The term "economy" has its roots in ancient Greece and is a combination of two roots "oikos" and "nomos". The first, translated from Greek, is interpreted as a house or household, and the second is a law. Consequently, the economy is a set of laws, rules, and norms of housekeeping. The interpretation of this concept has changed and enriched enough for more than two millennia.
Modern interpretations of the concept under consideration
Firstly, the economy is the economy itself (a set of objects, means, things, substances of the spiritual and material world that are used by a person to ensure the appropriate conditions for his life and meet existing needs).
This interpretation of the term in question is its perception as a created and applied life support system, as well as maintaining and improving the conditions for the existence of the human race.
Secondly, economics is a science(a body of knowledge regarding the economy and human activities associated with it) on the rational use of various, usually limited, resources to meet the vital needs of an individual person and society as a whole; about the relations between people arising in the process of managing.
Economics as a science and as the economy itself is terminologically differentiated by introducing two etymologically related concepts - "economics" and "economics". The first is the economy itself (economics in kind), and the second is economic science - economic theory. This division contributes to a clearer understanding of the concept under consideration.
It is generally accepted that economics as a science was first interpreted by the outstanding philosopher of antiquity - Socrates (470-390 BC). Unfortunately, he preached mainly in the squares and streets, so there is no written confirmation of this. After the death of the philosopher, his work was continued by the closest students - Plato and Xenophon. They told humanity what Socrates was working on.
It should be clarified that the direct use of the term "economics" in Russian is considered incorrect, so it is replaced by the term "economic theory".
From the point of view of the objective perception of the concept under consideration (as an economic system and the totality of knowledge about it), some authors also distinguish the third meaning of the economy: the relationship of people that arise in the process of first production, then distribution, then exchange, and finally, consumptiongoods and services.
Thus, the economy is the economy, the science about it, as well as about management and relations between people in its process.
Interpretation of the concepts of "economic phenomena and processes"
These are the results of the simultaneous influence of a large number of causes of economic orientation. Economic phenomena and processes are constantly born, evolve and are destroyed (they are in constant motion). This is their so-called dialectic. An example of such phenomena and processes can be: the exchange of goods, bankruptcy, finance, marketing, etc. But political marketing is not an economic phenomenon.
The economic process is the stages of the evolution of material production, as well as its production forces (direct manufacturers, their skills, knowledge, skills, equipment, etc.) and the production relations that are formed on their basis, including the relationship regarding ownership of the existing means of production (private, cooperative, state, etc.), the exchange of activities based on the division of labor and relationships in the process of distributing existing material we alth.
Within economic processes, two specific layers of human relationships can be distinguished: the first is superficial (visually visible), and the second is internal (hidden from observation). The study of visually visible economic relations is available to everyone, therefore, from childhood, a person develops a typicaleconomic thinking based on real knowledge of the economic mechanism. This kind of thinking is most often subjective. It is limited to a certain horizon of an individual and is often based on partial and one-sided data.
Economic theory seeks to reveal the inner content and how some economic phenomena are interconnected with others (their causal relationship).
Classification of considered processes
Socio-economic phenomena are divided into appropriate types, as well as types, based on such criteria as the social nature and interests of society, the nature of their implementation in a particular society. This division is conditional, but it helps to present their inner content and a number of features of their functioning.
Types of economic phenomena can be subdivided based on the following areas:
1. The nature of social actors allows us to distinguish three categories of economic processes and phenomena:
- of a class nature (the main subjects and driving force are the respective classes);
- national character (the main driving force - the nation);
- of a nationwide nature (subjects are social groups and strata of the population of the respective country).
2. Features of their content include the following socio-economic phenomena and processes:
- regarding the solution of common problems of the scientific and technological revolution;
- with regard to solving specific problemsregarding the functioning of banking and industrial capital;
- in the field of solving problems of interethnic relations;
- regarding the solution of the problems of civil rights and freedoms.
3. The scope and depth of their action highlights the following economic processes and phenomena:
- international and domestic;
- local and large scale, etc.
Socio-economic phenomena can also be divided into: destructive and creative, transitional and stable.
In the economy, most processes are interconnected. An important point is not only the identification of the fact of the relationship between economic processes and phenomena, but also their forecasting and effective management by giving mathematical quantitative certainty. This is what statistics do. At the same time, one group of indicators acts as factors (reasons) that determine the dynamics of another set of indicators, which are referred to as effective.
