Report: Economic culture. Pages of history Human economic and economic culture

Detailed solution Paragraph § 12 on social science for students in grade 11, authors L.N. Bogolyubov, N.I. Gorodetskaya, L.F. Ivanova 2014

Question 1. Does every person need an economic culture? Economic freedom: anarchy or responsibility? Where are the limits of economic freedom? Is it good to be honest?

Economic culture is a system of values and motives for economic activity, a respectful attitude to any form of ownership and commercial success as a great social achievement, success, rejection of “leveling” moods, creation and development of a social environment for entrepreneurship, etc.

Economic freedom is limited by the laws of the country. There is a list of items prohibited in trade, such as drugs. There is an obligation to pay taxes, an obligation to obtain a license in order to trade certain goods.

Questions and tasks for the document

The author warns us that any stagnation and inconsistency of various spheres of society (subsystems of society) threatens the country with big problems, including relegation to the background, that is, the loss of its leading positions in the world, as well as such an unstable situation threatens the Russian people exploitation by other more developed countries.

Question 2. Does Russia need a new socio-cultural order?

It is undoubtedly needed now, because not so long ago we moved away from the idea of socialism. Now the entire social system, as well as the consciousness of people, must get rid of the remnants of the past.

Question 3. What past cultural accumulations associated with the command economy could be sent to the "historical dustbin"?

Each person should receive according to his abilities, otherwise talented people simply will not have an incentive for self-development, and this again threatens to stagnate. Secondly, the emphasis is on the implementation of the plan (quantity), and not on quality - hence the result is the same - stagnation, excess production (no one takes low-quality products).

Question 4. Based on the text of the paragraph, suggest the values of the "new economy" that would become significant elements of the economic culture of the XXI century.

The main directions of the state innovation policy in the conditions of the "new economy" are:

Improving the innovation environment by strengthening the innovative component of all areas of national policies and their integration;

Stimulating market demand for innovation and using the concept of "leading" markets, which involves supporting markets that are most receptive to innovation;

Stimulation of innovations in the public sector, overcoming the bureaucratic conservatism of the public administration;

Strengthening regional innovation policy and expanding cooperation.

SELF-CHECK QUESTIONS

Question 1. What are the main elements of economic culture?

The economic culture of a society is a system of values and motives for economic activity, the level and quality of economic knowledge, assessments and actions of a person, as well as the content of traditions and norms that regulate economic relations and behavior. The economic culture of the individual is an organic unity of consciousness and practical activity. It determines the direction of human economic activity in the process of production, distribution and consumption. The economic culture of the individual can correspond to the economic culture of society, ahead of it, but it can also lag behind it.

In the structure of economic culture, the most important elements can be distinguished and presented in the following scheme:

The basis of the economic culture of the individual is consciousness, and economic knowledge is its important component. This knowledge is a set of ideas about the production, exchange, distribution and consumption of material goods, the impact of economic life on the development of society, about the ways and forms, methods that contribute to the sustainable development of society. Modern production, economic relations require a large and constantly increasing amount of knowledge from the worker.

Question 2. What is the significance of the economic orientation and social attitudes of the individual?

A person actively uses the accumulated knowledge in everyday activities, therefore an important component of his economic culture is economic thinking. It allows you to learn the essence of economic phenomena and processes, operate with learned economic concepts, analyze specific economic situations.

The effectiveness of solving economic problems largely depends on the socio-psychological qualities of participants in economic activity. Among them, it is necessary to single out such an important element of economic culture as the economic orientation of the individual, the components of which are the needs, interests and motives of human activity in the economic sphere. The orientation of the personality includes a social attitude and socially significant values. Thus, attitudes are being formed in Russian society to study modern economic theory, to participate in solving various economic problems. The system of value orientations of the individual has been developed, including economic freedom, competition, respect for any form of ownership, commercial success as a social achievement.

Social attitudes play an important role in the development of the economic culture of the individual. A person who, for example, has a mindset for creative work, participates in activities with great interest, supports innovative projects, introduces technical achievements, etc. A formed mindset for a formal attitude to work will not give such results.

Question 3. Is self-interest the only basis for economic choice?

Economic interest is the desire of a person to obtain the benefits necessary to ensure life. Interests express ways and means of satisfying people's needs. For example, making a profit (which is the economic interest of the entrepreneur) is the way to satisfy the personal needs of a person and the needs of production. Interest is the direct cause of human actions.

In most cases, yes, because a person cannot be forced to do what he does not like. Other people can only show a person's interest in something else. But the main choice remains with the person himself.

Question 4. What determines a person's choice of a standard of economic behavior?

The choice of a standard of economic behavior depends on the quality of the factors influencing it, on personal economic viability. The choice of standards of behavior in the economy, the effectiveness of solving economic problems largely depend on the socio-psychological qualities of participants in economic activity. Among them, an important element of economic culture is the economic orientation of the individual, the components of which are the needs, interests and motives of human activity in the economic sphere. The orientation of the personality includes a social attitude and socially significant values.

Question 5. Should economic freedom be restricted?

Economic freedom includes the freedom to make decisions and actions. The individual has the right to decide which type of activity is preferable for him (employment, entrepreneurship, etc.), which form of proprietary participation seems more appropriate to him, in which area and in which region of the country he will show his activity. The basis of the market, as you know, is the principle of economic freedom. The consumer is free to choose a product, manufacturer, forms of consumption. The manufacturer is free to choose the type of activity, its volume and forms.

The boundaries within which economic freedom serves the efficiency of production are determined by concrete historical circumstances. Thus, a modern market economy, as a rule, does not need systematic, brutal violence, which is its advantage. However, the restriction of market freedom for the sake of strengthening the economic situation is practiced in our time. For example, state regulation of a market economy often acts as a tool to accelerate its development.

The economic freedom of the individual is inseparable from his social responsibility. Theorists and practitioners of economics initially drew attention to the contradiction inherent in the nature of economic activity. On the one hand, the desire for maximum profit and selfish protection of private property interests, and on the other hand, the need to take into account the interests and values of society, that is, to show social responsibility.

Question 6. Is a "voluntary marriage" of the economy and ecology possible?

For many years, industrial activity was characterized by irrational use of raw materials and a high degree of environmental pollution. There was an opinion that entrepreneurship and environmental protection are incompatible. However, the strengthening of the global environmental movement, the development of the concept and principles of sustainable development contributed to a change in the attitude of entrepreneurs towards the environment. Sustainable development is the development of society that allows meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising future generations to meet their needs.

An important step in this direction was the creation of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development at the UN Conference on Environment and Development, which included representatives of many of the largest transnational companies in the world. These companies and individual entrepreneurs who have adopted the principles of sustainable development are effectively using improved production processes, striving to meet environmental requirements (prevention of pollution, reduction of production waste, etc.) and make the best use of market opportunities. Such companies and businessmen gain advantages over competitors who do not use new approaches to entrepreneurial activity. As world experience shows, a combination of entrepreneurial activity, economic growth and environmental safety is possible.

Question 7. What is the essence and significance of economically competent and morally valuable human behavior in the economy?

One of the most important social roles of the individual is the role of the producer. Under the conditions of the transition to the information-computer, technological mode of production, the worker is required not only to have a high level of educational and professional training, but also high morality and a high level of general culture. Modern work is increasingly filled with creative content, which requires not so much discipline supported from the outside (boss, foreman, product controller), but self-discipline and self-control. The main controller in this case are conscience, personal responsibility and other moral qualities.

Depending on how the property is acquired (by legally and morally permissible means or criminal) and how it is used, the social significance of the owner can be manifested either with a “plus” sign or a “minus” sign. You probably know examples of such manifestations.

In the process of self-realization as a consumer, either healthy needs (sports, tourism, cultural leisure) or unhealthy needs (need for alcohol, drugs) are also formed.

The level of development of the main elements of economic culture, in turn, determines the nature and effectiveness of economic activity.

Question 8. What are the difficulties experienced by the new economy in Russia?

Firstly, almost a huge part of the Russian economy depends on the prices of energy resources and minerals in the world markets, as a result, if their prices go down, the Russian economy will lose quite a lot of money.

Secondly, there is a significant stratification of society. The formation of the "middle class" is taking place at an extremely low pace, despite the fact that many people have good incomes, many of them are not sure about the future.

Third: Corruption in Russia continues

Fourth: is the development of small businesses.

TASKS

Question 1. Economist F. Hayek wrote: “In a competitive society, the poor have much more limited opportunities than the rich, and yet the poor in such a society are much freer than the person with a much better financial situation in a society of a different type.” Do you agree with this statement?

A person with low material wealth is much more mobile. Nothing is holding him. He can drop everything and leave at any moment (since he has nothing to throw). A rich man is chained to his source of wealth, he is vulnerable to external changes. The rich need to work much harder to maintain and increase their wealth. Stopping the accumulation of capital will lead him to poverty.

Question 2. These are lines from a letter from your peer to the editor of the newspaper: “Only the mind, only a sober calculation - that's what you need in life. Rely only on yourself, then you will achieve everything. And believe less in the so-called feelings, which also do not exist. Rationalism, dynamism - these are the ideals of our era. What can you agree or disagree with the author of the letter?

One can agree with the author of the letter, but I would highlight the contradictions in the letter. Many problems are not easy to solve with reason (rationalism). Problems sometimes need to be solved physically. And in life, not only the mind is needed. Still, there must be a spark of romanticism in life for a person to achieve success with his soul. Dynamism in the character of today's person should undoubtedly be present, because this is the main feature of a person's desire to win. Hope only for yourself always invigorates a person.

Question 3. “Freedom can only be preserved where it is conscious and where responsibility for it is felt,” says the German philosopher of the 20th century. K. Jaspers. Can we agree with the scientist? Give examples to support his idea. Name the three main, in your opinion, values of a free person.

Freedom is associated with the presence of a person's free will. Free will imposes responsibility on a person and imputes his words and deeds to merit. Freedom gives rise to responsibility primarily for oneself, for one's actions, thoughts and deeds. Responsibility gives a person freedom: a simple example - when a person is held accountable for his activities, then the Criminal Code is not terrible for him. If everyone thinks that freedom is only the absence of restrictions, then there will be chaos in the world.

The values of a free person: development, freedom of action, freedom of thought.

Question 4. International experts put Russia in 149th place in the world in terms of investment reliability. So, according to domestic experts, more than 80% of Russian businessmen believe that it is better not to break the law. But in practice, more than 90% are faced with optional partners. At the same time, only 60% of them feel guilty. How do you feel about the existence of double morality among the participants in economic relations - for yourself and for a partner? Is it possible to create in the country a system of protection and support for economic behavior that is characterized as reliable, predictable and credible? What would you suggest to do for this?

Often, Russian businessmen's negative economic qualities (waste, mismanagement, grabbing, fraud) outweigh the positive ones. The system of protection and support of economic behavior can and is possible, but first of all, it is necessary to educate the moral principles of future entrepreneurs so that momentary profit is not a priority. It is necessary to raise the level of ethics and economic culture of the individual. The state should provide economic freedom, but with real legal regulation. Participants in economic activity must consciously comply with the moral and legal requirements of society and be responsible for their activities. What can be offered? From childhood, to form the correct moral and ethical standards, for enterprises implementing environmental safety programs, paying attention to the development of their employees, their safety and improving labor protection, introducing new technologies, there should be some kind of encouragement in the form of state support, tax benefits. It is also necessary to pay serious attention to economic crimes (so that there is a real punishment for misconduct), the impossibility of evading responsibility.

REVIEW QUESTIONS FOR CHAPTER 1

Question 1. How are the economy and other spheres of public life interrelated?

The economic sphere is a set of relations between people that arise during the creation and movement of material goods.

The economic sphere is the area of production, exchange, distribution, consumption of goods and services. In order to produce something, people, tools, machines, materials, etc. are needed. - productive forces. In the process of production, and then exchange, distribution, consumption, people enter into a variety of relations with each other and with the product - relations of production. Production relations and productive forces together constitute the economic sphere of society: productive forces - people (labor force), tools, objects of labor; production relations - production, distribution, consumption, exchange.

The spheres of public life are closely interconnected. In the history of the social sciences, there have been attempts to single out any sphere of life as determining in relation to others.

Within the framework of real social phenomena, elements of all spheres are combined. For example, the nature of economic relations can influence the structure of the social structure. A place in the social hierarchy forms certain political views, opens up appropriate access to education and other spiritual values. The economic relations themselves are determined by the legal system of the country, which is very often formed on the basis of the spiritual culture of the people, their traditions in the field of religion and morality. Thus, at various stages of historical development, the influence of any sphere may increase.

Question 2. What does economics study?

Economic science is the science of economy, management, relations between people, as well as people and the environment, arising in the process of production, distribution, exchange, consumption of a product, goods, services. Combines features of exact and descriptive sciences.

