Читать книгу Putin's Russia - Группа авторов - Страница 12

The competitive market ideal is horizontal. The people themselves seeking profits and utility run the economy, with no governmental assistance beyond facilitating private activity through what John Locke called the social contract: “rule of law”, basic infrastructural support, border protection, defence and elementary education. This ideal mischaracterises modern realities. Contemporary market economies across the globe have become vertical.

Governments provide a vast array of public programmes, including social safety nets. They establish the rules of market conduct and regulate economic behaviour. Some public programmes in Russia, like munitions production in state-owned factories, education in state schools, roads and mass transportation, are included in the GDP. Standard comparisons of Russia’s economic performance fully capture this value-added. Other government sector activities like unemployment, healthcare and retirement insurance-transfer schemes do not generate value-added for the national income accounting purposes and are disregarded in standard comparisons of Russia’s economic performance and potential, making GDP an incomplete indicator of the comparative quality of Russian life. The same principle holds for intangibles like democracy, civil liberties, civic harmony, social justice, environmental purity (greenness) and spiritual community (sobornost). Any comprehensive assessment of the comparative merit of Russia’s imperfectly competitive market system with Muscovite characteristics must take into account the utility of insurance transfers and intangibles. Russian economic performance on both these scores is poor by Western standards, but is improving.