Social inequality as a political and managerial issue in the development of Russian regions. Part 2

Abstract

This article presents the results of a longitudinal study on the phenomenon of social inequality within the context of studying the domestic governance system, specifically through the assessment of the attitudes of the regional political and administrative groups toward the functioning of established regional governance systems and the evaluation of the accessibility of basic social institutions to the population. During the initial stage of the research, the results of preparing an integrated index of political and administrative activity group were presented, enabling the analysis of excessive social inequality in the regions of Russia. It was found that the developed system of indicators of political and administrative inequality in regions can be considered through the assessments of specially distinguished political and administrative groups. This was confirmed through trial measurements based on multinomial regression analysis. The article presents the final results of the study. Based on the configured empirical index, the evaluation of the functioning of the governance system in regions with different levels of socio-cultural modernisation is measured. These levels either facilitate or hinder: 1) maintaining the quality and accessibility of the region’s basic social institutions, and 2) creating conditions for civic and political activity, involving political and administrative groups in decision-making processes regarding regional development. Based on the research results, it is justified that the system of basic indicators for identifying and measuring social inequality in regions can be analysed through the assessments of specially distinguished political and administrative groups. However, it is crucial to consider the differentiation of regions based on levels of socio-cultural modernisation, as each group of territories exhibits unique types of excessive inequalities, contradictions, and issues. The proposed approach is useful for identifying negative trends that contribute to the activation of mass politics and for assessing the quality of public policy implementation in regions and territorial settlements.