Economics is a social science. It studies a certain aspect of the life of society and, as such, is closely connected with other social sciences: history, sociology, political science, psychology, jurisprudence, etc. In particular, the connection between economics and jurisprudence is due to the fact that in the economic life of society, economic and legal relations are closely intertwined. The economy cannot function normally without an appropriate legal framework - a set of rules governing the activities of economic entities both at the micro and macro levels. At the same time, the very need for appropriate legal norms is generated by the changes taking place in the economic life of society.

Question 3. What is the role of economic activity in society?

Economic activity (economy) plays a huge role in the life of society. First, it provides people with the material conditions of existence - food, clothing, housing and other consumer goods. Secondly, the economic sphere of society's life is a system-forming component of society, a decisive sphere of its life that determines the course of all processes taking place in society. It is studied by many sciences, among which the most important are economic theory and social philosophy. It should also be noted that such a relatively new science as ergonomics, it studies a person and his production activities, with the goal of optimizing tools, conditions and the labor process.

Question 4. How can the producer and consumer make a rational economic choice?

In order for the consumer to make the right choice, he must check and compare all the possible offers on the market. Compare price and quality.

In order for the manufacturer to make the right choice, he must check the market for demand for a particular product in the place where he plans to sell it. Also check the solvency of the population in the region.

Question 5. Why is economic growth one of the criteria for progress and economic development?

Economic growth is an increase in the volume of production in the national economy over a certain period of time (usually a year).

Economic growth is understood as the development of the national economy, in which the real volume of production (GDP) increases. A measure of economic growth is the growth rate of real GDP as a whole or per capita.

Economic growth is called extensive if it does not change the average productivity of labor in society. When GDP growth outpaces the growth in the number of people employed in manufacturing, intensive growth takes place. Intensive economic growth is the basis for the growth of the welfare of the population and a condition for reducing differentiation in the incomes of various social strata.

Question 6. What are the features of market regulation of the economy?

With this method of trading, entrepreneurs must compete, which favorably affects the price of goods, sooner or later it decreases. Like in a real market or bazaar.

If there is an overabundance of a certain product on the market, then they simply will not buy it and will not produce it. Everything is regulated in this way.

In addition, in a developed country, there are systems that do not allow entrepreneurs to collude and keep high prices. So, ultimately, market relations are beneficial to buyers.

Question 7. How to make production efficient?

An economically efficient method of production is considered to be one in which the firm cannot increase output without increasing the cost of resources and at the same time cannot provide the same output using fewer resources of one type and without increasing the cost of other resources.

Production efficiency is the sum of the efficiency of all operating enterprises. The efficiency of the enterprise is characterized by the production of goods or services at the lowest cost. It is expressed in its ability to produce the maximum amount of products of acceptable quality at minimal cost and sell this product at the lowest cost. The economic efficiency of an enterprise, in contrast to its technical efficiency, depends on how well its products meet market requirements and consumer demands.

Question 8. What is necessary for business success?

In today's society, a successful business needs start-up capital.

You need to set a goal, make a plan and start implementing it. To be successful in business, you must have certain personal qualities: the ability to communicate with people, connections (you need the support of influential people), intelligence and luck. To achieve certain results, you need to be consistent and constant in your actions, have patience and fortitude. Constantly grow and improve.

Question 9. What laws regulate entrepreneurial activity?

Normative legal acts regulating entrepreneurial activity at the federal level:

Federal normative acts: The Constitution of the Russian Federation.

Codes: Budget Code of the Russian Federation; Tax Code of the Russian Federation; Civil Code of the Russian Federation.

Federal Law of July 24, 2007 No. 209-FZ "On the development of small and medium-sized businesses in the Russian Federation";

Federal Law of February 25, 1999 No. 39-FZ "On investment activities in the Russian Federation, carried out in the form of capital investments";

Federal Law of the Russian Federation of August 08, 2001 No. 128-FZ “On Licensing Certain Types of Activities”;

Federal Law No. 294-FZ of December 26, 2008 “On the Protection of the Rights of Legal Entities and Individual Entrepreneurs in the Implementation of State Control (Supervision) and Municipal Control”;

Federal Law No. 271-FZ of December 30, 2007 “On Retail Markets and Amendments to the Labor Code of the Russian Federation”;

Federal Law No. 59-FZ of May 2, 2006 “On the Procedure for Considering Appeals from Citizens of the Russian Federation”;

Federal Law No. 129-FZ of August 8, 2001 “On State Registration of Legal Entities and Individual Entrepreneurs”;

Federal Law No. 14-FZ of February 8, 1998 "On Limited Liability Companies".

Question 10. How does the modern state participate in solving the economic problems of society?

State regulation of the economy - a set of measures, actions used by the state for corrections and the establishment of basic economic processes.

State regulation of the economy in a market economy is a system of standard measures of a legislative, executive and supervisory nature, carried out by authorized state institutions and public organizations in order to stabilize and adapt the existing socio-economic system to changing conditions.

The main goals of state regulation of the economy include:

Minimization of inevitable negative consequences of market processes;

Creation of financial, legal and social prerequisites for the effective functioning of a market economy;

Ensuring social protection of those groups of the market society whose position in a particular economic situation becomes the most vulnerable.

Question 11. Who and how regulates cash flows in the economy?

In a capitalist economy, capital flows from industries with lower rates of return to industries with higher rates of return through the financial instruments of stocks, bonds and equity participation in business, as well as through direct real investment.

The state indirectly regulates these flows through changes in the refinancing rate, government orders, etc.

Question 12. Why does the economy need a labor market?

The labor market is an economic environment in which, as a result of competition between economic agents, a certain amount of employment and wages are established through the mechanism of supply and demand.

The functions of the labor market are determined by the role of labor in the life of society. From an economic point of view, labor is the most important production resource. In accordance with this, two main functions of the labor market are distinguished:

Social function - is to ensure a normal level of income and well-being of people, a normal level of reproduction of the productive abilities of workers.

The economic function of the labor market is the rational involvement, distribution, regulation and use of labor.

The demand for labor is determined by the needs of employers to hire a certain number of workers with the necessary qualifications for the production of goods and services.

The demand for labor is inversely related to the real wage rate, which is defined as the ratio of nominal wages to the price level. In a competitive labor market, the demand curve for labor has a negative slope: as the general level of wages rises, the demand for labor falls.

The supply of labor is determined by the size of the population, the share of the able-bodied population in it, the average number of hours worked by a worker per year, the quality of labor and the qualifications of workers.

The supply of labor depends on wages. The labor supply curve has a positive slope: with an increase in the general level of wages, the supply of labor increases.

Question 13. Why do countries have to trade with each other?

International trade is the exchange of goods and services between state-national economies. World trade is a set of foreign trade of all countries of the world.

Countries are forced to trade with each other because they are forced to exchange with each other the missing resources and products of production.

MT determines what is more profitable for the state to produce and under what conditions to exchange the produced product. Thus, it contributes to the expansion and deepening of the MRT, and hence the MT, involving more and more states in them. These relations are objective and universal, i.e. they exist independently of the will of one (group) person and are suitable for any state. They are able to systematize the world economy, placing the states depending on the development of foreign trade (BT) in it, on the share that it (BT) occupies in international trade, on the size of the average per capita foreign trade turnover.

Question 14. What is the economic culture of the individual?

The basis of the economic culture of the individual is consciousness, and economic knowledge is its important component. This knowledge is a set of economic ideas about the production, exchange, distribution and consumption of material goods, the impact of economic life on the development of society, about the ways and forms, methods that contribute to the sustainable development of society. Modern production, economic relations require a large and constantly growing amount of knowledge from the worker. Economic knowledge forms an idea of economic interrelations in the surrounding world, patterns of development of the economic life of society. On their basis, economic thinking and practical skills of economically competent, morally justified behavior, the economic qualities of a person that are significant in modern conditions, develop.

Question 15. How are economic freedom and social responsibility of economic participants interrelated?

Economic freedom is an opportunity for business entities to choose forms of ownership and the scope of application of their abilities, knowledge, opportunities, profession, methods of income distribution, consumption of material goods.

Social responsibility - the conscious attitude of the subject of social activity to the requirements of social necessity, civic duty, social tasks, norms and values, understanding the consequences of the activities carried out for certain social groups.

The economic culture of modern man, which is part of the general culture, continues to develop and expand its sphere of influence, which is due to the growth of the world economy. In modern times, it is important to consider the moral aspect of economic culture. After all, morality and morality act as a limiter that does not allow the economic aspect of the activity of the human community to lead to a general catastrophe (for example, environmental).

Economic culture is the culture of the appropriated material, formed on the basis of the development of the economic aspect of the objects of the surrounding world (the identification of their economic value). Bearers of various ethnic and religious identities in the course of the national historical process created and implemented a variety of ways of managing. Therefore, the economic culture of the Chinese, Russians, British, Italians, based on Orthodox, Confucian, Protestant, Catholic and other traditions, is so different. Different economic philosophies determined the originality of ethnic management. Ancient traditions, disappearing outwardly, continue to determine the peculiarities of the perception of the economic process by carriers of different cultures. The economic culture of each society is unique, because there is only its own identical way of managing, monetary unit, ways of organizing, conducting and managing economic activities. Although, undoubtedly, the phenomenon of globalization, the international language of communication (English) allowed to internationalize and make clear to many the rules of international business. The existence of such organizations as the WTO, the World Bank says that the economic culture is unified, although it is also fed from different ethnic and religious traditions, mentality, ways of thinking, it is a certain indicator of the globalization of the world. At present, thanks to the phenomenon of globalization, transnationalization, there is an integrative interaction of some economic cultures with others, which has a positive impact and is considered a factor in the growth of the economies of nation states.

The economic culture of a person, society, state evolves as the world economy develops and grows. The economic culture is developing at a faster pace, with the role of the state in the economy decreasing and the non-state sector growing. The denationalization of the economy, the privatization of state property, in order to increase the efficiency of its management - these external measures play a positive role in the development of the economic culture of an individual.

The economic culture of a person determines his thinking, actions, actions in the economic sphere. Economic culture is the basis for the formation and testing of new economic ideas aimed at improving the efficiency of this area. Positive indicators of the state of the economic culture of a person and society testify to their potential opportunities in the field of labor resources and in other economic areas of activity. The achievements of mankind's economic culture are reflected both in material (ultra-modern buildings, corporations, etc.) and in spiritual media (modern know-how, scientific and technical intellectual product).

Increasing the indicators of the economic culture of a person, society and the state enhances the degree of competitiveness of economic entities in the economy, improves the quality of goods and services, optimizes the price-quality ratio, increases the purchasing power and welfare of citizens. The growth of the economic culture of the population favorably affects the indicators of the economy, reflecting the expectations of citizens. The centers for cultivating economic culture are undoubtedly institutions of secondary, higher, additional and postgraduate professional education. The younger generation, pouring into society from the student's bench, brings new samples of economic culture, which are then tested in practice, changed, and corrected. An important issue in this sense is the economic identity of a person, society and state. To what extent the formed economic identity meets the challenges of modernity, how progressive, competitive, and strong it is in the sense of traditions.

Bibliographic link

Kargapolov V.E. ECONOMIC CULTURE OF PERSON, SOCIETY AND STATE // Modern problems of science and education. - 2006. - No. 3.;
URL: http://science-education.ru/ru/article/view?id=364 (date of access: 01.02.2020). We bring to your attention the journals published by the publishing house "Academy of Natural History"

Traditionally, culture has been the subject of study in philosophy, sociology, art history, history, literary criticism, and other disciplines, while the economic sphere of culture has practically not been studied. The allocation of the economy as a special sphere of culture will seem justified if we turn to the origin of the very term "culture". It is directly connected with material production, agricultural labor.

At the initial stages of the development of human society, the term "culture" was identified with the main type of economic activity of that time - agriculture. However, the social division of labor, which was the result of the process of development of productive forces, the demarcation of the spiritual and material-production spheres of activity, created the illusion of their complete autonomy. "Culture" gradually began to be identified only with the manifestations of the spiritual life of society, with the totality of spiritual values. This approach finds its supporters even now, but along with this, the point of view dominates, according to which culture is not limited solely to aspects of the superstructural character or the spiritual life of society.

Despite the heterogeneity and heterogeneity of the components (parts) that make up the culture, they are united by the fact that they are all associated with some specific way of human activity. Any kind, way of activity can be represented as a combination of material and spiritual components. From the point of view of the social mechanism of human activity, they are the means of activity. This approach makes it possible to single out the criterion of phenomena and processes of a class of culture - to be a socially developed means of human activity. These can be, for example, tools, skills, clothing, traditions, dwellings and customs, etc.

At the initial stages of the study of economic culture, it can be defined through the most general economic category "mode of production", which is consonant with the definition of culture as a mode of human activity. In the usual political and economic interpretation, the mode of production is the interaction of productive forces that are at a certain level of development and corresponding to this type of production relations. However, bearing in mind the object of study, it is necessary to single out the cultural aspect of the analysis of production forces and production relations.

