Viсtor Polterovich: «Modern competitive society is not the end of history and not the top of civilization»

11:30, November 23, 2017

The Russian economist delivered a public lecture at the university

Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Viktor Polterovitch trusted that to understand the trends, it is necessary to consider the evolution of coordination institutions — competition, power and cooperation. This point of view allows us to work out a more appropriate view of the past.

The economist cited examples of two institutional theories — inclusive and extractive institutions and the theory of social orders, as well as a research of the geographical conditioning of the differences in civilizations of Jared Diamond. According to Viktor Polterovich, the most important shortcomings of the theories are set forth by him that they do not explain the evolution of institutions and view modern competitive society as the top of civilization — the end of history.

Viktor Polterovitch said that prosperity, knowledge, cultural values and institutions should be brought into sufficient correspondence so that social relations are improved and there should be economic growth, noting the need for a general theory of social development or general social analysis (GSA).

The idea of forming the GSA as an independent discipline Viktor Polterovich expressed at the Russian Economic Congress in December 2009 and in several publications later.

The public lecture of Victor Polterovich took place in the framework of the XII International Conference «Russian Regions in the Focus of Changes».

Reference

XII International Conference «Russian Regions in the Focus of Changes» (November 16-18, 2017, Ekaterinburg).
Organisers: Ural Federal University, Graduate School of Economics and Management, Analytical Center «Expert», Expert Ural Business Magazine.

For many years the conference has been one of the biggest discussion platforms in the Urals covering issues of regional development and involving representatives of executive authorities, academia, medium and large industrial business leaders from different regions. Every year leading Russian economists take part in the conference.