial support of RFFI within the framework of the project “Information and communication technologies in the region and their influence on the socio-economic development of the RF subjects” (project №11-06-00110-а.).

tunities of the population), nor the criteria of economic efficiency (mean the essential dependence between economic and social results of the subjects’ living ability) are not shown precisely.

The base quantitative criterion of the productivity of the policy of “equation” is the index of incomes’ concentration (Gini index). On this index Russia steadily ranks first among the countries with the advanced and transitive economies (makes 0.4). The deciles ratios are not less illustrative and show consecutive growth of break from 3 (the period of the USSR) to 17 times (2010).

As to breaking the principle of economic efficiency in particular, it can be noted in the essential increase in successful representatives of the medium-scale business, ready to leave the country. The other example from the point of view of the spatial development conclusions of the researchers concerns the weak connection between the social characteristics and economic results of the activity of the Russian Federation subjects [1, 2].

Especially obvious the mentioned feature is shown in the regions of the North (for more details see: [3, p. 113-135]). The raised requirements of northerners for the public health services, high-quality food products, clothes, etc. generate the concern on the coordination of economic and social changes.

Disproportions between economic and social development are shown in the national parameters. So, according to the data for 2010, Russia ranked 50 among 146 countries of the world in the level of economic development (gross national product per capita), and it ranked 65 in the index of the social development (the complex index including the level of the real incomes, educations, life expectancy). The situation with the complex index is obviously rescued by the level of education (the 40th point).

In view of the second factor, the contradiction is caused by the fact that the innovational development is a very expensive way of development demanding predictability of the state economic policy. It is obvious, that the successful movement along the innovational way assumes, as a minimum, establishing of the precise criteria of the socio-economic development.

The absence in practice of management of the settled valuable reference points results in the absence of the distinct purposes of the social development, fixes the unhealthy psychological state of the population, the necessary component of the quality of the population’s life. In this connection the problems being the base subject of researches carried out by psychologists and sociologists, the mass feeling of the social injustice, uncertainty in the future, indifference to the own and another people’s lives, prevalence of depression, fear, deficiency of the ethnic tolerance, destruction of traditional values, etc. are natural.

Some parameters characterizing the psychological state and the social sphere of the modern Russian society are resulted in the researches of the Institute of psychology of the Russian Academy of Science: death rate from suicides is 30.1 for 100 000 inhabitants (the second place in Europe after Lithuania); death rate from casual alcoholic poisoning is 23.1 for 100 000 inhabitants (the first place in Europe and the CIS); death rate from road and transport incidents is 17.5 for 100 000 inhabitants (the third place in Europe and the CIS after Lithuania and Latvia); natural increase of the population is 4.5 for 1000 inhabitants (last places in Europe after Bulgaria and Ukraine); the number of children who live without parents’ care is 89 for 100 000 inhabitants (the second place in the East Europe and the CIS after Lithuania); the number of abortions is 40.6 for 1000 women at the age from 15 to 49 years (the first place in the East Europe and the CIS); index of corruption (measured within the limits from 0 to 10 points, the higher is the point, the lower is the level of corruption) is 2.3 (the 143d position in the world alongside with Gambia, Indonesia, Togo, from 180 possible points). The listed parameters are also supplemented with the other data – annually 2 000 Russian children become the victims of murders and get hard physical injuries, every year 5 000 Russian women die because of their husbands’ assaults; 1.5 million children of the school age do not attend school, there are 40 000 junior prisoners in Russia, that is 3 times more, than in the USSR in the beginning of 1930th (for more details see [4]).

The natural result of the poor quality of life and psychological health of the population of the Russian Federation is the extremely low life expectancy (the last place among the countries with the advanced and transitive economies). In 2009 life expectancy was 68 years on the average (for men – 62 years, for women – 74 years).

Each of the discussed parameters is not only an unfavorable result of the management of social development. Each of them also generates the problems of economic development. According to the forecasts of RosStat from 2011 till 2020 the population of the able-bodied age in the Russian Federation will reduce more than for 20 million people (i.e., for one million people annually). And this demographic call proves that the unique chance of the country for development, and preservation of the territorial integrity is innovational development.

