Государственная политика защиты детства: региональные особенности на примере Социального кодекса Санкт-Петербурга

Abstract

Child protection encompasses multifaceted issues which are difficult to address by any country and at any stage of state development. Child protection is a sphere of government policy that includes demographic and social components as well as political decision-making. In Russia, child protection, which is by itself a difficult process, is further complicated by national specifics — such as verticalized political decision-making, reduced feedback, and significant paternalism which the end users of social services expect from the state. The article examines the specifics of child protection in the context of the state policy in the social sphere. We found that regional child protection measures are carried out based on such principles as universality and accessibility, but the use of such principles is only limited to those children who are in a difficult situation. However, there are also support measures for ordinary “children of working citizens” — these are, as a rule, one-time measures, such as the regional one-time payment which is made at the birth of the first and subsequent children and duplicates the same payment from the federal government. The article examines the models of social policy, welfare state and state policy in the social sphere and reveals the relationship between these models. The author substantiates the mixed approach which is adopted in contemporary Russia in respect of the models of welfare state and in the implementation of social policy. The author uses the case of Saint Petersburg to analyze the regional dimension of state child protection policy. The article contains a content analysis of the text of the Social Code of Saint Petersburg. It also postulates a special role of the state in both demographic and social policy. The author stresses the special role of regional authorities in the support and development of childhood as a multifaceted phenomenon requiring special study.