III Baltic Sea NGO Forum
(May 8-11, 2003, Turku, Finland)

Prof. Dr. Yakov Gilinskiy
St. Petersburg, Russia

Problems of Inclusion and Exclusion in contemporary Russia

The problem of social exclusion and excluded is very old and very young. This problem is very old, because always were included and excluded people (and animals too: there are animals with high status and animals with low status).

Really, every society has some form of class system, and although most of them are made up of a complicated mass of subgroups there are three fundamental classes, which are universal: the elite (the leaders of state, government, business, science, etc.); the middle classes; and the underclass, outsiders, otherwise known as the "socially excluded".

This problem is very young, because contemporary understanding began from the works of France scientist's in 60s-70s of the XX century (R. Aron, J. Kanfler, J. Labbens, R. Lenoir, C. Pétonnet). They considered first time that "social exclusive" is "social unpractical" and "social unprotected" persons and groups of population.

R. Lenoir (1974) and S. Paugam (1996), N. Luhmann (1998) and J. Young (1999) write about the new global social situation: the tendency to divide people and societies into included and excluded. "Included" are the personalities, which included in the functional system. "Excluded" can only be individuals, which not included in the functional system, they only exist. N. Luhmann told: the change in society from hierarchical relationships to ones based on differentiation with the meta-code inclusion/exclusion, when "some people will be persons and others only individuals, some will be included in functional systems, and others excluded from them remaining creatures who try to survive till tomorrow" (Luhmann, 1998: 107).

Included - it is a person, which included in economic, political, social, educative, cultural and another spheres of human activity. Excluded individual has not possibility to take an active part in different spheres of social life.

The central notion of "late" conception "inclusion/exclusion" is "break of social connections". The feeling of waste, lose of place in society give rise to such dissatisfaction as traditional poverty (Paugam).

This is the most interesting: the member of the Russian Academy of Sciences mathematician N. Moiseev wrote, "it is clear that the whole does not suffice for all". It is not sufficiently different resource, not sufficiently culture. There are and will be countries of "gold billion". Ecologically clean products and culture are prerogative only in the countries of "gold billion" (Moiseev, 1998: 447).

I think the process inclusion/exclusion exists between countries (globally inclusion/exclusion) and between people inside some countries (local, national inclusion/exclusion).

M. Wolf suggests one classification of social exclusive situation (Wolf, 1994):

• Exclusive from means of existence;
• Exclusive from social service and nets of security;
• Exclusive from culture of consumption;
• Exclusive from political choice;
• Exclusive from mass social organizations and solidarity;
• Exclusive from possibility to understanding of contemporary reality (it is result of very swift changes in contemporary "information society").

What are consequences of this process (inclusion/exclusion)?

• First, opposition, contradiction between included/excluded countries are increasing and possibility of war conflicts and terrorism increasing too. Remember, that terrorism is a fight of poor men or groups against rich men and powerful (while terror is fight of rich and powerful countries or regimes against poor men). Manifestations of this are from 11th September 2001 in USA to "North-East" in Moscow (2002).
• Second, the excluded people constitute the social basis of criminality, drug-addiction, alcoholism, suicide and other deviations (Paugam, 1996; Finer, Nellis, 1998; Young, 1999).
• Third, the excluded people are in need of social help, support, psychological and medical assistance and so on. They are "humiliated and insulted" (F. Dostojevsky) and are need of help but no punishment.

Who is excluded?

Many, many people are excluded in contemporary world, including Russia: homeless and unemployed, poor men and beggars, refugees and ethnic minority, drug-addicts and alcoholics, orphans and old single people, prisoners and different "the failures", etc.

Some scientists spoke 40-50 years ago about these people - "dangerous class". I think it is no quite right. They are rather "unlucky class".

It is necessary to add that while the "struggle" is conducted (with doubtful success) mainly against "street crimes" (or, in the expression of A. Liazos: "nuts, sluts and perverts"), the huge layer of "respectable crime" still remains outside the "fields of fight". When it is dealt with by the police and condemned by the court it functions as a "scapegoat" to demonstrating successful "struggle against criminality". It is known as the global problem of selection in police and criminal justice.

In my opinion an important integrative "criminogenic" (in general "delictogenic") factor is the fundamental contradiction between the relatively even distribution of human demands and the inequality in the existing opportunities to satisfy these demands, depending first of all on a person's position in the social structure; the more significant this rupture, the lower the responsiveness of society (its capacity to meet people's demands, as understood by A. Etzioni), the higher of deviance level, including crime.