The researches show, that the opportunities of innovational development in Russia for the present exist (see [5]). The perspectives of the major industries depends, first of all, on what was possible to keep in the system of science and higher education.

The problems of teaching. Recently the term “innovational education” or, depending on the context, “innovational educational technologies” became extremely popular, it can be met almost everywhere – in the documents of the bodies of the government, education, science, mass media.

There are also some questions here. What can be considered as innovational educational technology? What place does it take in the system of professional training, including the staff on management in economy? Can this term have deep meaning or is it just the “fashionable” name for the existing typical educational process (by analogy as, for example, “nano-existing” subjects)?

Having addressed to the results of the discussions at conferences, a number of which was devoted to the directly innovational educational process (see [6]), to the information submitted on the high schools’ sites of (see [7]), to the scientific publications (see [8]) it is possible to assert, that as a whole the understanding of this term is unified enough, despite of the typical attempts to hold the infinite discussion of the probable interpretation of terms “innovation”, “education”, “technologies” and the specificity generated by these words’ rearrangement (see [8]).

Informatively this typical understanding can be presented by the following citation: “Modern innovational educational technologies assume maximal use in teaching and educational process of the technical opportunities of receiving, processing, transferring and keeping information. For instance, at studying foreign languages dictophones that allow increasing the intensity of the training process [7] are widely applied. Probably, it isn’t worth to discuss such understanding of “innovations”. Unfortunately, the inclusion of “fashionable” words-mantras, allows raising the chances of getting the financial support for conferences, to provide budgetary places at institutions of higher education, etc.

The attention in the present work is paid to the economy in connection with the fact that recently some “strange attitude” towards it is observed. For example, after the statement of President Medvedev about the excess of economists and lawyers in Russia, the quantity of budgetary places on corresponding specialties was reduced.

At the same time, these directions are the most claimed at the labor market of the Russian Federation. So, of ten most claimed specialties in 2010 only seven are directly connected to the economy and jurisprudence12. Besides it is obvious, that innovational development of the country is impossible without qualitative management, without competent economists. And this practice is the product of mainly typical technologies of training used in the advanced countries creating best economists, commercial managers and state officials in the world.

Let’s consider the problems, characterizing the economy, determining the problems of teaching. It will not be the report on the carried out, strictly argued scientific research, more likely, it is a certain reflection of the specificity of economics as science and educational discipline.

Economic disciplines are extremely various. Still economics as any other special direction of the social studies has a number of potential problems and characteristic features.

The first feature is that economics involves a wide circuit of subjects. It is not only a subject, but a contour of the subject. That is, economics necessarily includes the whole complex of knowledge on history, ethnography, geology, on the whole complex of realities that influence economic processes and in many respects explain them. And there is the whole spectrum of problems for teaching, connected with the necessity to keep economic contents at a rate, but at the same time to give a complex, poly-disciplinary sight at the reality.

In this connection, certainly, it is fine, that nowadays the curriculum of classes can include not only obligatory, federal component subjects, but also the additional ones.

• ² The leaders in the list of specialties: 1) finance, accounting and audit; 2) banks and investment; 3) jurisprudence; 4) informational technologies and mass media; 5) linguistics, translations; 6) ecology; 7) economy and management at enterprises; 8) marketing, advertising, PR; 9) labor market;

It allows giving the students the knowledge actual for concrete region, or significant in some social and economic conditions. But even within the framework of the course the certain danger is represented by the fact that the person of a teacher can hypertrophy one component of influencing economic processes and to neglect another one.

Also it is positive while solving this problem that nowadays in a number of the higher education institutions training experts in certain spheres is carried out - for example, manager of the chemical industry, etc.

