Integration of Public Government Institutions in the Process of the State Social Policies Formation in the South of Russia

Abstract

Introduction. The study is devoted to the analysis of modern integration processes in the context of the state social policy implementation, taking the specifics of the public policy space in the macroregional dimension into account. The research problem is to clarify the optimal predictive scenarios for the development of the integration of public government institutions in the decision-making process aimed at the formation of social policy in the South of Russia. Methodology and methods. The study was conducted in the context of two methodological foundations (structural functionalism as interpreted by T. Parsons and M. Olson’s theory of collective action). The choice of methodological tools is due to the presence of two components in the object of analysis – the functional process of implementing social policy and the communicative nature of institutional integration. Quantitative content analysis is used to clarify the priorities of the socio-political development of the southern Russia regions. The sources and materials of the study were official documents (strategies for the socio-economic development of the southern Russia regions), reports on the implementation of state programs, as well as materials of state statistics of the Russian Federation. Analysis. The modern political and communicative environment in Russia is characterized by the public sphere transformation in the context of constitutional changes and modernization reforms. Social policy is presented as a product that addresses a fundamental function – the achievement of social welfare. Regionalization of Russia determines the direction and form of communications regarding the implementation of social policy. At the same time, in the southern Russia regions, a positive practice of integration interaction is recorded in the form of the adoption of a fundamentally new document “social code”, which unites many social practices. Results. Based on the results of the study, it was revealed that the existing practices of regional integration are based on replicating the best practices in the South of Russia. The formation of state social policy in the macro-regional dimension is based on the implementation of federal target programs and state projects. At the same time, each of the regions has its own request for the formation of social policy priorities, which allows them to be segmented into two groups: regions with existing infrastructure for the development of the social sphere, as well as regions that systematize the best practices of social project management in order to form their own development infrastructure.