The growth of inequality in Russia: is globalisation to blamec

Abstract

The paper explores income based and non-monetary dimensions of inequality in Russia. It is argued that globalisation exacerbated inequality at least in three ways. Firstly, the adoption of global neo-liberal economic concepts resulted in an excessive reliance on market forces and a curtailment of social guarantees which produced a rise of wealth and income differentiation and undermined equality of opportunity. Secondly, the liberalisation of foreign trade and global competition gave impetus to a rapid development of the fuel sector exacerbating the structural bias in economy and wage differentiation. Thirdly, globalisation diversified employment opportunities for certain categories of workers with access to the international labour market which offered much better terms of employment as compared to Russian standards. Globalisation provided new opportunities for development and individual success but in the absence of a strong state commitment to equitable provision of social goods it is bound to exacerbate inequality problem.