This feature, i.e., wide frameworks, integrated approach of economy, is closely connected to the other problem – “the problem of displacement” [5]. The economy as a science, and its component, basis - economic theory – is a huge quantity of layers, stratifications of various views and explanations of economic processes which are starting with different, sometimes even opposite bases, giving huge, difficult to understand quantity of diverse processes.

In a result, considering economic theory of Marxism, a teacher pays attention to the works and the views of Marx, omitting Leninism, and the later attempts of Marx views’ modernization in 30th – 80th years of the XX century (Robinson, Morishim, Vaytszeker, Samuelson, etc.). Or, for example, the same theory of accommodation, as a rule, is absent or is extremely avariciously covered in classical foreign textbooks. Though, undoubtedly, this subject is also interesting as a basis of the theory of urbanization and regional economy.

The other part of the problem of displacement is an involuntary imposing of own, including political, views at teaching economic theory. The matter is that even economic theory implicitly contains political features, and thus works for the political propaganda somehow. And as M. Blaug said, “this element of propaganda is an integral part of the subject, and even when the thinking person assiduously keeps the feeling of the Olympic objectiveness, philosophical and political preferences are present right at the beginning of the analysis at formation of what Shumpeter would define as “vision”, meaning the pre-analytical act of choosing certain features of the reality for consideration.

Here is the problem not in denying the propaganda presence, but in separating scientific ideas from ideology in which they are constantly included, and in representation of these ideas for scientific check with the purpose of their statement. Moreover, propaganda does not mean lie; for example, it doesn’t mean that Marx wanted to discredit capitalism and began from the biases concerning its disadvantages, and it does not mean, that for this reason his analysis is not worthy, political prejudices can even help the scientific analysis – the critic of capitalism, most likely, will pay more attention to the valid lacks of system, and, certainly, Marx’s remark concerning business cycles of fifty years is not casual [11, p. 5].

It seems that the problem for a teacher consists in the balance between his or her own preferences to give students more material about the accepted and shared theories and the necessity of complex teaching the subject. But M. Blaug gives the answer for the probable solution of the problem, speaking about the necessity to show students “as certain biases conduct to various kinds of analysis, and then to ask a question, whether this analysis keeps the value if it is freed from ideological meaning” [11, p. 5]. Certainly, it is possible to agree with this advice, but thus it is important to keep the weighed, median position. That is, there are two kinds of danger: “…There is an anachronistic sin of estimation of the previous authors’ works with the criteria of the modern theory, but there exists another anachronism, which Samuelson once defined as “a refined anachronistic sin of non-recognition of the adequate contents in the works of the previous authors, as they do not use the terminology of the present time” [11, p. 1].

Besides it is necessary for the teacher to how politization influences the views of the author of the discussed theory and whether “ideological meaning” determines the conclusions of the author. We shall take Marx as an example. To all of us it is well-known, that the basis of Marxism is based on the theory of additional value. But thus the common sense is contradicted with an initial sending - that any worker with the same qualification creates the identical sum of additional value.

It is clear, that even if workers receive the same wages they do not create identical additional value, extracting oil or twisting nuts at a factory. Moreover, even extracting oil, we admit, in Siberia and in oil fields of Iraq the additional value will be different. Marx does not result any argument, forcing to believe in his assumption of the identical norm of the surplus value for a worker. If to reject this sending the building erected by Marx, falls. The other obvious contradiction is Marxist statement, that the surplus value is not created in the sphere of the manipulation. Marx’s theory about productive work, according to which services are excluded from the national income as are characterized by transfer payments, was taken into account in practice at conducting national accounts in the USSR.

Actually aforesaid is closely connected to another immanent problem of the economy – the problem of the ratio of theory and practice, theory and reality. This potential problem is connected to the concept of reflexivity. Here it is possible to study the theory of reflexivity in detail, as the theory of reflexivity of well-known speculator G. Soros was actively discussed in Russia. And Soros suggests counting this criterion, the criterion of reflexivity as a divider, a boundary between natural and social studies.

What is the essence of his reasoning? The perception of the observer of some natural object does not influence the condition of this object. As though a geologist perceived breed, it would remain the same. Social sciences study the society which part the observer is.

