Social Economy as a Tool to Ensure National Security
Volume 7, Issue 2 (2017), pp. 211–231
Pub. online: 22 December 2017
Type: Article
Open Access
Published
22 December 2017
22 December 2017
Abstract
The article sums up some results of the studies devoted to the socialization of the economy in the aspect of the reduction of threats to national security. The following research objectives were defined by the authors: an attempt to estimate the role of such functions of social economy as concern for public health, reduction of social and economic inequality, increase of social cohesion and trust that is most fully reflected in the phenomenon of social capital. A special place is given to the assessment of the manifested implementation of socialization of economy on the examples of Latvia and Ukraine. As arguments, the authors use both their own empirical studies and the data of national and international analytical and statistical institutions. The carried out analysis provides a clearer vision of the model of strengthening the socialization of economy in the aspect of ensuring national security with emphasis on economic security. Weak realization of the socialization of economy inevitably leads to an increase in social-economic inequality of population, when along with economic inequality other components of aggregate capital can serve the main catalyst for this negative process. For different countries at different times these components of aggregate capital are very specific. In some cases, the dominant threat is health capital, in others – the human (vocational and educational) capital. The proposed model reflects both the theory of aggregate capital as a methodology for analysis of the interconnection between social economy and security and the role of social capital as an important indicator of inequality, and, at the same time, the most important indicator of stability and security.