The Middle Class as the Reflection of the Economic and Sociocultural Model of Russia's Development Today

Abstract

Based on materials of nationwide surveys conducted by the Institute of Sociology, Russian Academy of Sciences in recent years, the article analyzes the economic and sociocultural characteristics of the Russian middle class as a reflection of the model of Russia's development. The maximum resource for expansion of the middle class, which constituted 40 percent of economically active Russians during the period of the survey, does not exceed 8–10 percent of the country's population. The middle class has a number of advantages over other social strata and groups: better material and housing security and higher professional status. At the same time, several problems of the middle class are also noted: a sharp decline in access to power; a lack of confidence in the future; and too much involvement in idle leisure time at the expense of leisure of the active type. A consensus between the state and the middle class in regard to obligations to solve social problems is possible, but up to now there has been none.

Notes

English translation © 2015 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC, from the Russian text © 2015 “Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniia.” “Srednii klass kak otrazhenie ekonomicheskoi i sotsiokul'turnoi modeli sovremennogo razvitiia Rossii,” Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniia, 2015, no. 1, pp. 35–44.

Mikhail Konstantinovich Gorshkov is an academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences and director of the Institute of Sociology, Russian Academy of Sciences.

Translated by Kim Braithwaite. Translation reprinted from Sociological Research, vol. 54, no. 5. doi: 10.1080/10611428.2016.1258922.