It is appropriate to pay attention to the negative impact of the long-term dominant technocratic interpretation of economics on the development of the theory of economic culture. Primary attention was paid to technological relations, natural-material indicators and technical characteristics of production. The economy was viewed as a machine, where people are cogs, enterprises are parts, industries are nodes *. In reality, the picture looks much more complicated, because the main agent of the economy is a person, especially since, in the final analysis, the goal of socio-economic development is the formation of a person as a free, creative person. In the process of production, as K. Marx rightly noted, there is an improvement in the diverse abilities of a person, “producers themselves change, developing new qualities in themselves, developing and transforming themselves through production, creating new forces and new ideas, new ways of communication, new needs and a new language.

Modern society, focusing on the management of the economy as a machine through various kinds of spending rates, technical and economic indicators, coefficients, levels, with enviable constancy did not show interest in knowledge about the personal mechanisms of economic motivations, was not focused on the study of economic activity and entrepreneurship of a person who itself is a complex system in which all types of relations intersect: economic, political, ideological, legal and others. Such a simplified approach to understanding the essence and content of the economy, of course, cannot be constructive in terms of the study of economic culture.

From the point of view of the culturological approach, the historically developed properties and abilities of the subjects of activity for work, production skills, knowledge and skills are socially developed means of activity and, according to the selected criterion, belong to the class of phenomena of economic culture.

Economic culture should include not only relations of production, but also the totality of social relations that have an impact on the technological mode of production, material production, and on a person as its main agent. Thus, in a broad sense, economic culture is a set of material and spiritual socially developed means of activity, with the help of which the material and production life of people is carried out.

Structure of economic culture

Structural analysis of economic culture is dictated by the very structure of economic activity, the successive succession of the phases of social reproduction: production itself, exchange, distribution and consumption. Therefore, it is legitimate to speak of a culture of production, a culture of exchange, a culture of distribution, and a culture of consumption. In the structure of economic culture, it is necessary to single out the main structure-forming factor. One such factor is human activity. It is characteristic of the whole variety of forms, types of material and spiritual production. Because of its importance for maintaining basic life processes, labor stands out as the basis for the development of other elements and components of economic culture. Each specific level of economic culture of labor characterizes the relationship of man to man, man to nature (it was the awareness of this relationship that meant the birth of economic culture), the individual to his own labor abilities.

The first level is productive-reproductive creative ability, when in the process of labor it is only repeated, copied, and, only as an exception, by chance, something new is created.

The second level is generative creativity, the result of which will be, if not a completely new work, then at least an original new variation.

The third level is constructive and innovative activity, the essence of which is the natural appearance of the new. This level of ability in production is manifested in the work of inventors and innovators.

Thus, any labor activity is associated with the disclosure of the creative abilities of the producer, but the degree of development of creative moments in the labor process is different. The more creative labor is, the richer the cultural activity of a person, the higher the level of labor culture. The latter, ultimately, is the basis for achieving a higher level of economic culture in general. It should be noted that labor activity in any society - primitive or modern - is collective, embodied in joint production. And this, in turn, finds expression in the fact that, along with the culture of work, it is necessary to consider the culture of production as an integral system.

The culture of work includes the skills of owning tools of labor, conscious management of the process of creating material and spiritual wealth, the free use of one's abilities, the use of the achievements of science and technology in labor activity. The culture of production consists of the following main elements. Firstly, it is the culture of working conditions, which has a complex of components of an economic, scientific, technical, organizational, social and legal nature. Secondly, the culture of the labor process, which finds expression rather in the activities of a single worker. Thirdly, the culture of production, which is determined by the socio-psychological climate in the production team. Fourthly, management culture, which organically combines the science and art of management, reveals creative potential and implements the initiative and enterprise of each participant in the production process, is of particular importance in modern production.

Trends in the development of economic culture

economic culture

There is a general tendency to increase the economic cultural level. This finds expression in the use of the latest technology and technological processes, advanced methods and forms of labor organization, the introduction of progressive forms of management and planning, development, science, and knowledge in improving the education of the working people.

However, a legitimate question arises: is it right to consider economic culture as an exclusively positive phenomenon, is it possible to imagine the path of its development as a straight line on the axis of progress, directed upwards, without deviations and zigzags?

In the ordinary sense, “culture” is associated with a certain stereotype: cultural means progressive, positive, a bearer of good. From the standpoint of the scientific level, such assessments are insufficient and not always correct. If we recognize culture as an integral system, then it becomes necessary to consider it as a dialectically contradictory formation, which is characterized by positive and negative, humane and inhuman properties and forms of manifestation.

For example, one cannot evaluate the laws of functioning of the capitalist economic system as good or bad. Meanwhile, this system is characterized by crises and upsurges, confrontation and class struggle, and such phenomena as unemployment and a high standard of living coexist in it. Among these tendencies there are both positive and negative ones; their natural existence, intensity of manifestation reflect the level of economic culture at the achieved stage of development of social production. However, for a different level of development of production, these trends are not typical.

The objective nature of the progressive development of culture does not mean that it occurs automatically. The direction of development is determined, on the one hand, by the opportunities contained in the totality of conditions that define the boundaries of economic culture, and on the other hand, by the degree and methods of realization of these opportunities by representatives of various social groups. Changes in socio-cultural life are made by people, which means that they depend on their knowledge, will, and objectively established interests.

Depending on these factors, within the local historical framework, recessions and stagnation are possible both in individual areas and in economic culture as a whole. To characterize the negative elements of economic culture, it is legitimate to use the term "low culture", while "high economic culture" implies positive, progressive phenomena.

The progressive process of development of economic culture is due, first of all, to the dialectical continuity of the ways and forms of activity of generations. In general, continuity is one of the most important principles of development, because the entire history of human thought and activity is the assimilation, processing of the valuable and the destruction of the obsolete in the movement from the past into the future. K. Marx noted that “not a single social formation will perish before all the productive forces develop ... and new, higher production relations never appear before the material conditions for their existence in the bowels of the old society mature.”

On the other hand, the progressive development of economic culture is associated with the introduction of innovations into people's lives that meet the requirements of the stage of maturity of the socio-economic structure of society. In fact, the formation of a new quality of economic culture is the formation of new productive forces and new production relations.

As already noted, progressive trends in the development of economic culture are ensured, on the one hand, by the continuity of the entire potential of the achievements accumulated by previous generations, and, on the other hand, by the search for new democratic mechanisms and their economic foundations. Ultimately, in the course of the development of culture, conditions are created that encourage a person to active creative activity in all spheres of public life and contribute to his formation as an active subject of social, economic, legal, political and other processes.

For a long time, in the theory and practice of the economic development of our country, a specific approach dominated, ignoring the person, his individuality. Fighting for progress in the idea, we got the opposite results in reality*. This problem is very acute for our society and is discussed by scientists and practitioners in connection with the need to develop market relations, the institution of entrepreneurship, and the democratization of economic life in general.

Human civilization does not yet know a more democratic and effective regulator of the quality and quantity of manufactured products, a stimulator of economic and scientific and technological progress, than the market mechanism. Non-commodity relations are a step back in social development. This is the basis for non-equivalent exchange and the flourishing of unprecedented forms of exploitation.

Democracy grows not on the soil of slogans, but on the real soil of economic laws. Only through the freedom of the producer in the market is democracy realized in the economic sphere. Continuity in the development of democratic mechanisms is a normal and positive thing. There is nothing shameful in using elements of the bourgeois-democratic experience. Interestingly, the motto of the Great French Revolution of 1789-1794. “freedom, equality, fraternity” was interpreted by market relations as follows: freedom is the freedom of private individuals, freedom of competition for separate owners, equality is the equivalence of exchange, the cost basis of buying and selling, and fraternity is the union of “enemy brothers”, competing capitalists.

World experience shows that for the successful functioning of the market and the economic mechanism, a well-thought-out interconnection of legal norms, competent and effective state regulation, a certain state of public consciousness, culture and ideology are necessary. The country is now going through a period of stormy lawmaking. This is natural, because no democratic system can exist without a legal basis, without strengthening the rule of law and the rule of law. Otherwise, it will have a flawed appearance and a low degree of resistance to anti-democratic forces. However, it is necessary to be aware of the limits of the effectiveness of legislative activity. On the one hand, decisions made in legislative bodies are not always prompt and do not always correspond to more economically rational approaches. On the other hand, we can talk about the strengthening of legal nihilism. Many of the problems we face are not fully resolved in the process of lawmaking. Serious transformations of production and organizational-administrative relations and structures are needed.

For a long time, the state of economic culture was "described" within the strict framework of glorifying socialism. However, as the main downward trend in all economic indicators (growth rates of production and investment, labor productivity, budget deficit, etc.) became apparent, the inoperability of the economic system of socialism became obvious. This made us rethink our reality in a new way and start looking for answers to many questions. Practical steps are being taken towards the market, the democratization of property relations, the development of entrepreneurship, which, undoubtedly, is evidence of the emergence of qualitatively new features of the economic culture of modern society.

The concept of economic culture

The economic culture of a society is a system of values and motives for economic activity, the quality and level of economic knowledge, actions and assessments of a person, as well as traditions and norms that regulate economic relations and behavior.

Economic culture dictates a special attitude to forms of ownership, improves the business environment.

Economic culture is an inseparable unity of consciousness and practical activity, which is decisive in the development of human economic activity and manifests itself in the process of production, distribution and consumption.

Remark 1

The most important elements in the structure of economic culture can be called knowledge and practical skills, norms that regulate the characteristics of human behavior in the economic field, methods of its organization.

Consciousness is the basis of human economic culture. Economic knowledge is a complex of human economic ideas about the production, distribution, exchange, and consumption of material goods, about the forms and methods that contribute to the sustainable development of society and the impact on its formation of economic processes.

Economic knowledge is a paramount component of economic culture. They allow us to develop our understanding of the basic laws of the development of the economy of society, about economic relationships in the world around us, develop our economic thinking and practical skills, and allow us to develop economically competent, morally justified behavior.

Economic culture of personality

An important place in the economic culture of the individual is occupied by economic thinking, which makes it possible to cognize the essence of economic phenomena and processes, correctly use the acquired economic concepts, and analyze specific economic situations.

The choice of patterns of behavior in the economy and the effectiveness of solving economic problems largely depend on the socio-psychological qualities of participants in economic activity. The orientation of the personality is characterized by socially significant values and social attitudes.

The economic culture of a person can be seen by considering the complex of his personal properties and qualities, which are the result of his participation in activities. The level of culture of a particular person in the field of economics can be assessed by the totality of all his economic qualities.

In fact, economic culture is always influenced by the way of life, traditions, and mentality that are characteristic of a given people. Therefore, as a model, or even more so an ideal, one cannot take any foreign model of the functioning of the economy.

Remark 2

For Russia, in all likelihood, the European model of socio-economic development is closest, which is more humane than the American or Japanese one, which is based on the values of European spiritual culture and includes a broad system of social protection of the population.

However, this model can be used only if the trends and features of the development of national Russian culture are taken into account, otherwise it is completely meaningless to talk about economic culture and its role.

Functions of economic culture

Economic culture performs several important functions.

Adaptive function, which is the original. It is she who allows a person to adapt to the socio-economic conditions of society, types and forms of economic behavior, adapt the socio-economic environment to their needs, for example, produce the necessary economic benefits, distribute them by selling, leasing, exchanging, etc. .
Cognitive function, which is coordinated with the adaptive function. The knowledge contained in economic culture, familiarity with its ideals, prohibitions, legal norms enables a person to have a reliable guideline for choosing the content and forms of his economic behavior.
Regulatory function. Economic culture dictates to individuals and social groups certain standards and rules developed by it that affect the way of life of people, their attitudes and value orientations.
A translational function that creates an opportunity for a dialogue between generations and eras, passing on the experience of economic activity from generation to generation.

Economic culture is an integral and essential part of the general culture. A civilized person is a person with a developed economic culture. Different scholars define its essence in different ways. However, all these definitions boil down to the fact that economic culture can be considered, like political culture, in the narrow and broad senses of the word.

Economic culture in the broad sense of the word is a set of material and spiritual means of production activity created by society: machines, structures, cities, roads, etc.; economic knowledge, skills, ways and forms of communication between people, economic intelligence.

Economic culture in the narrow sense of the word is a typical way of economic thinking and activity of a people, group, or individual. With its help, people adapt to the specific socio-economic conditions of their existence. The economic culture also includes a set of economic interests, values, norms, rules, skills, which are the regulators of economic behavior. In other words, economic culture consists of behavioral stereotypes and economic knowledge.

Figuratively speaking, economic culture is the tool, the “language”, with the help of which people can communicate with each other in the process of economic activity and behavior and, accordingly, understand the essence of economic phenomena and processes taking place in a given society and throughout the world.

