The Social Issue in the Programs of Russian Political Parties

Mamaev Enver Azamatovich Postgraduate student of the Department of the History of Social Movements and Political Parties, Lomonosov Moscow State University (Moscow State University) 119991, Russia, Moscow, Leninskie Gory str., 1 journalpolitics@mail.ru

In accordance with Article 7 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, "Russia is a social state with a system of organic interaction of politics and economics aimed at human well–being" ^[1]. Social policy is one of the main directions of state policy based on the following principles^{[5, p.123]}:   – social justice models;

– equality of opportunities in achieving the necessary level of well-being;

– social standards of consumption.

The main role in the implementation of social policy belongs to the state, but, according to U.E. Seresova, political parties can formulate the main directions of social policy and implement them. Political parties have the following possibilities ^{[4, p.116]}:

 1) as part of the implementation of the ideological function, they can produce political ideas about how social problems should be solved;

2) during the elections, "sell" these ideas to consumers (voters);

 3) if they come to power, they can implement their political projects related to the social sphere.  

  One of the indicators of the importance of social issues is the programs of Russian parties. The analysis of party programs and the degree of interest of parties in social problems was made by V.L. Shapovalov.  He noted that in the programs of such parties as the Communist Party, Just Russia, the Russian Party of Pensioners for Social Justice, Communists of Russia and Rodina there is a separate section dedicated to social policy. There are such sections in the programs of United Russia and Patriots of Russia, but judging by the structure of the party document, it is not a priority as for the first five parties.  There is no section dedicated to social issues in the programs of the LDPR and Civic Platform parties, and the Yabloko, Greens, Party of Growth, and Civic Force parties do not deal with social issues much, despite the fact that there are relevant sections in their program documents, but specific activities and proposals in them not designated ^{[7, p.60]}. 

The text of the Constitution of Russia mentions the following terms: "social protection", "social security", "social benefit" and "social insurance". Consequently, the constitutional content of social policy can be expressed in these terms. When analyzing the programs of the Russian parties, it was noted that these directions are not fully represented by any party, as evidenced by Table 1. Although there are enough different terms of social orientation in the programs.

Table 1.

Comparison of texts of programs of political parties

 with the Constitution of the Russian Federation ^{[7, p.61]}  

Socialist rhetoric, criticism of state social policy and not always justified promises of social reforms are widely used in political documents affecting social policy ^{[4, p.123]}.

The most extensive social policy is presented in the program of the Fair Russia party, in the section "Social Security". The following program ideas can serve as an example of socialist rhetoric ^{[3, p.8-20]}:  

- abandon the funded pension system;

- to abandon the compulsory medical insurance, to introduce full state funding for education and medicine;

- to establish mandatory quotas of jobs for graduates of secondary specialized and higher educational institutions.

It should be noted that there are very few concrete reasoned proposals in the program and there are practically no statistics. For example, there is a proposal to "increase spending on education and science to 7% of GDP", but it is not explained how to achieve this ^{[3, p. 14]}. Quite critically, with a rhetorical exclamation , they talk about the pension program: "It is obvious that the accumulative pension system does not work! With new challenges for the economy and budget expenditures, all this threatens the collapse of the pension system!" ^{[3, p. 20]}.  

The issue of pension provision is most widely covered in party policy documents. E.L. Timshina notes that in 2021, not a single party positively assessed the state of pension provision, the pension reform is negatively assessed. The programs of the parties note ^{[6, p. 28]}:  

United Russia - pension reform is a "time bomb" aimed at undermining confidence not only in the President of the Russian Federation, but also in the state system as a whole";

Communist Party – "shameful law" and "pension robbery";

"Communists of Russia" – "shameful pension reform";

"Fair Russia" – for the truth - "anti-national pension system";

RPSS - "anti-social reform".

The program documents of Russian political parties put forward various proposals on the issue of pension provision. The Russian Party of Pensioners for Social Justice proposed to abolish the concept of "retirement age, and to charge pensions for work experience and "services to society", but the party does not have an explanation of how to do it ^{[6, p.28]}.   