From our point of view social and economic inequality is one of the biggest criminogenic factors. People have real opportunities to satisfy their needs depending on their belongings to one or other social class, stratum, group or depending on their social and economic status. Inequality of opportunity generates social conflict, dissatisfaction, envy and finally, various forms of deviation. The processes of inclusion/exclusion are acquiring more and more criminogenic and deviantogenic significance both for the contemporary world and for the future. It is clear that the "excluded people" are becoming a mass reserve, a social basis of social deviation (Gilinskiy, 1998). This is a fact.

Repressive social control is the best means of exclusion. It is especially through the problem of selection in the police and criminal justice. This is a fact.

Social-economic inequality is a main cause of poverty.

Poverty is the first main cause for social exclusion.

Personal disorder is the second main cause for exclusion.

The waste of social connection (as result poverty or personal disorder) is the third cause for exclusion.

It is a pity, but social distinctions, social-economic inequality were, are and will be. It is the objective social natural phenomenon, conformity to natural laws. Moreover the social-economic inequality is source of social progress. And there is only one problem: how diminish negative consequences of exclusion. The developed, civilized countries created the system of social guarantees and help for excluded. Many NGO work with social excluded and include them in social life. Situation in the developing countries is more complicated. But there is sad paradox: the fact of help, assistance stigmatized to excluded, give birth to social dependency… It is a vicious circle.

The Russian Situation

It is clear that the communist regime was absolutely terrible. As a result of the unique experiment to establish a social utopia (the slogan on the gate of the Solovki camp of GULAG read: "Happiness for Everyone through Violence"), the country was thrown onto the path of civilization.

Gorbachev's "Perestroika" was a necessary attempt to save the power structures by way of reform. With all due credit to Gorbachev, his reforms turned out to be the most radical (freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the multi-party system, the right to hold private property, the lifting of the Iron Curtain, the release of those states occupied by Stalin - Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, etc.). However this reforms did not bring to the end. May be it is not guilt but it is a misfortune of Gorbachev. But it is a fact.

The disintegration of production and economy continuing; power was still returned to the ruling nomenclature (may be with new "oligarchs" and criminals); corruption, usual to Russia, has taken on a monumental, total scale in all organs of power, establishment and law-enforcement bodies; crisis of the health, education, transport and other social services, crises of spirituality and morality continuing; the militarization of economics and politics continues. We show now the growth of the role (importance) of the so-called "power structures": FSB (former KGB), MVD (Ministry of Internal Affairs), and other. The criminal war in Chechen is a terrifying evidence of the neo-totalitarianism. Many people from Chechen become "excluded". The country permits also human rights abuses on a massive scale. Particularly in the army and the penal institutions, where tyranny and torture dominate (Abramkin, 1998; Christie, 2000: 79-90; Index on Censorship, 1999; Walmsley, 1996: 358-386).

The ever-growing economic polarization of the population - visible in the stark contrast between the poverty majority and the nouveau rich minority (the "New Russian") - is a guaranteed source of continuing social conflict. The differentiation between the incomes of the 10% least prosperous and the 10% most prosperous increased from 1:4.5 in 1991 up to 1:15.1 in 1994, 1999 - 1:15.0, Index Gini increased from 0.289 in 1992 to 0.409 in 1994, 1998 - 0.380. It is the official data, but the opinion of experts is: the real difference of the incomes mount up to 23-25 (Human Development Report in the Russian Federation, 1999: 46, 152), in Moscow up to 60. The official unemployment level in Russia was: 1992 - 4.8% of the able-bodied population; 1993 - 5.5%; 1994 - 7.4%; 1995 - 8.9%; 1996 - 9.6%; 1997 - 11.9%; 1998 - 13.3% (Human Development Report, 1999: 57). The depopulation takes place: the population of Russia was in 1991 - 148.3 million people, in 2002 - 143.5 million people (Vishnevski, 2002: 14). It is not surprise.

Death rate (per 1000 population) was in 1986 - 10.4, in 1994 - 15.7, in 1998 - 13.6, in 2001 - 15.6 (in Finland - 10); birth rate was in 1986 - 17.2, in 1994 - 9.6, in 2001 - 9.0 (in Finland - 11); natural growth was in 1986 - +6.8, in 2001 - -6.6 (in Finland - +1). Life expectancy was in 1994 - 64.0 (males - 57.6, females - 71.2), in 1998 - 67.0 (males - 61.3, females - 72.9), in 2001 - 56.7 (males - 51.5, females - 61.9) (Human Development Report, 1999: 71; Population and Society, 2001; Vishnevski, 2002: 96, 98). This index was in West Europe (2000): males - 75, females - 81, in Finland (2001) - males - 74, females - 81 (Population and Society, 2001).

