Introduction

There can be many criteria, or grounds, for the typology of cultures, for example: connection with religion; regional affiliation of culture; belonging to the historical type of society; sphere of society or type of activity; connection with the territory, etc.

When it comes to economic and political culture, experts call them either varieties of the culture of the society, or spheres of the culture of the society.

There are various branches, types, types and forms of culture. But there are cultures that do not belong to any of the above items. It is spiritual and material culture. They cannot be attributed either to branches or to forms, types or types of culture, since these phenomena combine all four classification features to varying degrees. Spiritual and material culture it is more correct to consider them as combined formations standing aside from the general conceptual scheme.

economic culture

Essence and functions

Economic culture includes a culture of production, a culture of distribution, a culture of exchange, a culture of consumption, a culture of management, a culture of work.

Economic culture is an integral and important part of the general culture. A civilized person is, first of all, a person with a highly developed economic culture. All scholars define the essence of economic culture in different ways. But all these definitions come down to one unanimous opinion that economic culture can be considered both in a narrow and in broad sense this word.

AT broad sense of the wordeconomic culture - it is a system of material and spiritual means created by society in the course of production activities: cities, buildings, cars, roads, etc.; skills, abilities, economic knowledge and skills, ways and forms of communication between people, economic reason.

In the narrow sense of the wordeconomic culture - this is the same type of economic thinking and activity of a group, people, individuals. With its help, people get used to certain socio-economic conditions of their existence. The economic culture also includes a set of economic values, interests, skills, rules, norms and skills that regulate economic behavior. In other words, economic culture consists of behavioral stereotypes and economic knowledge.

An enterprise that produces defective products is considered an enterprise with a low production culture. When the interests of the consumer in society are ignored, when the buyer cannot return or exchange low-quality goods in the store, or when sellers are rude, they speak of a low culture of consumption. Simply put, economic culture is a kind of tool, a "language" with which people communicate with each other in the process of economic activity.

Each economic era is unique in its level and type of economic culture of the population. Moreover, it is natural to note that various groups of the population have significant differences in levels of economic culture. So, for example, scientists economists have a theoretical economic consciousness. Government officials, managers, directors, entrepreneurs have a culture of practical economic thinking.

AT modern world economic culture increasingly coincides with the social and civilized society. In it, the leading role is given to taking into account the interests of not only individual, but also group ones. Traditional "ideals" in economic development(quantitative growth, profit) are replaced by more "human" goals.

Today, the type of a socially oriented and also an economy is assessed from a more different angle - as “puzzled”, “understanding”, “useful”, “expedient”, “reasonable”, more and more similar to the interests of each person. Now the foundations of a new economic culture are being laid, namely: the creation of social conditions that will provide the necessary social orientations for the behavior of business entities in general and separately - the behavior of persons who make decisions; maintaining a mobile communication and information system; improving the level of advertising; organization of the activities of economic and financial institutions (banks, banks, stock exchanges, audit services, insurance companies), etc.

Everything that is happening now should lead to the creation of an information and computer society in which the diverse needs of people, the difference in their interests is the key to the development and success of the entire society, the condition for its improvement. A feature of such a society will be many options for choosing economic decisions based on satisfying the diversity of interests, motives of various economic entities, as well as taking into account the diversity of factors and conditions: social, economic, economic-psychological and technical.

The main functions that economic culture performs:

• v cognitive
• v applied
• v educational, etc.

New knowledge in the economic sphere stimulates a reassessment of the old level of knowledge and an awareness of the trends towards the development of society and the prospect of this development. Concerning application function, then the activity of participants in economic relations depends not only on the level of their economic knowledge, but also from the ability to apply them practically, that is, from economic consciousness of people.

The concept of economic culture

The economic culture of a society is a system of values ​​and motives economic activity, the quality and level of economic knowledge, actions and assessments of a person, as well as traditions and norms governing economic relations and behavior.

Economic culture dictates special treatment to forms of ownership, improves the business environment.

Economic culture is an inseparable unity of consciousness and practical activity, which is decisive in the development of human economic activity and manifests itself in the process of production, distribution and consumption.

Remark 1

The most important elements in the structure of economic culture can be called knowledge and practical skills, norms that regulate the characteristics of human behavior in the economic field, methods of its organization.

Consciousness is the basis of human economic culture. Economic knowledge is a complex of human economic ideas about the production, distribution, exchange, and consumption of material goods, about the forms and methods that contribute to the sustainable development of society and the impact on its formation of economic processes.