Each economic era is characterized by its own level and type of economic culture of the population. At the same time, of course, different groups of the population have significantly different levels of economic culture. Thus, scientists-economists have a theoretical economic consciousness. Government officials, directors, managers, entrepreneurs must have a culture of practical economic thinking.

And for the mass consciousness in economic culture, first of all, production and consumer motivations are important.

Modern economic culture largely coincides with the civilization, sociality of society. In it, the main role is given to taking into account the interests of individuals and groups of people. The traditional "idols" of economic development (profit, quantitative growth) are being replaced by more human goals.

Today's type of market and, moreover, socially oriented economy is already assessed from other positions - as more "concerned", "understanding", "reasonable", "expedient", "useful", more and more corresponding to the interests of each person.

Now the foundations of a new economic culture are being laid: the creation of conditions in society that provide the necessary social orientations for the behavior of business entities in general and separately for the behavior of decision makers; maintaining a mobile information and communication system; improvement of advertising; organization of the activities of economic and financial institutions (stock exchanges, banks, insurance companies, audit services), etc.

All this should lead to the creation of an information and computer society, in which the diversity of people's needs, the differentiation of their interests is the key to the development of the entire society, the condition for its improvement. The features of such a society will be the multivariate choice of economic decisions based on the satisfaction of a plurality of interests, motives of various subjects of economic activity, as well as taking into account many factors and objective conditions: economic, social, economic-psychological, technical.

Economic culture performs several functions: cognitive, applied, educational, etc. New economic knowledge stimulates a critical reassessment of old knowledge and awareness of trends in the development of society in the future. As for the applied function of economic culture, the activity of the subjects of economic relations largely depends not only on the level of their economic knowledge, but also on the ability to apply them in practice, that is, on the economic consciousness of people.

Socio-economic culture

The personal level consists of values, norms, motives, orientations that determine the economic activity of people at the individual level. These are internal, culturally determined motives of economic activity, subjectively perceived meanings and values, personal experiences of this activity, its assessments, and expectations associated with it. At this level, generally accepted meanings and values are subject to change depending on the life path of the individual and the situation of his activity.

These individual values, norms, stereotypes of behavior and perception are formed and consolidated in the actual practice of managing production and doing business, in stable mass stereotypes of economic behavior, i.e. are embodied in economic institutions with a stable legitimate specificity - a capitalist enterprise, a socialist economy, etc., which form the institutional level of economic culture. At the institutional level, the norms of economic culture are codified in various documents - in the charters and codes of organizations, in declarations of ethical business principles, in codes of practice for employees of firms and institutions, etc. In an institutionalized culture, a system of sanctions for violation of norms is being developed, while at the personal level, only consciousness of compliance or non-compliance with a value model, a sense of personal moral worth or guilt are possible. The personal and institutional levels of economic culture are closely interrelated.

A specialized economic culture includes various types of high professional culture. These are local subcultures of high-level specialists (highly skilled workers, farmers, businessmen, managers, financiers, etc.). Such specialists, due to the peculiarities of their professional activities, have a specific mentality, traditions, value orientations, norms of behavior, professional language, etc. This can also include mobilization forms of economic culture that arise and exist under the influence of any historical, economic, ideological circumstances and exist for a limited time or among a limited number of economic entities. A vivid example: the Stakhanovite movement in Russia.

The median economic culture is opposed to its specialized and mobilization forms as a stable and consistent set of value orientations that are shared by the broad masses of the population over long periods of time.

The median economic culture penetrates everyday practice and forms an ordinary (everyday) economic culture. At the ordinary level, it appears not as a solution to highly complex special tasks, but as a daily job or running a small business of your own, housekeeping, family budget planning, etc. It is at the everyday level of culture that the role of customs and norms is most clearly manifested as established stereotypes of economic behavior, little realized and supported by force of habit. At the ordinary level, the traditional level of industriousness and diligence, the quality and intensity of labor, frugality, accuracy and diligence, as well as the permitted measure of idleness, etc. are maintained.

The median culture forms that general background, the context from which specialized and mobilization forms grow, the boundaries between them are blurred, and there is no direct relationship between their levels of development. In Russia, the low level of development of the middle culture is one of the main problems, but before and after the revolutionary history there are many examples of a high specialized professional culture and highly efficient production, bright entrepreneurial talents.

Middle culture is one of the most significant stabilizing factors in society. A high level of median economic culture smooths out fluctuations in socio-economic development and ensures a higher adaptive capacity of society.

Relationship between economic culture and social consciousness. The main features of economic culture as a mechanism for regulating economic behavior.

Focusing on economic culture as a social mechanism that reproduces the standards of economic behavior allows us to define economic culture as a way of interaction between economic consciousness (as a reflection of economic relations and knowledge of the functioning and development of economic laws) and economic thinking (as a reflection of involvement in economic activity), regulating participation individuals and social groups in economic activity and the degree of their self-realization in certain types of economic behavior. This means the formation by past economic experience of a certain state of economic consciousness (and economic thinking as a form of its manifestation) of society, a social stratum, a social group that embody this state in a certain economic activity (economic behavior).

The more perfect the mode of this interaction, the more efficient economic activity; the more rational economic behavior, the higher the level of economic culture. Thus, it is the way of interconnection between economic consciousness and economic thinking that acts as a natural regulator of economic behavior. Inert, passive, undeveloped economic consciousness, which does not feel the need to change for a long time, has led to contradictory, emotional (rather than rational) economic thinking, which combines external adherence to the policy of economic reforms with established social stereotypes. As a result, both economic behavior and economic activity acquire an emotional rather than rational character and are sometimes carried out in a state of psychological stress. Such economic thinking, in turn, is not capable of significantly enriching economic consciousness with social practice. The regulatory impact of such an imperfect way of interconnection and mutual penetration of economic consciousness and economic thinking into each other on economic behavior, economic activity as a whole is small and weakly determines the variability and flexibility of this behavior.

What are the features of economic culture as a process that ultimately regulates economic behavior: First, economic culture includes only those values, needs, preferences that arise from the needs of the economy and have a significant (positive or negative) impact on it. These are those social norms that, arising in society, acquire their specific meaning in the economic sphere. These are the social norms that arise from the internal needs of the economy.
Secondly, the peculiarity of economic culture is determined by the channels through which it regulates the relationship (interaction) of economic consciousness and economic thinking. This is probably the plasticity of social stereotypes, and a minimum of patterns that make this connection difficult and make it conservative, and much more. The more meaningful and active economic consciousness, the more rational and consistent, selective and heuristic economic thinking, the freer and more professional economic behavior.
Thirdly, the peculiarity of economic culture is seen in the fact that, as a regulator of the connection between economic consciousness and economic thinking, it is, to a much greater extent than any other, focused on managing the economic behavior of people.

Considering economic culture as a way of interaction between economic consciousness and economic thinking involves judgments about the regulatory possibilities inherent in the way itself.

Economic culture, like culture as a whole, plays the role of social memory, but not the entire social memory of society, but only that segment of it that is associated with the history of economic relations. We can talk about the translation function. This is the transfer from the past to the present, from the present to the future of socio-economic values, norms, needs, preferences, behavioral motives. Norms and values are transmitted from the past to the present, which make up the content of economic consciousness and economic thinking as a form of its manifestation and economic behavior as a way of their interaction.

We can also talk about the selective function of culture, associated with the selection from the inherited values and norms of those that are necessary (useful) for solving the problems of subsequent stages of the development of society. Economic culture selects those values and norms that are necessary for the development of flexible economic behavior of subjects of economic development. However, ideological attitudes can modify this process and even stop it by introducing ideological frameworks and standards.

We can also talk about the innovative function of economic culture, which is manifested in the renewal of social values and norms by developing new and borrowing progressive values from other cultures. The completeness and quality of the performance of these functions determines the regulatory possibilities of economic culture.

The administrative management of the economy (with the deformed operation of the basic socio-economic laws, in particular the law of competition), the lack of formation of an inert, undeveloped economic consciousness as the ability to use laws for the purposes of social development, the inconsistency and emotionality of economic thinking, subordination to the practice of total management - all this made it difficult to fully implement the main functions of economic culture - translational (where dependence on ideology and politics, declarativeness, directiveness prevailed), selection (where cultural monotony dominated), innovative (which was practically nullified). The resolution of the identified contradictions largely depends on how fully the mechanism of the functioning of economic culture will be involved.

Development of economic culture

Democracy grows not on the soil of slogans, but on the real soil of economic laws. Only through the freedom of the producer in the market is democracy realized in the economic sphere. Continuity in the development of democratic mechanisms is a normal and positive thing. There is nothing shameful in using elements of the bourgeois-democratic experience. Interestingly, the motto of the Great French Revolution "freedom, equality, fraternity" was interpreted as follows by market relations: freedom is the freedom of private individuals, freedom of competition of isolated owners, equality is the equivalence of exchange, the cost basis of purchase and sale, and fraternity is the union of "brothers -enemies", competing capitalists.

Economic culture of society

The economic culture of the individual is an organic unity of consciousness and practical activity.

The economic culture of the individual can correspond to the economic culture of society, get ahead of it, but it can also lag behind it, hinder its development.

Structure of economic culture:

1) knowledge (a set of economic ideas about the production, exchange, distribution and consumption of material goods) and practical skills;
2) economic thinking (allows you to know the essence of economic phenomena and processes, operate with learned economic concepts, analyze specific economic situations);
3) economic orientation (needs, interests, motives of human activity in the economic sphere);
4) ways of organizing activities;
5) norms governing relations and human behavior in it (thrift, discipline, wastefulness, mismanagement, greed, fraud).

Not only the development of production, but also the social balance in society, its stability depends on the nature of economic relations between people (relationships of property, exchange of activities and distribution of goods and services). The economic interests of people act as a reflection of their economic relations. Thus, the economic interests of entrepreneurs (getting the maximum profit) and the hired worker (selling their labor services more expensively and getting a higher salary) are determined by their place in the system of economic relations.

Economic interest is the desire of a person to obtain the benefits he needs to provide for his life and family.

The main content of the economic life of society is the interaction of the economic interests of people. Hence, an important task is to develop ways of optimal combination of their interests, their harmonization. History shows us two levers of influence on people in order to achieve greater productivity - violence and economic interest.

One of the ways of economic cooperation of people, the main means of struggle against human egoism has become the mechanism of the market economy. This mechanism made it possible for humanity to put its own desire for profit into a framework that allows people to constantly cooperate with each other on mutually beneficial terms (Adam Smith on the "invisible hand" of the market).

In search of ways to harmonize the economic interests of the individual and society, various methods of influencing people's consciousness were also used: philosophical teachings, moral norms, art, religion. This led to the creation of a special element of the economy - business ethics, the observance of the norms of which facilitates the conduct of business, the cooperation of people, reducing distrust and hostility. A civilized understanding of entrepreneurial success today is associated, first of all, with moral and ethical, and then with financial aspects => "Being honest is profitable."

Economic culture of countries

Today, in countries with developed market economies, the moral aspects of economic activity are given serious attention. Ethics is taught in most business schools, and many corporations adopt codes of ethics.

Interest in ethics is due to the understanding of the harm that unethical, dishonest business behavior causes to society. A civilized understanding of entrepreneurial success today is also associated, first of all, with moral and ethical, and then with financial aspects.

Modern economy in the 80s. entered a new stage, which was called "innovative". General computerization, informatization of society, intellectualization of the economy are unthinkable without a creative personality. In this regard, freedom in the economic, intellectual, political, cultural fields for the main subject of social relations has moved far ahead.

Creativity is beginning to take precedence in the motivation of labor activity. And this is a huge army of labor: the proportion of those whose activities are mainly related to creative work is approaching in industrialized countries and half of the entire labor force.

A new system of the so-called "economy of participation" ("system of participation", "democracy of participation") is being formed. The problem of motivation of a working person is posed in a new way, including the creation of conditions for the full manifestation of his creative potential, the participation of an employee in the decision-making process.

The main forms of the participation system include:

Participation in the profits or "success of the enterprise";
- in the property;
- in management.

The formation of a developed institution of social partnership, the structure of social self-regulation of the market economy has strong prospects for the future. Wherever these basic principles are implemented, each country has its own, clearly expressed "national specificity".

Formation of economic culture

The modern conditions of the economic development of the Russian society require from the institutions of the education system the training of more qualified and demanded specialists in the labor market who differ in economic culture. Based on this, the priority is "training a specialist of a new formation, who has broad fundamental knowledge, is proactive, creative, adaptable to the changing requirements of the labor market and technology, able to work in a team."

Economic culture is a part of humanitarian culture and, therefore, it has all the essential, deep features that are characteristic of culture in general. Economic culture occupies a special place in the system of culture and performs its specific functions. This follows from its definition.