Technological backwardness and the incompetence of the domestic production and service sectors have manifested themselves in the course of the reforms. A consequence of this is the inferiority complex of employees, their de-qualification, marginalization and lumpenization.

The social policy of the Russian government is very bad . For example, the pension of our pensioners is 1300-1800 roubles (about $42-58), but official living wage is 2200-2700 roubles (about $71-87) and it is minimum wage, only for existence, not for life… More than 50% of the Russian population is excluded (Borodkin, 2000: 15).

The care to disabled persons is minimum. In St. Petersburg, for example, there are no special provisions for disabled people: no special toilets, no adapted public transport or accessible entrances to public buildings, theatres and museums.

Official structures, Mass media confirm that drug-addicts are criminals and many drug-addicts are under trial and in prison.

The State shelters for homeless are not enough or absent. Only NGO's help to homeless.

The conditions for prisoner are terrible: nourishment is very bad, cells are overcrowded, there are tortures, tuberculosis. Moreover, while petty criminals such as hooligans, thieves and pickpockets remain in the underclass, "excluded"; the leaders of Russian criminal groups are moving upwards into the social elite.

The conditions for refugees are very terrible too.

The situation concerning of all types of excluded in Russia get worse and worse.

Reference

Abramkin, V. (1996). In Search of a Solution: Crime, Criminal Policy and Prison. Facilities in the Former Soviet Union. Moscow: Human Rights Publishers.

Aron, R. (1969) Les disillusions du progress: Essai sur la dialectique de la modernité. Paris: Calmann, Lévy.

Borodkin, F. (2000) Social Exclusives // Sociological Journal. N 3/4. P. 5-17 (Russian).

Christie, N. (2000) Crime Control as Industry: Towards GULAG, Western Style. Third Edition. Routledge.

A Dangerous Class. Scotland and St. Petersburg: Life on the Margin. Edinburg P. 99-108.

Finer C., Nellis M. (Eds.) (1998) Crime and Social Exclusion. Blackwell Publishers Ltd.

Human Development Report: Russian Federation (1999). Moscow: UNDP.

Country and Prisoners // Index on Censorship (1999). N 7-8 (Russian).

Kanfler, J. (1965) L'exclusion sociale: Etude de la marginalité dans les sociétés occidentales. Paris: Bureau de Recherches sociales.

Lenoir, R. (1974) Les exclus, un francais sur dix. Paris: Seuil.

Luhmann, N. (1992) Beobachtungen der Moderne. Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen.

Luhmann, N. (1994) Sociological Reflections: Professor Luhmann's Interview. In: The Problems of Theoretical Sociology. Petropolis. P. 236-248 (Russian)

Luhmann, N. (1998) Globalization of the World Community: the Way Contemporary Society should be Understood Systematically. In: Sociology on the Threshold of the XXI Century: New Trends of Study. Moscow: Intellect (Russian). P. 94-108.

Moiseev, N. (1998) Part with Simplicity. Moscow: Agraf (Russian).

Paugam, S. (Ed.) (1996) L'exclusion, 1'etat des savoirs. Paris: La Decouverte.

Pétonnet, C. (1968) Ces gens-là. Paris: Maspero.

Population and Society (2001). Moscow (Russian).

Vishnevski, A. (Ed.) (2002) Population of Russia, 2001. Moscow: Center of Demography and Ecology of Men (Russian).

Walmsley, R. (1996) Prison Systems in Central and Eastern Europe. Helsinki: HEUNI.

Wolf, M. (1994) Globalization and Social Exclusion: Some Paradoxes // Social Exclusion: Rhetoric Reality Responses / International Institute for labor Studies. UN Development Program. Geneva. P. 81-102.

Young, J. (1999) The Exclusive Society: Social Exclusion, Crime and Difference in Late Modernity. SAGE Publications.

Table 1

Basic demographic data in Russia, St.Petersburg.

Rate per 1.000 population (1987 - 1999)

* - no data

Table 2

Life expectancy in Russia, St.Petersburg (1988 - 1999)

* - no data

Table 3

Some causes of death in St.Petersburg, 1987 - 1999 (rate per 100,000 population)

Table 4

Criminals: share of persons without permanent occupation and income

(Russia, 1987 - 2001)