1.4.5 Factors and Forms of Growing Inequality in Contemporary World
Greg Yudin*
Project Leader (2020-2022)
Galina Klimova
Project Leader (2023-2025)
Project period
2020-2025
Context of Research Project within a Subject of Human Capital
Is there a need to revise or even overcome the idea of «human capital» and the associated political and economic ideology? This issue is of fundamental importance for political thought today in Russia and in the global context in general, since growing inequality within the country coincides with the global rise of inequality ones and even exceeds it. The answer depends on understanding the key factors that accelerate various forms of inequality.
Within the framework of the research project Factors and Forms of Growing Inequality in Contemporary World it is planned to answer the following questions concerning several key forms of inequality:
How does economic inequality turn into political inequality? How does a decline in political participation lead to weakening of the public sphere? Why is Russia characterized by extremely high rates of economic inequality? What do they consist of, what are their regional, class, professional, gender dimensions? How does the reduction of political participation lead to the reproduction of inequality in access to education and health care? How did the ideological transformation result in a complex of liberal ideas from the 1960s and 70s (human capital, economic freedom, catch-up development, etc.) overtake Russian politics and result in political triumph of conservatives? How do the existing asymmetries and inequalities of human capital change international relations? What threats and security structures arise in response to these processes?
Project Aim
Identifying how the rise of inequality results in strengthening of nationalism and conservatism in modern societies
Project Objectives:
- Determining the nature and direction of the relationship between political and economic inequality in Russia
- Identifying key mechanisms for the formation of territorial inequality in Russia, as well as the main forms and mechanisms of cultural reproduction of ethnic inequality
- Identifying the main ideological tools used by political actors to justify inequality and overcome it
- Establishing the main forms of intra- and inter-country inequality impact on the dynamics of international relations
Key Findings
2020
A systematic analysis of inequality studies in Russia has been carried out. In comparison with international studies of inequality, it has been established that the key under-researched areas are the correlation of inequality forms and their mutual reproduction, as well as the ideological legitimization of inequality in Russia. A comparison of different approaches to assessing inequality in Russia has been carried out, their advantages and disadvantages have been highlighted
2021
The broad scientific literature on the relationship between inequality and nationalism has been analyzed. It has been revealed that modern research on inequality remains in little demand by researchers of nationalism. In addition, the increasing role of territorial and spatial distribution of various forms of capital is often overlooked, which can shed light on topical issues of the growth of both nationalist movements and the rise of regionalism, but also on emerging nativist politics and protest movements of minorities. It is proposed to pay attention to the role of territory and territorial policy for the most complete identification of the relationship between inequality and nationalism, which means both nationalist politics and the policy of nation-building, and regional movements in multi-component societies, as well as to recognize the broader consequences of growing inequality in wealth for various manifestations of nationalism
2022
It has been shown that the growth of economic inequality in modern conditions often leads to nationalist movements and parties strengthening. An essential result is the adaptation of this thesis for imperial spaces: while this connection is well studied in modern nation-states, the project revealed that imperial formations lose their ability to connect different ethnic groups in conditions of serious shocks. It has been demonstrated that ethnic inequality in Russia is structural in nature, that is, the status hierarchy of ethnic groups is mediated by economic inequality, as a result of which national minorities are victims of double discrimination.
It has been revealed that political inequality is mediated by age: young groups are deprived of political representation and are excluded from decision-making. Territorial inequality in a crisis creates disproportionate pressure on less affluent regions, and the unitary decision-making system leads to the fact that inequality between regions increases further. It has been shown that cracks in the imperial design of the country arise under the influence of ethnic inequality due to the lack of resources.
Conferences
Online seminar Measuring Inequality: Pitfalls and New Discoveries (Moscow, Russia, December 7, 2020)
Regular conference Co-production of Equality. Theme-2021: Revenge of the Periphery? The Policy of Territorial Inequalities in a Comparative Perspective (Moscow, Russia, December 9, 2021)
* (Greg B. Yudin) Григорий Юдин включен Минюстом в список физлиц, выполняющих функции иностранного агента.