Why you shouldn’t take Mikhail Prokhorov’s party program seriously

Many points in the program of Mikhail Prokhorov’s Civic Platform party , adopted at the congress on October 27, can be subscribed to without a shadow of a doubt. Especially in its political part, which provides for reducing the term of office of the President of the Russian Federation to four years, limiting the possibility of electing one person for two terms during his life; transition to direct elections of heads of federal subjects and local self-government; removal of authorities from the formation of election commissions; ratification of Art. 20 of the UN Convention against Corruption, etc.

The program says many correct words about the development of culture, healthcare, science, education and the social sphere.

But the mechanisms for implementing this development are not visible.

The economic part is at the end of the program, does not address issues of redistribution of income from the sale of raw materials, does not contain signs of industrial policy and is based on the ideas of liberalism, which have already shown their inconsistency.

The reliance on the principle “the market will regulate everything” has already led to the almost complete destruction of the manufacturing industry and half of agricultural production in Russia. Now it is proposed to step on the same rake again.

Mikhail Prokhorov, a supporter of Russia’s accession to the WTO, does not give a clear answer to the question of how Russian enterprises operating in a cold climate and poor infrastructure will be able to compete with transnational corporations if “we abandon programs of direct state support for enterprises, making the only instrument such support to stimulate demand for the products they produce,” as written in his party’s program.

Many developed countries widely use all possible tools to support their producers and protect the domestic market. For example, government subsidies in the West account for up to 70% of the cost of agricultural products.

In our country, with much less government support for agricultural producers, the share of imported food resources today is already more than 40% , and the food industry operates primarily on imported raw materials.

The state of Russia's manufacturing industry is not only deplorable, but is rapidly deteriorating. In 2011, for example, the number of enterprises engaged in the production of machinery and equipment decreased by 10.6%, and their total number is only 0.9% of the total number of business entities.

Their government support today is either small or completely absent. And what the elimination of the remnants of such state support will lead to is not difficult to foresee.

And without production, science and education will eke out a miserable existence (they will simply remain unclaimed), and an effective solution to the problems of the social sphere is impossible in principle due to the lack of necessary funds for this.

If Russians only service gas and oil pipes, then, as was mentioned in the press with reference to Margaret Thatcher’s statement, 15 million people will be enough for Russia. The extinction of the rest of the population will be predetermined.

Successful economies have been created only in those countries that use a mixed model of society - a combination of Soviet-style socialism with elements of state planning and reasonable market capitalism. Each form of ownership as a business management tool has the right to exist and should be used where it is most effective.

What is needed in the economy is not so much liberalism (at its low levels), but rather a strong regulatory role of the state, strict suppression of corruption, arbitrariness of officials and those individuals whose activities do not fit into the chosen model of social life.

Words in the “Civic Platform” program: “A real Russian is a responsible person, ready to work hard and hard to achieve his own goals, who wants to develop, improve his skills and professionalism. This is a person who is ready to defend his convictions, striving to make his country not a source of constant a threat to neighbors, but an attractive and comfortable territory for living,” this is a beautiful fairy tale. Like the motto of the French Revolution: “Liberty, equality, fraternity!”

It is impossible to imagine that, at least in the long term, all Russians would become responsible, ready to work hard and hard, defend their beliefs and strive to make their country attractive.

Of course there are such people. But those who are capable of serving the Great Goal and are ready to live and die for it are still a clear minority. The majority of Russians can be called ordinary people who do not have their own Great goals and are under external influence (acting “like everyone else”). There are also people whose goal in life is nothing more than to satisfy their animal instincts, who do not know moderation in consumption and do not strive to give anything in return.

It would be great if Mikhail Prokhorov, instead of the unrealistic proposal “to all compatriots unite to implement the project of the evolutionary development of our society and state,” would rely on those who are truly capable of serving the Great Goal - scientists, industrialists in the non-resource sector of the economy, authoritative military personnel, proved capable of such service. And instead of evolutionary transformations of the country, he would try to radically change the vector of its movement - from degradation to development, without bringing the matter to a social explosion. After all, the drama of the situation in the country lies in the fact that it is no longer possible to change it using evolutionary methods - these institutions are destroyed.

What is needed is the implementation not of liberal ideas, but of a “dictatorship of development”, a focus on the development of industry, as proposed, for example, by Konstantin Babkin and Maxim Kalashnikov from the Party of Business.

And acting on the proposed “Civic Platform” program, it is impossible to breathe life even into the Yo-mobile, not to mention the revival of all of Russia.

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