Economic knowledge is a paramount component of economic culture. They allow us to develop our understanding of the basic laws of the development of the economy of society, about economic relationships in the world around us, develop our economic thinking and practical skills, and allow us to develop economically competent, morally justified behavior.

Economic culture of personality

An important place in the economic culture of the individual is occupied by economic thinking, which makes it possible to cognize the essence of economic phenomena and processes, correctly use the acquired economic concepts, and analyze specific economic situations.

The choice of patterns of behavior in the economy and the effectiveness of solving economic problems largely depend on the socio-psychological qualities of participants in economic activity. The orientation of the personality is characterized by socially significant values ​​and social attitudes.

The economic culture of a person can be seen by considering the complex of his personality traits and qualities representing the result of his participation in the activity. The level of culture of a particular person in the field of economics can be assessed by the totality of all his economic qualities.

In fact, economic culture is always influenced by the way of life, traditions, and mentality that are characteristic of a given people. Therefore, as a model, or even more so an ideal, one cannot take any foreign model of the functioning of the economy.

Remark 2

For Russia, in all likelihood, the closest European model socio-economic development, which is more humane than American or Japanese, which is based on the values ​​of European spiritual culture and includes a broad system of social protection of the population.

However, this model can only be used if trends and trends are taken into account. developmental features national Russian culture, otherwise it is completely meaningless to talk about economic culture and its role.

Functions of economic culture

Economic culture performs several important functions.

1. Adaptive function, which is the original. It is it that allows a person to adapt to the socio-economic conditions of society, types and forms of economic behavior, adapt to his needs socio-economic environment, for example, to produce the necessary economic benefits, to distribute them by selling, leasing, exchanging, etc.
2. Cognitive function, which is coordinated with the adaptive function. The knowledge contained in economic culture, familiarity with its ideals, prohibitions, legal norms enables a person to have a reliable guideline for choosing the content and forms of his economic behavior.
3. Regulatory function. Economic culture dictates individuals and social groups developed by it certain standards and rules that affect the way of life of people, their attitudes and value orientations.
4. A translational function that creates an opportunity for a dialogue between generations and eras, passing on the experience of economic activity from generation to generation.

Economic culture of society- this is a system of values ​​and motives of economic activity, the level and quality of economic knowledge, assessments and actions of a person, as well as the content of traditions and norms that regulate economic relations and behavior.

Economic culture involves:

– respect for any form of ownership and commercial success; - rejection of egalitarian moods;

– creation and development of a social environment for entrepreneurship, etc.

Economic culture of personalityis an organic unity of consciousness and practical activity, which determines creative orientation human economic activity in the process of production, distribution and consumption.

The ratio of the economic culture of the individual and society

In the structure of economic culture, the most important elements can be identified: knowledge and practical skills, economic orientation, ways of organizing activities, norms that regulate relations and human behavior in it.

The basis of the economic culture of the individual is consciousness. Economic knowledge - a set of economic ideas about the production, exchange, distribution and consumption of material goods, the impact of economic life on the development of society, about the ways and forms, methods that contribute to the sustainable development of society. They are an important component of economic culture. Economic knowledge forms an idea of ​​economic interrelations in the surrounding world, patterns of development of the economic life of society. On their basis, economic thinking and practical skills of economically competent, morally justified behavior, which are significant in modern conditions economic qualities of the individual.

A person actively uses the accumulated knowledge in everyday activities, therefore an important component of his economic culture is economic thinking . It allows you to learn the essence of economic phenomena and processes, to operate with learned economic concepts, to analyze specific economic situations.

The choice of standards of behavior in the economy, the effectiveness of solving economic problems largely depend on the socio-psychological qualities of participants in economic activity. Among them important element economic culture is economic focus personality, the components of which are needs , interests and motives human activity in the economic sphere. Personal orientation includes social attitude and socially significant values.

Social attitudes play an important role in the development of the economic culture of the individual. A person who has formed, for example, an attitude towards creative work, participates in economic activity with great interest.

The economic culture of a person can be traced through the totality of his personal properties and qualities, which are a certain result of his participation in activities.

Based on the totality of economic qualities, one can assess the level of a person's economic culture.

Economic culture is called the totality of material and spiritual socially developed means of activity, with the help of which the material and production life of people is carried out.

The structure of economic culture is correlated with the structure of economic activity itself, with the sequence of the main phases of social production: production itself, exchange, distribution and consumption. Therefore, it is legitimate to speak of a culture of production, a culture of exchange, a culture of distribution and a culture of consumption.

