A system of spatially connected federalism based on regional specialization

Abstract

The relevance of the article is due to the need to develop a model of federalism in Russia in the context of the existing problem of asymmetry of territorial development, which has not yet been eliminated by the current federal policy. The problem of the asymmetry of Russian regions is caused by a variety of natural, industrial, ethnic, social, and geographical conditions. This entails an asymmetry of economic and budgetary indicators: gross regional product, investments, revenues and expenditures of regional budgets. As a reason for the ineffectiveness of the pursued policy of federalism, the authors highlight a single universal approach in relations between the federal center and the regions. The article proposes a transition from a universal model to a model that considers the specialization of regions. This model is based on the principles of "smart specialization", in which each region is assigned a special role in the functioning of the state. The proposed model is called by the authors "spatially binding economic federalism» because it provides for the regulation of federalism relations along the horizontal state structure and allows increasing the spatial connectivity of regions. Thus, the proposed model of federalism is based on a differentiated approach to territories within a single federal state and makes it possible to overcome the significant disintegration of the country's economic space.