The State of Institutional Legitimacy in Modern Russia and the Problem of Social Justice in Economics

Abstract

Margaret Vakhtina – Doctor of Economics, Vice-Rektor, Volga Region State University of Service. Address: 4, Gagarina St., Togliatti, 445677, Russian Federation. E-mail: vahtina@tolgas.ru

This article evaluates institutional legitimacy in modern Russia, explores its contradictory nature and proposes potential solutions that could resolve this. The author proposes a new typology of four alternative modes of institutional legitimacy and discusses their key features. This typology combines two dimensions—legality and norms of social justice. The argumentation is borrowed from institutional economic theory and expands the range of classical research methods to overcome possible disciplinary short-sightedness. It is argued that the complete legitimacy of institutions is achieved only when formal rules, regulations and contracts correspond to the dominating norms of social justice. The typology is then applied to the case of Russia. It is shown that Russia belongs to one of the transitory cases of partial legitimacy, that is, when formal institutions do not correspond to the norms of social justice. The state appears to be actively maintaining the legitimacy of the excessive social inequalities in Russia and disrupting the equality of opportunity, whereas non-government institutions have a very weak capacity to maintain social justice. This suggests that Russian society finds itself in a trap of illegitimacy, and a certain coordination of effort on the behalf of the state and society is needed to overcome this trap.