It is accepted to define economic culture as an organic unity of economic knowledge, beliefs and practical creative activity of a person. It is difficult to clearly differentiate the functions of economic theory. Let us conditionally single out the main ones: cognitive, applied, educational. The cognitive function helps to get acquainted with the main provisions of economic science, ways and methods of applying its prescriptions in practice, allows us to consider economic culture as a reflection of economic life, as a means of penetrating people into complex relationships and relationships in the process of production, distribution, exchange and consumption, as the basis of the worldview personality. The worldview has several "layers", and the most fundamental is economic: economic ideas, views, ideas.

The applied or production function of economic culture is manifested in the fact that a person, using economic knowledge, is able in his practical, professional activities to make competent economic decisions, to realize specific organizational skills and abilities.

Today, no technical decision can be made without an economic justification.

Economic culture underlies any professional activity, providing business, creative qualities, competence, professional skills, the need to work efficiently, a sense of responsibility for the task of the future specialist.

From a modern specialist, deep knowledge of economics, psychology, organization and stimulation of labor, mastering the latest technology, the ability to see the future, the need for continuous expansion and updating of knowledge, the growth of professional level, the ability to be an educator and organizer in production, intolerance to shortcomings, stagnation, indifference , commitment to everything advanced and progressive, discipline, diligence, organization.

Add to this the increase in such traits as professional dedication, self-esteem and the realization of professional personal capabilities.

The educational function of economic culture is to transform the totality of knowledge into beliefs, the realization of this knowledge and beliefs in people's actions.

Beliefs in their essence represent an alloy of rational, emotional and volitional comprehension of the assimilation of knowledge. Knowledge turns into convictions only if they are mastered by the mind and heart of a person.

The connection between economic and moral culture is important. Moreover, it can be argued that the goal of economic and moral culture is common - the formation of ideas, views, principles, rules of conduct that are adequate to general humanitarian values.

Actually the purpose of economic education is the education of personal qualities of the subject of market relations. Among them, we single out the ability to combine personal interests with public ones and ways to implement them. These qualities come to the fore when achieving personal success in a market economy.

Thus, the most important task of forming a moral and professional culture is the combination of economic and moral interests, because in modern conditions it is meaningless to talk about professional and moral interest in general. A market economy requires an active, autonomous, self-reliant individual responsible for his own destiny. Therefore, the main task is to combine personal interest with economic, a combination of personal needs with the possible satisfaction of the interests of other people. The affirmation of universal human values should take place taking into account the revision of the conditions and values of the social environment, the interests of the modern engineer.

The formation of economic culture, and on its basis of economic thinking, occurs in the process of education and upbringing. Through education, economic theories, ideas, views, knowledge are studied; in the process of education, economic qualities and norms of people's behavior are formed.

The core of the individual's economic culture is economic consciousness. The formation of high consciousness, a sense of responsibility and discipline, the transformation of social requirements into the need of the individual becomes the result of a consistent educational process.

The development of economic thinking determines the specific tasks of economic education of students:

Formation of economic outlook;
the ability to adequately assess the processes taking place in economic life and navigate it;
the ability to evaluate public policy;
the ability to justify technical solutions in terms of their economic efficiency;
the ability to competently organize your business, properly organize your life.

A fairly clear system of economic education has developed in humanitarian and technical universities. It is based on basic economic disciplines, the purpose of which is to give students knowledge of the main economic categories, concepts in their organic connection with the market economy, the economic strategy of the state, economic growth, and the global problems of the country's entry into the world economic community.

This is achieved through various forms of education, the use of various active forms of student work in practical classes (tests, program-targeted and problematic situational tasks, business games, etc.).

The most effective ways to intensify work in practical classes are creative teaching methods: business games, program-targeted and problematic tasks, brainstorming, the “If ...” method, thanks to which managerial decision-making is simulated in different situations by playing options for given or developed by the participants of the rules. Case seminars involve decision-making with the analysis of the parameters of specific situations taken from practical activities. They allow to improve the analytical skills of students, justifying decision-making and reasoned defense of their position in the course of discussions.

A business game conducted with students provides for the creation of complex production situations, the distribution of roles and functional responsibilities between the participants, collective decision-making, and the creative interaction of all participants in the game.

Such an approach allows future specialists to form economic thinking, perceive the economic transformations of today more consciously, navigate modern economic life and make optimal decisions in any economic situation. It should be said that modern state educational standards of economic disciplines make it possible to expand the system of economic views, concepts, assessments, conclusions, to form a new type of thinking dictated by the formation and development of the country's market system.

It should be noted that changes in the economy, of course, affect the change in the psychology of people, their moral values. In essence, a new model of life is emerging, based on a change in values, life orientations and ideals: individualism, selfishness, uncertainty and risk of initiative and entrepreneurship, activities that often go beyond the bounds of the law, personal interest and the primacy of material values. Often people do immoral things.

Economic culture is indeed mobile in terms of filling it with new knowledge corresponding to a new stage in the development of the economic system, but moral guidelines must remain unchanged.

In the process of teaching basic economic disciplines, it is important to emphasize that the market economy itself, in fact, cannot be immoral, since it is only an unsurpassed mechanism of production and distribution that ensures maximum benefits for society as a whole. The basis for this is competition and free markets. Competition stimulates increased productivity, free markets make it possible to overcome the shortage of goods, and both of these factors together provide an opportunity to increase the welfare of society.

Acting within the framework of a market economy, people strive for their own benefit, while relying on a generally recognized ethical foundation that allows them to reconcile personal and social interests. The absence of such moral regulation leads to increased state regulation of the economy, i.e. where the market is not ethically oriented, there is a need for more legal regulation, and vice versa.

Undoubtedly, however, is that in conditions of economic freedom and competitive relations, the importance of ethical regulation increases.

We can distinguish moral requirements in the economic field:

The highest productivity and profit should not come at the expense of environmental destruction;
competition must be carried out according to fair rules;
the benefits created by labor should be distributed in such a way as not to contribute to the emergence of declassed sections of the population;
technology should serve man, not man technology.

State educational standards establish general requirements for the content of general and vocational education programs. They define the compulsory disciplines that every student of any specialty must study.

Along with compulsory disciplines, the main educational programs include disciplines of the student's choice.

Reading elective courses provides certain advantages over traditional classes:

Firstly, the teacher gets the opportunity to realize his potential, accumulated in the course of professional and scientific work, self-education. At the same time, the maximum expansion of the subjects of elective courses in all disciplines of economic departments, faculties, and special departments is expected. Such an expansion of topics contributes to the optimal expansion of the professional problems of the future engineer.
Secondly, the voluntariness of students' choice of one or another elective course contributes to a certain spiritual community of the teacher and student, which has a positive effect on the work of both parties.
Thirdly, the possibility of a deep study of a particular problem turns into an energetic impetus to the subject being studied.

To a certain extent, this problem can be solved by such elective courses as “Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship”, “Ethics of Entrepreneurship”, “History of Economic Doctrines”, “Securities Market”, “Management”, “Marketing”, etc. Special attention should be paid to the special course “Fundamentals of Entrepreneurial Activity”. It is this course that allows you to study and understand phenomena that are fundamentally new for our country, such as business, entrepreneurship, and give basic skills for the practical organization of your business (for example, to teach how to develop a business plan - a necessary condition for the success of entrepreneurial activity).

This course should broadly cover the ethical standards of entrepreneurship. Students, and many of them can become and are already becoming entrepreneurs, must understand that the subjects of a profitable business are, on the one hand, business people, entrepreneurs, merchants, and on the other, consumers, customers, buyers. The system of relations between them is a market, in the regulation of which, as already noted, ethical requirements are of great importance. In a civilized market, a number of fairly stringent requirements are also imposed on business entities. Among the moral qualities that businessmen should be guided by, the most important are honesty (includes truthfulness, integrity, fidelity to obligations), nobility (selflessness, loyalty to ideals, courage, generosity, etc.), frugality (economical and expedient use of funds is opposed to unjustified luxury, mismanagement).

In the absence of strict state control over economic activity, the listed moral norms become the most important regulators of business relations and competition. In countries with developed market economies and democracies, the majority of the population understands that the richer the entrepreneurs, the more of their wealth in the form of taxes will go to social programs. Of course, social inequality violates the comfort of the existence of many people, but not so much that they do not understand that it is better to live well enough with social inequality than poor in equality with others.

Among the forms of economic education, obtaining a second higher (as a rule, paid) education is of great importance, which allows one to acquire the profession of a manager, marketer, and financial manager while studying at a technical university. This undoubtedly allows you to expand the scope of future activities, the general level of education, stimulates creative growth, creates the prerequisites for faster promotion or more efficient running of your own business.

In addition to traditional forms of education (as our sociological surveys have shown), a special role in the formation of economic culture is played by extracurricular work with students.

The vastness of the content of elective courses creates the prerequisites for the deployment around them of the creation of interest clubs, scientific circles, round tables, and oral journals. They are able to become a successful continuation of the classroom.

The effectiveness of the formation of economic culture is achieved only in conditions of continuity of education.

The continuity of economic preparation can be viewed from two angles. On the one hand, the economic aspect should be present when reading all disciplines: humanitarian, general scientific, special, which is provided on the basis of interdisciplinary connections. On the other hand, economic education and upbringing should be carried out throughout the entire period of students' education.

The implementation of these areas should obviously be presented in a unified program of economic education for the entire period of study.

1. Economic departments need to take into account the profile of the university and faculties, while using the material of general scientific and technical disciplines, the achievements of the relevant industries. They should provide advisory assistance to students and graduate students in the development of economic aspects of scientific problems when they write abstracts, term papers, theses, competitive works and projects.
2. It is important for departments of general scientific and technical disciplines to focus on strengthening the economic orientation of lecture courses, seminars, practical classes, and research work.
3. Economic departments should, in turn, hold joint meetings with special departments to discuss topical economic aspects of scientific problems, achievements of domestic and foreign science and technology.
4. It is important for Academic Councils of universities to discuss at their meetings the state of economic training of students, measures for its further improvement.
5. It is desirable that methodological seminars be organized at the university in order to improve the economic culture of all teachers.

The following list of problems can be suggested:

The role of domestic scientists in the development of science and technology;
disclosure in the educational process of the unity of technical, economic, social and organizational tasks;
showing the place and role of this discipline in accelerating scientific and technological progress; an increase in the social role of the technical intelligentsia, the aesthetics of technological creativity, and responsibility for the preservation of the environment;
moral and aesthetic aspects in teaching this discipline; the formation of an active life position of students: the need for work, compliance with the rules of educational and industrial discipline, norms of behavior and moral ethics.

Continuity of economic education is also achieved in the process of individual work with students, which allows them to develop in the educational process, in the course of other types of extracurricular work, practical skills and abilities aimed at developing industriousness, efficiency, enterprise, organization, prudence, economy, and careful attitude. to state property; formation of skills of the scientific organization of labor, effective use of free time.

All these areas of classroom and extracurricular work are aimed at improving the quality of education, the formation of economic culture, which undoubtedly increases professional mobility and social security of the individual in a market economy. It seems that the priority of this work should be to cultivate the habit of intellectual activity in the presence of pluralism of opinions, to a critical assessment of certain ideas, concepts and theories.

In the organization of economic education, the role of a teacher of economic disciplines, his ability to effectively organize the educational process is great. At lectures, it is important to draw students' attention to the key problems of economic development. In seminars, it is necessary that all students are involved in the learning process.

As practice has shown, the dialogue form of training gives the effect. A free exchange of opinions, an atmosphere of ease greatly accelerates the familiarization of students with economic knowledge, stimulates the formation of stable convictions. It is useful to organize discussions on problematic issues of the economy in groups.

Thus, a university teacher has a wide range of means and methods of influencing students in order to form their economic culture.

A huge role in education is played by the personality of the teacher. If a teacher is a socially active, principled and civic-spirited person, if his judgments are distinguished by courage and novelty, if he himself is a bearer of economic culture, then it is easier for students who communicate with him to choose their life position and self-realization.

Levels of economic culture

Modern psychological science identifies several levels of people's creative abilities:

The first level is productive-reproductive creative ability, when in the process of labor it is only repeated, copied, and, only as an exception, by chance, something new is created.
The second level is generative creativity, the result of which will be, if not a completely new work, then at least an original new variation.
The third level is constructive and innovative activity, the essence of which is the natural appearance of the new. This level of ability in production is manifested in the work of inventors and innovators.

Fundamentals of economic culture

The growing role of the sphere of culture and art for the development of modern society is associated with the rapidly growing spiritual and aesthetic needs of a person, its increasing impact on the quality of human capital and economic growth. The nature and scale of this impact largely exceeds the quantitative expression of the industry in the structure of the gross domestic product.

The status of a key element of the social system is given to culture by two of its characteristics. Firstly, it accumulates the centuries-old experience of the people: the vast majority of the values that the country lives by were created in the past, sometimes distant, and they largely determine its further development. Secondly, it is culture that ultimately shapes the person himself, contributes to the formation of an open and legal society, civil harmony.

