State National Policy of Russia: Problems and Conceptual Lacunas

Abstract

The article analyzes the conceptual gaps of the state national policy, as they are seen in the light of the real problems in this area. It discusses the methodological basis and the object of national policy, its primary regional models, the content and typology of ethnocultural diversity, the need to implement various types of monitoring, the continuity of solving the problems of adaptation of migrants and the local, especially Russian, population to the changing ethno-social situation. In particular, the following conclusions are substantiated: about the limitation of constructivist position in the understanding of the nation and the groundlessness of the desire at the official level to replace the ethno-cultural content of this concept with an exclusively political meaning; it is proposed to identify the object of the national policy as not only inter-ethnic relations and conflicts, but also the ethno-social processes, localized within specific interethnic communities, which the author considers as an elementary empirical object in the study and regulation of these processes; with taking into account significant regional differences in the ethno-social situation and trends in the development of ethno-social processes, the question of identifying primary regional models of national policies and defining their significant regionally-specific reference points, along with general strategy, is raised; in the framework of identity policy, the implementation of a clear state position in relation not only to state-civil, but also to ethnic identity (which has a great social significance as an important condition for the preservation and support of ethnocultural diversity) is appropriate.