Strategic documents in the sphere of scientific and technological development in Russia and the OECD member countries: global trends in public policy

Abstract

This paper examines the features of strategic documents in the fi eld of scientific and technological development in Russia and the member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The methodology of the research included a comparative and logical-linguistic analysis of the texts of strategies and state programs for scientific and technological development of 38 member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Three types of issues found in the documents were identified: core issues, which are on the agenda of each state, variant issues, characteristic of strategic documents of several countries, and specifi c issues, characteristic of one country. The paper aims to identify the constants in states’ approaches to supporting science and technology, which together allow us to adequately evaluate global trends in this area, and to identify groups of variant and specific measures. Variative measures will indicate different stages of scientific and technological development of the countries. The presence of specifi c topics will be determined by specific economic, geographic and foreign policy factors. The hypothesis is that the application of this author’s methodology will make it possible to identify global measures to support science and technology as a certain consensus of public policy on a global scale. Identifi cation of core, variant and specifi c issues will give an opportunity to reasonably assess the potential of the country’s S&T policy and formulate recommendations for its improvement. The authors formulate proposals for improving the Strategy for Scientifi c and Technological Development of Russia for the period up to 2035 and the state program ‘Scientifi c and Technological Development of the Russian Federation’ for the period up to 2030. The results of the study can be used to improve strategic documents in the fi eld of scientifi c and technological development in Russia in order to increase the competitiveness of the domestic national innovation system.