Culture itself has three unique resources - the creative potential of its creators, accumulated over the centuries and developed from generation to generation; cultural heritage, which is the result of centuries of work of creators; cultural traditions, materialized in the interest of the population in the values of culture. These are the most important resources of society, which, however, can be lost during the life of two or three generations, if the necessary conditions for the existence and development of culture are not provided. The delayed social effect of cultural activities, the lack of often momentary results obliges the society to treat these truly strategic resources with special care, protecting the accumulated cultural potential as one of the country's highest values.

There are several levels of the role (contribution) of culture and art in the development of modern society:

A) The direct contribution of the cultural sector to the economy: the sphere of culture and art creates specific jobs, has its own autonomous markets with significant investment potential, makes a direct contribution to the development of the economy of a particular region; culture and art serve as the main source for the development of education, media, tourism, and the entertainment industry.
b) Direct social influence: culture and art provide socially significant activities, organization of recreation, positively influence the consciousness of people, relations between them, contribute to the spiritual development of the individual and society as a whole, the disclosure of their creative potential; in elite, mass culture, underground, a variety of possible samples and models of social behavior is offered.
c) Indirect economic impact: culture and art are socially beneficial, as they accumulate and transmit certain basic values of society, images that, among other things, are used in commercial and non-commercial activities; such modern business and management technologies as advertising, public relations, work with personnel, reengineering of corporations, the formation of corporate culture and corporate identity, are impossible without the use of traditional forms of socio-cultural activities, without cooperation with institutions and organizations in the field of culture; mutually beneficial, mutually stimulating cooperation between the business world and the sphere of culture, commercial and non-commercial, but socially significant areas, their social partnership is the most important mechanism and tool for the formation of a civil society capable of self-development; culture and art add value to the environment, for example, decorating goods, premises, buildings, including in the design of the city, the material environment of production and recreation.
d) Indirect social impact: culture and art enrich the social environment by prescribing it with various attractive events; they act as a source of civilizational influence and social organization, stimulate creativity, increasing the ability of society to perceive and search for something new, to overcome old stereotypes of consciousness and behavior; culture and art - the collective memory of society, an inexhaustible source of cultural and historical heritage and creative ideas for future generations; they improve and diversify life, increase the degree of socialization of the individual, contributing to the prevention and reduction of deviant and asocial behavior; the role of culture and art in the education and upbringing of the younger generation, influencing the intellectual and emotional development of children is great; the role of culture and art in social communication is growing, including with the use of modern technologies.

Taking into account all the above connections, we can say that culture is a system-forming factor in the consolidation and development of society on a national and regional scale.

In the economic analysis of cultural activity, the most important theoretical and starting point is the question of attributing labor in the field of culture to the economic sphere and singling out the corresponding branch of the national economy. This new branch of social labor from an economic point of view can be characterized as follows: Culture is a special branch, the product of which satisfies a special group of human needs (cultural needs). Its difference from other branches (which can also directly or indirectly contribute to the satisfaction of cultural needs) is that certain subsystems of cultural needs are satisfied in a special way, which is the main criterion for highlighting a specific labor process in the cultural sector. Activities in the field of culture are aimed at comprehensive (intellectual, aesthetic, moral, etc.) education of a person, for which special means are used, the perception of which is carried out voluntarily, taking into account the interests of the individual (in his spare time) and, as a rule, does not have a systematic character (for example, a person may not go to the theater at all, especially since he is not obliged to attend it regularly). The next distinguishing feature by which one can determine whether a particular type of human activity belongs to the branch of culture is the decision of the question of whether it is carried out by a person for himself or for other people. Cultural activity has been formed into an independent branch precisely because it has been involved on a large scale in the process of spending social labor and has become a permanent element in the system of social division of labor. The development of culture based only on the laws of the market, the exclusively commercial setting of business in this specific and very delicate branch of the national economic complex of the country does not fully correspond to the social nature of society. In addition, economic laws act specifically in the cultural sphere (which is manifested, for example, in the mismatch between supply and demand, the inelasticity of effective demand, pricing features, etc.), and economic relations have a number of features and differences from relations in the sphere of material production. The specificity of the cultural sector also lies in the fundamental originality of the interaction between producers and consumers of socio-cultural services.

The consumer makes his own contribution to the achievement of final results, satisfaction of needs. Thus, the familiarization of a person with the benefits of culture, as a rule, cannot be achieved if the efforts of the worker do not find active support from those who receive services. At the same time, services often deeply affect the personality of the consumer, changing its important features.

Direct impact on the consumer, defining the specifics of the cultural sector, at the same time puts forward special requirements for the economic mechanism, methods for realizing economic interests. Distinctive features of the sphere of culture as an object of management are also expressed in the features of the resource potential, processes and results of functioning. The sphere under consideration is characterized by a high labor intensity of services with a relatively small capital and material intensity. Thus, material costs, including depreciation, in theaters are 13.3%, in circuses - 17.4%, in concert organizations - 3.5%, in parks - 20.3% and at the same time in industry - 65.4%. %, construction - 55.6%. As for natural resources, in relation to the specific processes of providing cultural services, these factors act, as a rule, only as general conditions for human life. The personnel composition of the cultural sector is also specific. In terms of the level of training of workers, this area is far ahead of other branches of the national economy. Among workers of culture and art, 36.0% of the total number of employees have higher education (in industry - 19.0%, in housing and communal services and consumer services - 12.6%).

There is also reason to speak about the qualitative originality of the structure of the personnel of the industry, in which the functions of direct impact on a person are most clearly expressed. Here, it is the specialist who most often makes a decisive contribution to the provision of the service, and lower-qualified personnel are mainly assigned a supporting role. In material production and public utilities, on the contrary, the direct creation of products is primarily a function of workers, while specialists mainly provide technical and organizational support for production processes.

It should also be noted that the area under consideration is developing under the strong influence of the modern scientific and technological revolution. The new technique expands creative possibilities: electronic synthesizers are used in the musical art, artists and sculptors use new materials and means of processing, the theater absorbs new artistic means inherent in the film industry, video and audio business. The technical equipment of cultural and art institutions is rising to a new level, their organizational structure is changing. The most important trend is the universalization of cultural institutions: modern libraries, museums, cinemas are, as a rule, multifunctional complexes. Lectures, conferences are held in libraries, lecture halls, video halls, kiosks, shops and even restaurants operate in museums. A typical modern cinema is a multiplex, consisting of several halls with comfortable seating and seating, equipped with the latest audiovisual equipment, first-class service and restaurants. This is one of the reasons for the strengthening in recent years of the competitive position of cinematography, which was won earlier by television and video. Both in the scientific literature and in social practice, there are still different approaches to the question of culture as a special branch of the national economy. In the past, it was often rejected or questioned that culture is a branch of the national economy, since only those activities that are associated with the creation of material use values were considered economic. However, scientists gradually came to a consensus: culture is an organic component of the national economy and, moreover, it should be considered as one of the branches of the national economy.

The definition of the boundaries of the socio-cultural sphere and the branch of culture as its component is based on the use of various classifications. Most often there are classifications based on the allocation of activities, consistent with the types and genres of art, often in combination with the results (products) of cultural activity.

Culture of economic relations

The culture of economic relations is a set of values, meanings, moral norms, customs, through which the economic behavior of people is regulated and directed.

Economic culture cannot be considered as a separate, independent part of culture, since it is a projection of culture in its broadest sense onto the sphere of socio-economic relations.

In the most general form, economic culture can be defined as a set of social norms and values that are the regulator of economic behavior and play the role of social memory of economic development, contributing (or hindering) the transmission, selection and renewal of values, norms and needs that function in the economy and orient it subjects other forms of economic activity.

The economics of culture studies culture in the sectoral dimension as a branch of the national economy, in which certain resources, including financial ones, are spent and a certain product is produced.

In the 70s, it was believed that there were no economic relations in culture, because culture does not create wealth. Only a few believed that there is, because culture consumes what is created by material production - a building, light, electricity, water supply, financing.

In culture, economic relations are formed regarding the creation, distribution and consumption of cultural goods and the development of cultural values.

Cultural values - moral and aesthetic ideals, norms and patterns of behavior, languages, dialects and dialects, national traditions and customs, historical toponyms (names of places), folklore, arts and crafts, works of culture and art, results and methods of scientific research of cultural activities buildings, objects and technologies that have historical and cultural significance, territories and objects that are unique in historical and cultural terms.

Cultural goods are the conditions and services provided by organizations and individuals to meet citizens' cultural needs.

In culture there is a specific stage of PRESERVATION. This is connected with the accumulation of cultural potential or with the concept of cultural heritage.

Cultural heritage - immovable monuments of culture, history and architecture; movable monuments of culture and art - funds of libraries and museums; international convention for the protection of the intangible cultural heritage - folklore, professional art, etc., masterpieces of Russian folk art.

Material goods are destroyed in the process of consumption!! Many cultural values in the process only increase their value.

Economic culture of Russia

The institutional aspects of economic culture are values, norms that characterize not people, but economic activity - as a set of social institutions. Institutions have had a major impact on economic culture, contributing to the improvement and development of economic culture. One of the important institutions that has a direct impact on economic culture, both in the past and at present, is labor. In this regard, I will refer to the opinion of S.N. Bulgakov, who devoted his doctoral dissertation of 1911 "Philosophy of Economics" to the desire to understand the world as an object of labor, economic impact. The bottom line is that Russian scientific literature did not pay attention to labor as a social principle, did not take into account its role in the economic culture and life of Russia, in shaping the mode of existence of the individual, society and the state.

S.N. Bulgakov, on the other hand, considered human labor as a single whole, which is human history. There is a discrepancy between needs and means to satisfy them; the consequence of this was a free competition between people, in which not only the more adapted, but too often the more unscrupulous elements win. Industrial morality deteriorated when some people were seduced by the success of rivals who exploited favorable economic conditions for them. And for the conservation and successful extraction of the riches of nature, the existence of a moral system in the historical process is necessary: progress in this direction, as well as the number of gifted and enterprising people, provided the historical advantages of the tribe, people, and country. In collective work, the art of industriousness and ingenuity were honed as ways of modernizing any kind of labor. Among human needs and needs, the needs of mutual assistance, support, communication, and love occupied not the last place. Hopes for society were associated with faith in the nobility of man: by nature, he is a creature prone to justice, virtue, pity.

These moral qualities did not exclude others: foresight, ingenuity, perseverance, prudence, striving for order. Most thinkers in Europe and Russia evaluated and called the desire to establish material equality between people impossible for the reason that the most ingenious systems based on material equality and common property would collapse due to differences in individual human nature. The differences shown did not cross out the principles of morality that have existed for many millennia in the economic culture of peoples, but only pointed, for example, to personal interest or the interest of small groups (family, monastic brotherhood, community) as the main spring of economic activity. The common good has been a vague and indefinite concept since ancient times, while the private good, on the contrary, is always clear and definite. That is why the theory based on the private interests of the individual and the family has received universal approval and widespread practical application. We are talking about Adam Smith (1723-1790), he published the Theory of Moral Sentiments, which he concluded with the following conclusion: every person, by his natural essence, takes care of himself first of all, since it is easier for him to take care of himself than for anyone. to another, then this duty naturally rests with him. There are four basic personal interests of people: the interest of love, the interest of money, the interest of ambition, and the interest of self-love or vanity. He considered labor as a measure for comparing the value of various goods, and he called the right of each person to his own labor the most sacred and inviolable property, for labor is the fundamental basis of any other property.

A. Smith foresaw a society in which there would be perfect freedom and where everyone would be absolutely free to choose an occupation that he considers appropriate, and change it when he considers it necessary. He was convinced that the self-interest of each person would encourage him to seek profit for himself and avoid unprofitable occupations. A. Smith recognized reason, conscience and a sense of civic duty as judges and evaluators of human behavior, these qualities he considered the basis of moral behavior, the most characteristic of human nature and expedient not only for the individual, but also for society. He also argued that a person should have complete freedom in making decisions. Restriction of the freedom of an individual is admissible only insofar as it is required to ensure the freedom of other persons. He was the first to explore both sides of human nature and introduced into the philosophy of the world economy the belief in the natural course of things, that in the transition from the formal subordination of labor to capital, to the actual subordination, the transformation of the spiritual parts of production will play a significant role. The manifestation of dualism is characteristic in the assessment of human nature and for Karl Marx (1818-1883). He wrote that, in the process of producing public goods, a person changes the nature around him. K. Marx considered the combination of personal interest with public interest possible on the basis of the development in labor of human solidarity, comradeship, and awareness of common interests.