In 2021, Fair Russia proposed to prohibit changing the retirement age until 2035, and to increase the pension amount by 60%. Other parties propose to set specific pension amounts. For example, the "Communists of Russia" proposed to introduce an average labor pension of 40,000 rubles, the RPSS - a minimum pension of 24,000 rubles, and the Rodina party – to increase the size of all pensions by two to three times ^{[6, p.29]}.  

Newcomers to politics, the New People Party, also made their proposals on pension reform, putting forward the idea of new rules for the formation of the funded part of the pension: "deduct part of the income tax (3 percentage points) to an individual investment account ... this pension contribution can be received in regular payments after reaching the target age or inherited" ^{[6, p.30]}.  

United Russia considers it important to monitor compliance with the rights of workers of pre-retirement age, since due to the increase in the retirement age, the age categories of workers were at risk of losing their jobs. An important and relevant proposal of the United Russia party is the introduction of digitalization in the social sphere: "the appointment in automatic mode (without additional applications) of federal and regional social supplements to pensions, early pensions to citizens of pre-retirement age, disability and old-age pensions, as well as automatic information about the estimated amount of pensions and the amount of pension savings" ^{[6, p. 29]}.  

The main directions of the social policy of the United Russia party are reflected in the program document "People's Program", but in addition to the program, the party has party projects that solve specialized tasks. One of these projects is called  "Strong Family", offers specific measures for the social protection of children, parents and the family as a whole. The main directions of this activity are as follows ^{[4, p. 119]}:  

  - "building a system of preventive, correctional and coordination work in the field of prevention of the development of social deviations of personality and family problems";

-"improving the professionalism of social workers in the field of prevention of the development of social deviations of families and children";

 "formation of a database of families and children at risk, conducting their diagnostic examination and individual correctional and rehabilitation work with them."

The main objective of the project is to increase the prosperity and well-being of a family with children. The birth of a child should guarantee security and additional opportunities for well-being. So, in March 2022, the Duma of the Yugra district, at the suggestion of the United Russia parliamentary faction, decided to provide social support to young families with children if at least one parent is studying at a college or university full-time. A decision was made on compensation payments for the stay of children in preschool institutions or the hiring of a nanny, for housing costs in the amount of no more than 10 thousand rubles per month ^[9].

To date, in the conditions of its own, 80 new proposals have been prepared for the people's program of United Russia concerning education, healthcare and other areas of assistance to the People's republics of Donbass and the liberated territories ^[10].

The issue of social insurance is less represented in the programs of political parties of the Russian Federation.

Of the political parties, the most thoughtful policy in the field of insurance is proposed by United Russia. In the Program Document of the People's Program party, it was proposed to combine numerous social benefits that citizens receive and make payments through a "single window", which will simplify the procedure for citizens to receive compensation^[10]. This proposal of United Russia was embodied in Federal Law No. 236-FZ "On the Fund  Pension and Social Insurance of the Russian Federation", adopted in the summer of 2022. On the basis of the law, the two funds are merged into a single Social Fund of Russia, the work of which will begin on January 1, 2023.

In 2021, the LDPR Party proposed to implement the project "Social Treasury", which would deal with all social payments, which would ensure targeting, complexity and ease of receiving social assistance ^[8]. 

The Communist Party draws attention to the fact that various extra-budgetary funds have the same functions, so they can also be combined. The transfer of services to citizens in electronic form will increase the level of service to citizens, the procedure for paying insurance premiums and submitting reports will be simplified for employers^[11].

It should be noted that there are no specific proposals on compensation for an accident or occupational disease in the programs of Russian parties.

It should be noted that the issue of social support for such a category of pensioners as "War Children" is currently almost absent from the party programs. It can be assumed that this is due to the adoption of regional laws on additional financial support for pensioners who were children during the war. The Communist Party and the Just Russia party have achieved the adoption of such laws in the regions, including Moscow and St. Petersburg, from 2016 to 2021.

The importance of social policy in the program documents of a political party is evidenced by the real result of the elections to the State Duma in 2021. The election was won by parties with social programs: United Russia, which won with a large advantage, the Communist Party, which received 18.93% of the vote and Fair Russia with a result of 7.46% ^{[2, p.203]}.

Thus, the solution of social issues is the key to longevity and political relevance of the party.