Assessment of the Social Component in the Organizational and Economic Mechanism Ensuring the Quality of Economic Growth in Agriculture

Abstract

Agriculture is one of the largest sectors of the domestic economy. However, along with the economic significance of agriculture, its social significance plays an important role. Rural settlements lag significantly behind cities in the development of social infrastructure and people’s life quality. A narrow-sectoral agrarian approach, including in areas with limited agricultural potential, has led to a one-sided agrarian development in rural areas and often an irrational distribution of productive forces on them, as well as underdeveloped social infrastructure and other serious problems. The authors propose to adhere to two main approaches in the development of rural areas: forming socio-cultural objects around the core of the cluster, or preservation of each settlement. The social component is analyzed by assessing the quality of life, which takes into account the following groups of indicators: socio-demographic (life expectancy, morbidity, fertility, mortality); economic activity of the population (level of unemployment, migration); social tension (dynamics of crime, the share of the shadow economy in GDP, participation in strikes and political actions); the level of development of the social sphere (the share of spending on education, science, health care, culture in GDP, the number of schoolchildren and students, and others); environmental (the content of harmful substances in the atmosphere, soil, water, food, environmental costs in GDP, contribution to environmental protection, rational use of natural resources); minimum wage, living wage, provision of the population with social infrastructure facilities. We concluded that the gross regional product does not have a strong influence on the size of the social component, and social expenses that determine the quality of life are distributed, most likely, without taking into account the growth of GRP. The data on the social infrastructure facilities provision can be used to substantiate minimum social standards with priority state support for the development of rural settlements provided with jobs.