Economic culture can bring a person closer to the ideal of economic life and can provide more and more means to satisfy human needs, while at the same time improving the means of satisfying needs. The economic culture of the people that interests us reflects a certain stage in the formation of human consciousness. The use of the concept of economic culture makes it possible to link value definitions into a single whole as an expression of market values and as a reflection of religious, moral and aesthetic norms of people's creative activity.

But the main problem of economic culture in the past and present has been and remains the problem of the freedom of cooperating individuals in the process of their life-giving and productive impact on the external environment, during which and thanks to which a person improves his own nature and fulfills his destiny.

Culture of economic organization

The key concept for defining organizational culture is the human environment.

Culture is a product of interaction:

The firm as a formal organization with revenue maximization as its target function;
- individual individuals, members of the organization, with a whole range of individual interests and needs;
- the team as a whole and individual social groups formed within the organization;
- the external environment of the company, presenting its requirements to the ways of its life.

All interests, needs, target functions that exist in the space of an economic organization, "sifting" through the "sieve" of the human environment, form the phenomenon of organizational culture, that is, a separate economic phenomenon becomes a fact of culture if it receives recognition from the human environment, the employees of the company.

The properties of organizational culture are based on the following essential features: universality, informality, stability.

The universality of organizational culture is expressed in the fact that it covers all types of activities carried out in the organization.

The concept of universality has a double meaning. On the one hand, organizational culture is the form in which economic acts are clothed. For example, organizational culture may determine the way in which strategic issues are developed, or the procedure for hiring new employees, or the way in which different parts of the organization communicate. On the other hand, culture is not just a shell of the life of an organization, but also its meaning, an element that determines the content of economic acts. Culture itself becomes one of the company's strategic goals. Certain hiring procedures may be subordinated to the need to best adapt new employees to the culture that has developed in the organization. The generality, uncertainty and blurring of the boundaries of organizational culture allow some experts to identify it with the concept of "organizational climate".

The informality of organizational culture is determined by the fact that its functioning is practically not connected with the official rules of organizational life established by order. Organizational culture acts, as it were, in parallel with the formal economic mechanism of the organization, although both - formal and informal - systems for coordinating actions are represented by the same subjects. A distinctive feature of organizational culture in comparison with a formal mechanism is the predominant use of oral, verbal forms of communication, rather than written documentation and instructions, as is customary in a formal system.

The significance of informal contacts is determined by the fact that more than 90 percent of business decisions in modern corporations are made not in a formal setting - at meetings, meetings, etc., but at informal meetings, outside specially designated places.

Organizational culture cannot be identified with any informal contacts in the organization. Organizational culture includes only those informal contacts that correspond to the values accepted within the culture. For example, personal conversations that employees of an organization have during working hours may come into conflict with the company's value of productivity and therefore do not fit into the parameters of this culture.

The informality of organizational culture is the reason why the parameters and results of the impact of culture are almost impossible to measure using quantitative indicators. They can only be expressed by the qualitative term "better - worse".

The stability of organizational culture is associated with such a general property of culture as the traditional character of its norms and institutions. The formation of any organizational culture requires a long effort on the part of managers and entrepreneurs. However, once formed, the values of culture and the ways of their implementation acquire the character of traditions and remain stable for several generations working in the organization. Many strong organizational cultures have inherited the values introduced by leaders and founders of companies many decades ago. Thus, the foundations of modern IBM culture were laid in the first decades of the 20th century. by its founding father, T. J. Watson. The history of corporate culture knows many such examples.

The most complete organizational culture is characterized by its following functions.

The protective function of culture. Culture serves as a kind of barrier to the penetration of undesirable tendencies and negative values characteristic of the external environment. Thus, it neutralizes the effect of negative external factors. Organizational culture, as an element of the "visible hand" and a consciously formed phenomenon, clearly defines the boundaries within which the price mechanism stops and uncertainty gives way to purposeful and systematic actions of entrepreneurs and managers. It includes a specific system of values, a special climate and ways of interaction between the participants of the organization and thereby creates a unique image of the company, which makes it possible to distinguish it from other companies, business entities and from the external environment as a whole.

This function of culture is especially relevant for modern Russian economic organizations, since in the external environment of Russian business:

There are no necessary conditions that streamline economic life, both formal (economic legislation) and informal, which are determined by the development of a common economic culture;
- there is a high aggressiveness of the external environment of the Russian firm, which is expressed, in particular, in the criminalization of economic life in Russia and severe pressure on firms and their leaders by criminal elements;
- Russian firms operate in conditions of instability and uncertainty of the political environment;
- Russian companies are still a relatively alien element in the structure of society, which basically has not adapted to the changing conditions of existence and has not accepted the emerging system of values of the Russian private business economy.

These factors necessitate special attention of the leaders of Russian firms to the problems of forming an organizational culture that can limit the space of uncertainty and change the balance of power in favor of stability and sustainability.

integrating function. By instilling a certain value system that synthesizes the interests of all levels of the organization, organizational culture creates a sense of identity among individuals and groups - its participants.

This allows each subject of intra-corporate life:

Better understand the goals of the organization;
- get the most favorable impression of the company in which he works;
- feel like a part of a single system and determine your responsibility to it.

regulatory function. Organizational culture includes informal, unwritten rules that indicate how people should behave in the process of work. These rules define the usual ways of working in the organization: the sequence of work, the nature of work contacts, forms of information exchange, etc. Thus, the uniqueness and orderliness of the main economic acts are set.

Integrating and regulating functions contribute to the growth of productivity in the organization because:

The sense of identity and perception of the values of the organization can increase the purposefulness and perseverance of the participants in the organization in fulfilling their tasks;
- the presence of informal rules that streamline organizational activities and eliminate inconsistency and multidirectional actions, creates time savings in every business situation.

Substitute function, or function of a substitute for formal relations. A strong organizational culture capable of effectively replacing formal, formal mechanisms allows the firm not to resort to excessive complexity of the formal structure and increase the flow of official information and orders. Thus, there is a saving on management costs in the organization. As an objection to this thesis, an argument can be made that the creation and management of culture also require certain costs. However, culture, unlike a formal mechanism, is for the most part a self-reproducing phenomenon - the language of culture, cultural communications, and habitual forms of behavior within the cultural environment self-reproduce. The personal qualities and energy potential of organizational culture leaders are not related to formal regulation. Therefore, many elements of culture for their reproduction do not require special efforts and costs.

When analyzing the replacement function, the question arises: does not this process lead to the gradual displacement and undermining of the formal structure of the organization, which, in essence, means the destruction of the formal organization as such. Such a danger does not exist in the conditions of a developed culture, since the essence of a strong organizational culture lies precisely in the organic combination of the values of a formal organization with other guidelines for people's activities. On the contrary, neglecting culture and ignoring informal human relations does not mean their destruction. In this case, there is a high probability that close-knit informal groups with pronounced leaders, "webs" of informal contacts, will begin to oppose the formal organization, weaken and destroy it.

adaptive function. The presence of an organizational culture facilitates the mutual adaptation of employees to the organization and the organization to the employee. Organizational culture allows new employees to fit in most effectively with the economic system and the way in which human interactions are specific to the organization. Adaptation is carried out through a set of measures called socialization. In turn, the opposite process is possible - individualization, when the company organizes its activities in such a way as to maximize the use of the personal potential and capabilities of the individual to solve their own problems.

For Russian firms, where personnel policy issues are very acute, the adaptation function is extremely relevant.

Educational and developmental function. Culture is always associated with an educational, upbringing effect. Firms are like large families, so managers must take care of the training and education of their employees. The result of such efforts is an increase in "human capital", that is, an increase in the knowledge and skills of employees that the company can use to achieve its goals. Thus, the organization expands the quantity and quality of economic resources at its disposal.

Quality management function. Since culture is ultimately embodied in the results of the company's economic activities - economic benefits, insofar as organizational culture, producing a more attentive and serious attitude to work, contributes to improving the quality of goods and services offered by an economic organization. In other words, the quality of work and the working environment translates into product quality.

Another group of functions is determined by the need to adapt the firm to its external environment. These include the following features.

Consumer orientation feature. Taking into account the goals, requests, interests of consumers, reflected in the elements of culture and, above all, in the value system of the company, contributes to the establishment of stronger and more consistent relations between the company and its customers and clients. Many modern firms highlight customer care as the most significant and widely declared value.

The function of regulating partnerships. Organizational culture develops rules for relationships with partners, which imply not legal, but moral responsibility to them. In this sense, organizational culture develops and supplements the norms and rules of behavior (elements of the "invisible hand") developed within the framework of the economic culture of the market order.

The function of adapting an economic organization to the needs of society. The action of this function increases the operability of the external environment, creates the most favorable external conditions for the activities of the company. Its effect, in contrast to the previous function, is most likely not to increase the productivity of the economic organization, but to remove barriers, barriers, and neutralize the impacts associated with the violation or ignorance of the rules of the social game by the firm. That is, here the company's benefit lies not in obtaining economic "pluses" - gains, but in eliminating economic "minuses" - losses.

The external environment can be unfavorable for the company, not only because it is uncertain and chaotic, but also because it contains norms and values that do not coincide with internal company goals - therefore, the company must not only protect itself from the environment, but and adapt to it.

The second moment, determined by the implementation of the function of adaptation to the external environment, has, paradoxically, an internal orientation. It is associated with reconciliation, harmonization of the internal values of the employees of the organization. An individual worker, on the one hand, is a member of an economic organization and shares its specific corporate interests. On the other hand, he is a representative of a certain society, a bearer of social values. The greater the discrepancy and opposition to each other of elements from two value groups, the higher the likelihood of an employee's internal conflict, which leads to a loss of work orientation and a decrease in labor productivity. Therefore, the function of organizational culture is to find the most consistent combination of corporate values and the values of the external environment.

Factors of economic culture

The issues of transformation of the economic system, which the Russian economy faced during the formation of market reforms, are largely associated with the issues of transformation of the economic culture itself. Apparently, at present, no one should prove that market economic reforms in our country have not brought any tangible positive results. And in this regard, it should be said directly that the mechanisms of transition to a market economy are not unambiguously determined by stabilization and liberalization. In fact, it is necessary to talk about the transformation of the entire economy, starting with technology and ending with the consideration of the corresponding living standards indices. In this case, the situation when economic culture is studied within the framework of certain instrumental skills and knowledge looks quite natural. Meanwhile, the problem is seen in the fact that the acceptance of the priority of the instrumental aspect, as it were, artificially leaves aside the analysis of the value aspect, which is not properly reflected in modern research. However, real life shows otherwise, and above all, paying attention to the fact that in order to acquire and use information qualitatively and determine the factors that characterize human motivation and behavior in the economic sphere, which is characterized by a high role of innovation, it is necessary to apply a diverse range of scientific approaches, including including axiological, sociological, cultural, etc.

This is most obvious in countries where there is an active transformation of the economy and related transformations in the social sphere. As a rule, the economic culture of countries whose market economy has evolved over a long period of time quickly adapts to new economic conditions. Societies prone to authoritarianism often lack sufficient adaptive potential, which limits the possibility of changing economic and political regimes in accordance with the priorities of the functioning of market mechanisms. Apparently, it should be emphasized that the lack of adaptive potential of economic culture must be compensated, and we can talk about direct investment in economic culture. By the way, this fully corresponds to the dialogue of cultures emerging in various fields of general cultural and socio-economic sciences.

Can economic culture be considered as some kind of structural and functional unity? A fairly wide field of analysis in this direction is given to us by Russian economic life, which clearly demonstrates the existence of a discrepancy between economic theory and economic practice. However, it is impossible not to pay attention to the fact that mass consciousness forms their common basis in the sense that representatives of the practical and theoretical levels of economic culture act as carriers of mass consciousness precisely at the level of the everyday world. However, there is another situation when the mass consciousness is actually affected by the economic culture associated with the traditions of its development in other countries and the setting of priorities corresponding to the cultural traditions of other peoples. This in Russian history was associated, for example, with the reforms of Peter I, P.A. Stolypin, market transformations of the post-Soviet period, etc. It can be said that the confrontation of cultures in the Russian tradition formed the phenomenon of double morality in the mass consciousness. That is, the real picture was determined by the fact that the theoretical economic culture laid in the mass consciousness mainly officially approved values, and the economic culture of practical economic agents mainly correlated with the positive results of economic behavior, and also, to some extent, with the traditional attitudes that have developed and transmitted at the level of interpersonal relationships.

In this regard, attention should be paid to the fact that there are basic historical traditions that determined the ways of shaping the features of the development of domestic economic culture. Here, first of all, the communal-state tradition stands out. It is also noteworthy that in Russia for thousands of years there was neither a rule of law nor a civil society. On the other hand, there was a combination of the characteristics of the country with a feudal economy and a very exaggerated role of the state. It is impossible not to note the communal habit of striving to conduct economic activity not individually, but as part of a certain group. At the same time, the constant appeal to the state authorities in the event of various kinds of economic and social problems was very characteristic.

