Social Contract as a Form of State Support in the Public’s Eyes: on the Example of the Ulyanovsk Region

Abstract

The article is devoted to social contract as a form of target state assistance, which is being successfully engaged in international practice for a long time, and more recently was integrated into the Russian system of social support. Social contract is a specific mechanism focused on the activation of human potential, labor and educational resources that allow to overcome a difficult life situation through personal efforts, to ensure social independence for a person and his / her family and to increase the living standards and quality of life. Unlike most traditional forms of gratuitous financial assistance, social contract involves the observation of mutual obligations between the state and its citizens, stipulated by an individual program of social adaptation. Due to results of the research conducted in the Ulyanovsk Region in 2019 and designed to assess risks and factors of poverty, it became possible to consider social contract from the perspective of its recipients, and get closer to understanding people’s perception of this type of assistance, its relevance and effectiveness. The great virtue of social contract is hardly disputed. However, low awareness, rare discussion, and as a result, insufficient responsibility and nderstanding of the prescribed conditions for the implementation of the agreement, according to the respondents, may exclude the idea of business activity development and establishment of social partnership which were originally put into social contract. The lack of responsibility may be the reason to return to the most common attitude implicating the unilateral nature of assistance provided by the state.