The structure-forming factor of economic culture is human labor activity. It is characteristic of the whole variety of forms, types of material and spiritual production. Each specific level of economic culture of labor characterizes the relationship of a person to a person, a person to nature (it is the awareness of this relationship that is the moment of the birth of economic culture), an individual to his own labor abilities.

Any labor activity of a person is associated with the disclosure of his creative abilities, but the degree of their development is different. Scientists distinguish three levels of these abilities.

The first level - productive-reproductive creativity when in the process of labor everything is only repeated, copied, and only as an exception, a new one is accidentally created.

The second level is generative creativity, the result of which will be, if not a completely new work, then at least an original variation.

The third level is constructive and innovative activity, the essence of which is the natural appearance of the new. This level of ability in production is manifested in the work of inventors and innovators.

The more creative labor is, the richer the cultural activity of a person, the higher the level of labor culture. The latter ultimately serves as the basis for achieving more high level economic culture.

Labor activity in any society is collective, embodied in joint production. Therefore, along with the culture of work, it is necessary to consider the culture of production as an integral system.

Labor culture includes the skills of owning tools of labor, conscious management of the process of creating material and spiritual wealth, the free use of one's abilities, the use of scientific and technological achievements in labor activity.

The culture of production includes the following main elements:

1) the culture of working conditions, which is a complex of components of an economic, scientific, technical, organizational, social and legal nature;

2) the culture of the labor process, which finds expression in the activities of a single employee;

3) socio-psychological climate in the production team;

4) a management culture that organically combines the science and art of management, identifies and implements creative potential, initiative and enterprise of each participant in the production process.

The regulator of the economy is not only such precisely quantified indicators as the rate of interest, government spending or the level of taxation, but also such a hard-to-measure concept as economic culture. Culture is a specific way of organizing and developing human life activity, represented in the products of material and spiritual labor, in the system of social norms and institutions, in spiritual values, in the totality of people's relations to nature, to each other and to themselves.

Economic culture is defined as a complex of elements and phenomena of culture, stereotypes of economic consciousness, behavioral motives, economic institutions that ensure the reproduction of economic life. The main elements of culture are considered needs, values, norms, preferences, interests, prestige, motivation.

Values are unconsciously accepted notions of what is important or right. They are the foundation of culture. Based on them, they form social norms- precepts for actions common in a given society. Norms realize the values ​​of society. Values ​​and norms are manifested through preferences - the priorities of social benefits. Priority systems are rooted in the historical past of peoples and social groups and change rather slowly.

Needs- the need for certain social benefits. The objects of needs of population groups are different, and the differences are rooted not only in today's or in the cultural situation inherited from the past of the life of different groups.

Values, norms and needs are also manifested in behavior motivation. These are standardized explanations that people give to their actions and deeds, as well as the values ​​and norms that they share. The use by a person of the established “vocabulary of motives” testifies to the identification of a person with an established system of values.

Another manifestation of culture public prestige individual role positions, occupations, ways of behavior. "Hierarchies of prestige" are formed in society under the influence of its characteristic value systems. All these elements of culture are assimilated by individuals and determine their activity in all spheres. public life including the economy. And since economic activity consists of the actions of subjects of the economy, culture turns out to be a regulator not only of these actions, but also of the economy itself.

Thus, economic culture is a set of social values ​​and norms that are regulators of the economic behavior of individuals and social groups and perform the function of social memory of economic development.

So, integral part The economic culture of Russia as a whole is the corporate culture of the Ministry of Railways, RAO Gazprom, RAO UES of Russia, and other major companies. The mass media, especially television, have no less influence on the change in economic culture. In this case, both a special selection of news, films, and direct social advertising can be used. Moreover, television already has relevant experience. With the help of television, ideas of active participation in elections, the need to pay taxes and protect themselves from AIDS, and not use drugs have been introduced and are being introduced in the country.

The state should play the leading role in regulating economic culture. It is it that should determine the main priorities in the economic culture, the priorities and the methods used. The state is able to influence the economic culture without significant costs, both directly and through the subjects described above.

The state can direct the activities of other subjects of economic culture regulation. The state owns a controlling stake in Gazprom and UES, the Ministry of Railways is generally one of the state bodies. Also, the state is the owner of the TV channels "Culture", "Russian Television", etc.

Based on the foregoing, we can conclude that economic culture is one of the regulators of the economy and that the state can use it. Moreover, if the state really wants to succeed in implementing reforms, it must use this regulator.