Another tradition can be defined as communist. At the same time, in Russian literature it is customary to attribute European characteristics to it, although in this regard one can speak about the features of Russian communism. Another thing is that it was the Marxist tradition that gave the indicated features of the national character the appearance of a certain set of values. It was the communist tradition in the mass consciousness that was largely associated with production and social positive changes and, accordingly, with the installation of a constant increase in well-being as the norm of life in a communist society. However, the conflict between high social demands and the possibilities of an economic system, for example, a planned one, inevitably aggravated the contradictions of this system, and in the case of socialist development, became one of the determining factors in its collapse.

And, finally, we can single out the market tradition. Unfortunately, in the domestic economic culture it is not represented as brightly as, for example, in the western one. In recent decades, it has been predominantly associated with the shadow economy. It was the shadow economy that mainly ensured the functioning of the main economic structures, such as enterprises and private households. But at the same time, as Russian reality shows, the shadow economy has formed a very distorted market and an economic culture corresponding to it. Rationalism, the ability to produce and use economic information, and along with this, the identification of personal income and the income of an enterprise, a focus on maximizing income with the active use of illegal methods of doing business in the absence of its sufficient legal basis have become instrumental elements of the culture of the shadow market. The value aspects of the shadow culture were largely focused on personal success, however, its stable characteristics should include a kind of spontaneous collectivism, the desire to enter a certain community, fear of independent actions, leveling stereotypes.

It is quite natural that these features of the Russian tradition in the formation of economic culture have a negative impact on the development of the economic system as a whole and at the present stage of its development. The mass consciousness itself, based on these traditions, reacts to the changes taking place in society in an unpredictable way, perceiving them through the prism of established stereotypes. The effective reproduction of economic culture at various levels requires the search for effective methods that would make it possible to carry out an adequate change in the system of economic culture, taking into account its changes within the framework of the priorities of an innovative culture.

Such changes must, of course, be provided institutionally. Without pretending to be original, it should nevertheless be emphasized that this requires the definition of legislative and regulatory limits of economic activity that can guarantee the whole range of appropriate changes in the behavior of economic entities. In addition, the information dissemination system needs to be improved, both at the institutional and technological levels. And, of course, taking into account the already established economic culture, it is necessary to improve the activities of economic and financial institutions.

However, speaking of economic culture, it must be taken into account that it is formed and transmitted at various levels of the social structure of society. The most effective way to transform economic culture has a vector from, so to speak, higher levels to lower ones. In fact, it is assumed that, first of all, the changes affect the highest level of economic culture, at which theorists and researchers are located. Naturally, this social stratum is easier to modify, but it should be noted that various conservative approaches are formed in this environment, and the prevailing scientific stereotypes can have a restraining effect on the progressive development of economic culture. Here it is necessary to change the very scientific vision of economic processes on the basis of a global tradition, taking into account national characteristics.

If we talk about change in mass culture, then it is necessary to determine that this is the most inertial part of the entire system. If in the economic culture of the highest level the priority part is made up of instrumental skills and knowledge, then in relation to the mass economic culture one should speak about the greater importance of traditional values and attitudes. Here it is necessary to take into account such a psychological factor as the large inertia of the mass consciousness. The effect of this factor is actually due to the fact that the values that have developed over the life of several generations can hardly be squeezed out with the help of any beliefs. That is, we are talking about the fact that a person must be convinced in practice of the need and acceptability of changing their views and values. On the other hand, the population of our country is initially quite skeptical about any massive intellectual impact. In fact, the widespread propaganda of a new system of values built on the ideals of a market economy is not supported by concrete positive results that would make it possible to identify the directions of economic stabilization in the country, which is reflected in the spread of the corresponding features of the perception of economic life, manifested in the economic behavior of the vast majority of the country's inhabitants. When it comes to the need to modernize economic culture in the mass consciousness, issues related, on the one hand, to a change in the perception of the results of economic activity by society, and on the other hand, to the formation of adequate economic thinking, oriented towards market values, but taking into account national traditions, come to the fore. In this regard, it is of interest to analyze the relationship between the rational and the national in economic culture.

Elements of economic culture

In the structure of economic culture, the most important elements can be identified: knowledge and practical skills, economic orientation, ways of organizing activities, norms governing relations and human behavior in it.

The basis of the economic culture of the individual is consciousness. Economic knowledge is a set of economic ideas about the production, exchange, distribution and consumption of material goods, the impact of economic life on the development of society, about the ways and forms, methods that contribute to the sustainable development of society. They are an important component of economic culture. Economic knowledge forms an idea of economic interrelations in the surrounding world, patterns of development of the economic life of society. On their basis, economic thinking and practical skills of economically competent, morally justified behavior, the economic qualities of a person that are significant in modern conditions, develop.

An important component of the economic culture of the individual is economic thinking. It allows you to learn the essence of economic phenomena and processes, operate with learned economic concepts, analyze specific economic situations.

The choice of standards of behavior in the economy, the effectiveness of solving economic problems largely depend on the socio-psychological qualities of participants in economic activity. Among them, an important element of economic culture is the economic orientation of the individual, the components of which are the interests, needs and motives of human activity in the economic sphere. The orientation of the personality includes a social attitude and socially significant values.

The economic culture of a person can be traced through the totality of his personal properties and qualities, which are a certain result of his participation in activities.

Based on the totality of all economic qualities, one can assess the level of economic culture of a particular person. The economic culture of a society is a system of values and motives for economic activity, the level and quality of economic knowledge, assessments and actions of a person, as well as the content of traditions and norms that regulate economic relations and behavior.

Economic culture implies respect for any form of ownership and commercial success; creation and development of a social environment for entrepreneurship; rejection of egalitarian moods, etc.

The economic culture of a person is an organic unity of consciousness and practical activity, which determines the creative direction of a person's economic activity in the process of production, distribution and consumption.

National economic culture

In a broad sense, national economic culture means the totality of cultural achievements inherent in a given nation, regardless of whether the various elements of this national asset have a specific national coloring or are nationally neutral.

In this sense, national culture is the entire historical set of material, scientific, philosophical, ethnic, aesthetic and other values created directly by a given nation, as well as the values received by it in the process of interaction with other nations and actively used in its progress in all spheres of social life. life. The culture of a nation testifies to the role and degree of participation of the nation in global socio-economic processes: industrial progress, the political organization of society, the development of science, education, culture, information systems, etc. The culture of the nation reveals the specifics of the creativity of the nation, the dynamics of its worldview and worldview, expresses the universal essence of the life of the nation, its attitude to socio-economic and historical-cultural processes.

The culture of a nation is an integral part of world culture. National culture in the proper sense of this concept is a set of cultural elements and values that are recognized by people as "ours" and "not ours", contribute to their awareness of their unity and difference from representatives of other nations (peoples). Cultural specificity should be considered as one of the main features of the nation, allowing you to delimit one nation from another.

National culture, of course, includes spiritual, socio-political and material components, and is not limited to spiritual culture (where four of its elements are traditionally considered - religion, language, moral and artistic culture), as it is usually presented. National cultures are stable formations, under the influence of which the primary socialization of most people is carried out, that is, familiarization with the world culture.

Culture occupies a very important place in the historical development of each nation and in the formation of its national identity. In modern conditions, material culture contains much less national specificity and does not always act as a "support" of national self-consciousness. Therefore, the orientation towards spiritual culture to a much greater extent serves as an expression of national self-consciousness.

National culture can be divided into folk and official ("high"). Folk culture is a synthesis of several traditions. Its general appearance is determined by the phenomena and values formed by the nation in accordance with its representatives, views and needs. Each historical era had a special folk culture and a special official culture that differed from it. The world processes of integration of the economic, political and cultural life of the nation gave rise to a new component of culture - modern, when, along with culture with a capital letter, a special cultural state was created, alternative to the traditional one. The current socio-cultural situation requires an understanding of the interaction between these two most important links in spiritual life.

Describing the national culture, it is necessary to emphasize that its ethnic specificity is far from being reduced to archaic elements of culture. Ethnic functions (the difference between one ethnic group and another) are also performed by professional culture, literary language, fiction, professional art, etc. After all, it is quite obvious that such components of culture in each ethnic group have its own specifics. This circumstance is important to keep in mind, since one often has to deal with the interpretation of the ethnic in the national, as with archaic, obsolete, exotic elements.

The proportion of the national component, its place in the culture of the nation and its daily life are not the same for different nations (peoples), which excludes a unified approach to the problem of preserving and developing national culture. Such an understanding of national culture allows us to consider the specific features of culture that characterize its uniqueness, difference from others, but at the same time, of course, those that make it related, bring it closer to other cultures.

Legal economic culture

Law is closely connected not only with the economic and political spheres of society, but also with its cultural layer. The term "culture" (from Latin сultura - cultivation, cultivation, upbringing, education, development) is quite diverse in content. In the broadest sense, culture is understood as a certain qualitative state of society at a particular stage of its historical development, which is characterized by a historically certain level of development of society, the degree of its civilization, a set of material and spiritual values, intellectual and spiritual development of a person. As a generalized characteristic of the civilized society, culture affects all spheres of its life. Therefore, there are artistic, physical, economic, political culture.

Culture has always been the most important component of social life. Like no other social phenomenon, it can be a measure of the humanization of society. It is in the attitude of a person to cultural values that freedom and self-affirmation of the individual is manifested.

Naturally, culture, cultural relations could not but affect the sphere of law and legal regulation. Moreover, law and culture are not only connected, but also interdependent. Marx specifically emphasized that law not only cannot be higher than the economic system, but also the cultural development of society due to it.

First of all, this relationship is due to the fact that law is part of the social (spiritual) culture and is its element. As a result, law (like the state) acts not only as a social phenomenon, but also as a cultural phenomenon, representing a certain cultural value.

In Soviet jurisprudence, law was not always recognized as an element of culture, much less interpreted as a cultural value. Law was presented as an instrument of class domination, a means of suppressing class opponents, one class by another. With the disappearance of classes, law, like the state, must wither away, disappear. Naturally, a phenomenon disappearing over time could not be considered as socially valuable, as a cultural value.

However, already in the mid-1960s, law began to be regarded not only as a well-known social value, but also as an element of culture, as a cultural value. As a result, the term "legal culture" has entered the scientific lexicon and political practice as an important element of social culture.

The relationship between law and culture is manifested from two sides. First, the nature of law and legislation is largely determined by the level of cultural development of society. Historical analysis of law convincingly shows that its development from barbarian law to the law of civilized states occurred in parallel and largely due to the cultural development of society. This is manifested both in the state of legislation, its consistency, organization, the absence of contradictions and gaps. On the other hand, the methods and types of regulation changed - from rough straightforward imperative to dispositive regulation. Finally, the highest level of culture manifested itself in the content of law, when a person, an individual, was placed as the basis for its regulation, and human rights became the basis of its content. Finally, the methods of provision have also changed. Such inhumane sanctions as quartering, impalement, etc. were gradually eliminated from the legal ones. Finally, the international community has set the goal of eliminating from the rights of such penalties as the death penalty. The relationship between law and culture is also reflected in the categorical apparatus of jurisprudence. Thus, the category of “legal culture” has become widespread and sufficiently developed. Some authors consider the principle of "the unity of legality and culture" as one of the principles of legality. “Humanitarian law”, “cultural law”, etc. are sometimes analyzed as complex branches (institutions) of law.

On the other hand, law itself actively influences the development of culture. Positive law regulates many relations in the socio-cultural sphere of society. The experience of domestic regulation shows that in the case when the main influence is turned on the legal regulation of economic relations, leaving aside the regulation of socio-cultural relations, the level of culture of the population drops sharply, and crime increases.

No area of legislation is so closely connected with the moral foundations of human activity as the legislation on culture. Its subject touches upon such spiritual phenomena as ideological views, moral and aesthetic traits of a personality, its educational level. An array of normative legal acts on culture is the legal normative basis of the moral and value orientation of the individual, an important means of influencing the moral and aesthetic ideas of a person, which makes it possible to purposefully form a model of a civilized cultural level of the population.

The most important guarantees that ensure the use by citizens of their rights and freedoms, including in the sphere of culture, are contained in the Constitution of the Russian Federation. According to Article 44 of the Constitution, everyone has the right to participate in cultural life and use cultural institutions, to have access to cultural values. The law of the most general nature in the system of normative legal acts in the field of culture is the Law of the Russian Federation "Fundamentals of the Legislation of the Russian Federation on Culture".

The main tasks of the legislation on culture are:

Ensuring and protecting the constitutional right of Russian citizens to cultural activities;
- creation of legal guarantees for free cultural activities of associations of citizens, peoples of other ethnic communities of the Russian Federation;
- determination of the principles of state cultural policy, legal norms of state support for culture and guarantees of state non-interference in creative processes.

To the maximum extent, the relationship between law and culture is manifested in the formation of a high legal culture.