THESIS ARGUMENT: ‘SUCCESSFUL SOCIAL SECURITY POLICY OF RUSSIA, CONSEQUENTLY, WILL DEPEND UPON MUCH MORE THAN SOCIAL PROGRAMME ALONG
In their work on the analysis of the security and social system issues in Russian Federation, Eberstadt and Groth make the following statement: "Successful social security policy for Russia, consequently, will depend upon much more than social programs alone." (Eberstadt and Groth, 2010, 23-24). This thought is based on an argumentation that social security system requires serious restructuration to meet the requirements and basic needs of the elderly population. Two critical issues that the authors touch upon in their work are average life expectancy of working age population and relatively low levels of fertility. According to the authors, since the fall the Soviet Union, Russian Federation was ignoring growing threat of “demographic crisis”. With that, to be able to find a solution today, restructuration of the existing social security system and pension specifically, will be just a part of a complex puzzle of required social measures.
One, looking at the demographic concept of the European states would not argue that population ageing represents one of the core challenges. Russia went through a series of non-organic depopulation stages, such as war and revolutions. These events have triggered current misbalance and, surely, can explain natural depopulation of the modern society. Given that, I would like to express my solidarity with the thesis statement, outlined in the work of Eberstadt and Groth.
The reality of Russian Federation is the post-soviet controversy of incomplete economy. This controversy is represented by the combination of reasonably high income levels, placing Russia on a list of developed countries, and the unresolved issues of poor social security structure. The fact is that neither pre-Putin pension system, nor current “remodeled”, or rather “powdery” for this purpose, social security system provide a decent solution for already existing problem of pension supply to retired population.
My own view on the topic tells me that the situation, being complex in its solution, is reasonably superficial for understanding. That said, Eberstadt and Groth managed to disclose, analyze and provide strong arguments to support the idea of complex solution, addressing aging, mortality rates and social system as the solution for current challenges.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Nicholas Eberstadt and Hans Groth, The Russian Federation: Confronting the special challenges of ageing and social security policy in an era of demographic crisis. International Social Security Review. Washington, D.C.: WDA Forum, University of St. Gallen, 2010.