Related relationships are classified based on the nature, dependence and method of studying the relationship. Does not include economic phenomena: electrification of bodies, nuclear disintegration, sunbeam, snowfall, etc.
Methodology of economics
This is a science with regards to methods of cognition and research of the economic aspect of economic phenomena. It is customary to single out general and particular methods of cognition of economic phenomena.
In turn, the former include the following methods:
- Materialistic dialectics (all processes and phenomena are analyzed in continuous dynamics,constant development and close relationship).
- Scientific abstraction (mandatory highlighting of significant features of the phenomena and processes under study, excluding secondary ones).
- The unity of historical and logical knowledge (consideration of society from the point of view of historical sequence in addition to the logical method of research, revealing the sequence of appearance and evolution of economic laws and categories).
Private methods of studying economic phenomena include:
- Economic-mathematical (determining the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of these phenomena and obtaining from many variations the most acceptable solution to the set economic problem).
- The method of analysis and synthesis (complex economic phenomena are divided into the simplest components, which are subsequently subjected to detailed analysis, as a result of which the interconnections of the entire system as a whole are established based on the generalization of individual parts).
- Graphic representation method (visual display of the ratios of various economic indicators under the influence of a dynamic economic situation).
- Method of social practice (the process in which economic phenomena are first carefully studied, and then the scientific justification obtained during this study is confirmed or denied by social practice).
- Method of induction and deduction (transition from particular conclusions to general ones, and vice versa).
Economic analysis
Heis a systematized set of methods, techniques and methods that are used to obtain economic conclusions regarding a particular business entity.
Economic analysis - a system of special knowledge in the following areas:
- Analysis of economic phenomena, as well as processes in relation to their causal relationship with each other, which are formed under the influence of subjective economic factors and objective laws.
- Scientific substantiation of business plans.
- Identification of negative and positive factors and quantification of their actions.
- Disclosure of trends in economic development and determination of the degree of non-use of on-farm reserves.
- Making optimal and adequate management decisions.
The analysis of economic phenomena includes important points: establishing the relationship, interdependence and interdependence of factors and causes.
Unemployment as an example of an economic phenomenon
Its main reason is the change in entrepreneurial demand relative to the constantly changing labor force under the influence of the amount of accumulated capital.
Unemployment is an economic phenomenon within the framework of a market form of activity related to production, which manifests itself in the fact that the economically active population does not have any work and stable income for reasons beyond its control.
Reasons for the economic phenomenon under consideration
They can beclassify according to different economic doctrines:
- M althusianism (the main cause of unemployment is an excess of population);
- technological theory (any technical innovation pushes workers out of the production process);
- Keynesianism (lack of aggregate (effective) demand for goods and factors of production);
- monetarism (according to its representative F. Hayek, the cause of this economic phenomenon is the deviation of wages and equilibrium prices from their stable level and the state of order in the market, resulting in the emergence of an economically unjustified deployment of labor resources, which, in turn, leads to a state of imbalance in the supply and demand of labor);
- Marxist theory (“relative overpopulation”, the cause of which, in turn, is an increase in the scale of the organic composition of capital in the course of its accumulation, in connection with which (within the exclusively capitalist mode of production) there is a relative decrease in the demand for labor).
In all the above theories, undoubtedly, the causal conditionality of such an economic phenomenon as unemployment is correctly noted. If we summarize them, we can get a fairly objective universal definition of the reason for its formation: the lack of aggregate demand for both goods and factors of production, subject to an increase in the organic composition of capital.
Property as an economic phenomenon
She originally acted asthe relationship between representatives of the human race regarding the use of spiritual and material goods, as well as the conditions for their creation, or as a historically established social method of alienating the good.
Property as an economic relation appears during the formation of human society.
On the process of monopolization of property objects, so to speak, all forms of economic and non-economic coercion to labor activity are kept. Thus, the ancient mode of production was associated with non-economic coercion, supported by the right to own a slave, the Asian one - the right to own a land plot, under feudalism - the right to own both a person and land.
Economic coercion to work is repelled from ownership directly on the conditions of production or from ownership of capital.
