Abstract | The article is aimed at analyzing the nature of institutions and the principles underlying their creation and improvement. The methodological basis of the study was the cultural paradigm of understanding society, economy and institutions as phenomena of a value order. In this regard, the book popular in Russia by two American economists D. Acemoglu and J. Robinson "Why some countries are rich and others are poor", which denies the role of cultural phenomena both in the formation of institutions and in economic and political development, is criticized. Itturns outthat there is a limited explanation for the deepening inequality between rich and poor countries, the divergence that occurs in their development by the vested interests and political motives of the ruling elites. The position that institutions are primarily a cultural phenomenon, and only secondarily a political one, is substantiated. On this basis, it is proved that the choice between extractive and inclusive institutions, on which the quality and dynamics of economic growth depend, is ultimately a function of the prevailing value preferences in a given society. The causes of the crisis of Russian culture are revealed and ways out of it are proposed in the interests of progressive economic growth and social development. |