Bystrova A.S., Daugavet A.B., Duka A.V., Tev D.B. Tev Regional power groups: basic social and structural characteristics and a role in development of today Russian society. In: Power and Elites ...

Abstract

This article represents the results of the research of basic socio-structural characteristics of regional elite and some conclusions about the prospects of their influence on development of today Russian society. Methodological frame includes the position approach to identification of elites and the structural and biographic method. The research concerned following regions:  St. Petersburg, Moscow, Leningrad, Rostov, Kaliningrad, Kostroma, Novosibirsk regions, the Stavropol and Khabarovsk regions, the Republic of Dagestan (936 persons, the database for 2015). The subject of investigation was the characteristics associated, according to literature, with the level of consolidation and homogeneity of elite. The results demonstrate considerable heterogeneity of regional power groups in conditions of primary socialization and type of the first higher education, that could cause considerable cultural differentiation. From the other hand, the tendency to homogenization is distinctly observed recently. The uniformity of the social and professional pool of recruitment shows a steady trend of a plutokratization and professionalizing of regional power groups, that demonstrates their closeness as well as their consolidation around capitalistic values. Formation of the special social base of power elite which minimizes arrival of persons from the lowest layers has become an evident tendency. Mechanisms of vertical mobility became stable, that can signify the stabilization of this group. The corruption remains a mechanism of consolidation of elite groups, a factor of their functioning and solidarity of the power and the population. High level of social closeness, plutokratization and homogenization of elite groups allows drawing a conclusion about high extent of consolidation of power community and stabilization of Russian social order.