This economic phenomenon is a very complex and rather multidimensional formation. Historically, it is known that property has two forms: public and private. Their difference is in the nature, forms and methods of appropriation, the level of socialization. There is a rather complex interaction between them.
Firstly, they have a common essential beginning, and they, as a rule, correlate as fundamental differences (their difference cannot be brought to a perfect opposite). In this regard, private property can be transformed into common property, and vice versa. Secondly, the economic phenomenon under consideration, reflecting the deep processesthe economic side of social life cannot but change.
A variety of basic forms of ownership
Private property is divided into the following types:
- single (individual);
- joint (divisible and indivisible);
- total;
- brought to the scale of an association or a state, or a transnational monopoly.
The content of common property is based on the size of the community and its status. It can be both at the stage of the family (household), and at the level of the community or association, or the state, or society (the people).
Economic phenomena, examples of which were given earlier (unemployment and property), are not isolated. This can also include inflation, deflation, economic growth, globalization, all types of activities, etc. Economic phenomena do not include, for example, such a procedure as elections. Any physical or chemical phenomenon or process (ice melting, evaporation, electrolysis, etc.) is not economic.
In the economy, there are such economic phenomena that are considered the simplest, emerging earlier than others and forming the basis for the emergence of more complex ones. An example of this would be the exchange of goods.
Central Method of Economics
It is the modeling of economic phenomena - their description by means of a formalized language using mathematical algorithms and appropriate symbols to identify functional relationships between these phenomena or processes. This is where the idealization comes into play.object.
Feature - in the framework of a theoretical study, the allocation of such a concept as an ideal object that does not exist in reality, however, is the basis for building a theory. In the process of constructing such objects, the researcher significantly simplifies reality, he deliberately abstracts from the properties inherent in them in reality or endows them with virtual features. This allows you to more clearly see the analyzed relationships and present them mainly in a mathematical aspect.
In accordance with the existing methodology, if there is a need to explain a phenomenon, then a mathematical model is constructed that will reflect its main features. The following are conclusions that are interpreted as a substantiation of the observed facts or as statements that do not contradict the economic situation.
The next step is to collect empirical data for the subsequent testing of the model. Provided that acceptable results are obtained after numerical experiments, such a model can be considered that the theoretical result has received empirical confirmation.
Limitations of the methodology under consideration
It is expressed in the fact that the underlying mathematical model is equipped with a complexity limit. In essence, only one of the most important factors is snatched up and described. The complication leads to the difficulty of the practical application of the obtained mathematical statement.
Also, an important disadvantage is the fact that without exception, all put forward inMathematics assumptions can be tested in a formal way. This indicates the possibility of constructing both a useless and inefficient or even deliberately false model.
Mathematical thinking is analytical thinking. It divides the phenomenon into its component parts, which can result in inadequacy in relation to the expression of reality, especially with regard to social phenomena. The so-called formality of mathematics interferes with the expression of the specifics of economic relations in society.
The country's economy in 2015
According to Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank Ksenia Yudaeva, today the economic situation in our country is very difficult: the peak of inflation (current figure - 8.9%) will occur in the first quarter of this year (may in relation to food products, it will take even higher values (about 12%). According to her, despite the fact that the weakening of the ruble against the dollar amounted to approximately 40%, and against the euro - 20-30%, the inflation rate will not take on equivalent values, since today there is a switch in demand from imported products to domestic products, which is increasing. in price much slower.
OPEC's decision to maintain the oil production quota literally forced the Central Bank to consider a new scenario according to which the country's economy will develop in the future (in the event of a medium-term drop in oil prices to $60 per barrel). According to the same K. Yudaeva, in this situation there will be a large-scale structural restructuring of the Russian economy, associated withimport substitution and its diversification.
Daria Zhelannova (deputy director of the analytical department of Alpari) also believes that the highest inflation rate and a significant weakening of the ruble will be observed by the end of winter 2015. She advises not to burden yourself with loans and not to acquire foreign currency for at least another six months. D. Zhelannova suggests that it is best to simply wait out this period.
So, in the end, it is worth recalling once again that economic phenomena (examples: unemployment, property, corruption, inflation, etc.) are formed under the influence of a large number of specific causes of economic orientation. As for economic processes, here we are talking about any process that affects the production, exchange and consumption of material goods.
It is worth remembering that the election procedure is not an economic phenomenon, just like any chemical reaction or physical process.
