Single-Industry Settlements of Russia in the Conditions of the Crisis: Old Problems and New Opportunities

Abstract

The world economic crisis revealed serious problems in the sphere of public administration and government policy. One of such system problems is a wide-spread of single-industry settlements which have become the main form of settlements in the industrial parts of the country since the XVIII century. The author of the article considers the following aspects of the problem: 1. Single-Industry Settlements as a new object of the Federal Antirecession Policy. 2. The development of the crisis processes in single-industry settlements which differ from the point of view of population and economic specialization. 3. Measures of state support for single-industry settlements. 4. The policy of single-industry settlements support: problems and threats of realization. According to the author, monofunctional approach to the system of resettlement in Russia is an objectively determined and stable phenomenon and cannot be resolved by administrative methods only. Diversification of national economy from both industrial and territorial aspects is a key problem requiring not only economic but also political modernization. Nevertheless, in short-term and mid-term perspectives there are lots of possibilities to implement state and corporate policy which could increase stability of single-industry towns and township-forming enterprises to the negative influence of the environment. The search and the analysis of “the best practices” of the municipal anti-crisis policy and the development of recommendations for short and mid-term anti-crisis strategies forms the basis of the present research.