Therefore the perception of the observer can change the society. It is possible for us to give religion as a historical example (the change of the society under the influence of Christianity), policy (the consequence of the economic theory of Marxism), and science (A. Einstein’s influence). In other words, reflexivity is spontaneous and self-supporting natural process in the social environment which under the influence of perception and expectations of the participants can change the condition of this environment. The presence of this feedback among the observer and an object of supervision explains (by Soros) the distinction between natural and social studies.

“The phenomena investigated by social studies... – Soros writes, – have conceiving participants, and in makes everything complicated. As I tried to show, the sights of the participants are prejudiced … at decision-making the participants base not on the objective conditions, but on interpretation of these conditions. It is an important point … It enters the element of uncertainty which makes the object of research less influenced by that type of generalizations, previews and explanations which helped natural sciences to win the reputation” [12, p. 14] “Offering the general theory of reflexivity, I, probably, have gone too far and moved too quickly. I assert that economic theory is incorrect, and social studies represent only false metaphor” [12, p. 17].

The question – is Economics a science and does it progress? – interests many outstanding scientists-economists. It is possible to completely agree with such position? Perhaps, the most objective answer was given by M. Blaug, 50 years earlier Soros’ theory. “Any assumptions of economic behavior are not absolutely true for all times and all places, but will anybody seriously deny, that progress was achieved in the methods and analytical constructions of economic science?” [11, p. 3]. P. Samuelson’s statement is interesting in this connection: “… experience shows, that though gawks did not achieve success, nevertheless it is not necessary to be the super-person to be fruitfully engaged in the subject which people have named economic theory and which is halfway between art and science” [13, p. 9].

Thus, these questions are already being discussed for a long time. Therefore Soros’ ideas are a little discussed abroad and actively discussed in Russia. Who knows, maybe, the opinion of managers about uselessness of economists for the Russian Federation, and that it is not necessary for a manager to know economic bases, etc. are caused by the discussions from the pseudo-scientific environment of the Soros’ book, for example, on the Internet?

But what it means for a teacher - the balance between art and science? In my opinion, the ultimate goal of economic education is not simple accumulation of knowledge. For knowledge to be fruitful it is necessary to learn students of the methodology of making decisions in any situation. John Meynard Keynes said, that economic theory does not give conclusions directly applied to politics. It is a method, instead of a doctrine, a device, technique of thinking which helps its owner to make correct conclusions. In other words, teaching economics it not teaching of a set of facts and definitions. It essentially differs by the fact that includes training the way of solving problems.

P. Samuelson’s statement in his well-known textbook runs: “The first problem of the modern economic science is to describe, analyze and explain the dynamics of production, unemployment, prices and other similar phenomena and also to establish the ratio between them. For such description has any value, it should represent something more, than enumerating of incoherent transfers. It should be subordinated to the certain system; it is understood as the original analysis” [13, p. 9].

That is, it is necessary to submit the information from the point of view of opportunities of the analysis and opportunities of prediction.

For example, Adam Smith understood the way how the market mechanism is capable to coordinate independent decisions of sellers and buyers, but he didn’t notice such a basic thing, as the functional ratio between demand and price. It took one hundred years when Valras, Marshal, Paretto revealed the logic of Smith’s idea about “the invisible hand” (see M. Blaug in [11]). And the necessity of illumination of the historical and socio-economic context of arising theories probably through the prism of statement, that finally any theory is focused on prognosis function. And, the forecast depends on the forces which fed the economic science.

Such approach will allow expanding the political understanding of the existing problems of economy and social sphere of the present and to find adequate ways for their solution. That is, contrary to the statements of G. Soros, it is necessary for students to show, that the truth concentrates in a limiting increment to economic knowledge. Thus it is necessary to create the general logic of reasoning, illustrating what concrete each theory allows to make in the economic analysis. Such approach will allow generating competent experts, capable to solve arising problems, including those ones connected with the innovational development.