Any state begins with a common living space, this is ultimately the main reason for the formation of peoples from disparate groups of people. And the first distinguishing feature of an ethnos is a single economic space. Living on a common territory, people enter into social and economic relations, gradually developing "rules of dormitory." The creation of general rules, the removal of barriers within the association, and, conversely, the protection from "alien" participants in economic life are the initial incentives for creating a single economic space of the state. The increase in the volume and intensity of international trade, the increased division of labor and specialization have led to the creation of regional common markets. The formation of a single economic space takes place in many subregions and entire continents, for example, the European Union, NAFTA, MERCOSUR, ASEAN.
Definition
A single economic space is a territory or several territories in which the rules of economic life are identical in form and content. A common currency, common legal norms, a common system of economic relations, a common market with the free movement of goods and services, capital and labor resources operate in this space. In such territories there are unified authorities, fiscal authorities and the economic security system. The common space includes both the air and sea parts of the territory. The borders of the economic space can be formal, for example, administrative, state, and informal - these are zones of influence, service, and gravity. Now, under a single economic space, integration associations that are at various stages of development are more often understood. And, accordingly, to varying degrees fit this definition. For integration associations, a single economic space is, first of all, the freedom of movement of goods and services, capital and human resources. Further in the development process, the remaining signs are achieved.
goal
The creation of a single economic space, which can be formed spontaneously or consciously, is necessary to ensure conditions for comfortable living and economic life, and in the longer term to intensify relations with the outside world. The goals of organizing a single economic space are more detailed:
- ensuring conditions for an effective and free common market for goods and services, capital and labor;
- stable development of institutional infrastructure, ensuring structural adjustment of the economy;
- pursuing a common fiscal, monetary, industrial, trade and economic policy;
- organization of a unified transport, energy and information system.
What goes into space?
A single economic space is not only the territory of a country (or group of countries), but also includes its sea area and aerial territory. Territory is a limited part of the Earth’s surface, with a certain area on which objects are located, including settlements, industry, energy, agricultural enterprises and other objects connected by transport and engineering infrastructure. It should be noted that the underground part of the territory is increasingly being used, for example, metro, supermarkets, communications. The country's economic marine water area includes territorial waters, an exclusive economic zone, where the country has the rights to shipping, fishing, and mining. In the air above the territory, economic activity is also carried out, for example, national rights to operate air transport, mobile communications.
Key features
Organizing their space, countries can enter wider common markets, and the degree of development can be very different. Nevertheless, we can highlight some common signs of a single economic space:
- unified management institutions and national development goals (strategic goal-setting), common value system;
- national system for maintaining economic integrity, stability and sustainability of historically developed space;
- holistic national reproduction, the country should be able to develop, relying on its own economic opportunities;
- optimal placement within a single space of productive forces and developed economic ties;
- greater mobility and the absence of barriers to the movement of resources, financial, labor, commodity;
- the presence of specific economic relations and forms that develop due to the characteristics of space, including geographical, geopolitical, natural;
- general economic security and interaction with other spaces.
Signs of a national single economic space are formed under the influence of prerequisites:
- objective - such as the existing level of development of productive forces;
- subjective, national-specific, including natural, geographical, geopolitical.
An important feature of a single space is the existence of a national development goal. This may be, for example, sovereignty, modernization of the economy, integrity of the territory.
Factors
A single economic space is a complex multi-level system, with many different factors affecting the current state and ability to sustainable development. Basically, there are four groups of factors forming the space:
- spatial, including information, demographic and institutional, as a system of formal and informal rules and restrictions that determine the economic behavior of a person;
- accommodation, which include natural conditions (geographical location, natural resources, climatic conditions, etc.);
- economic factors (existing production potential, infrastructure, quality of management, entrepreneurial skills), quality and quantity of labor resources, social climate and many others;
- macroeconomic, scientific and technological, investment, innovative and integration;
- preferences, including tax, financial tariff and customs, trade benefits.
National specific factors include both economic and non-economic, including humanitarian, social and cultural, which together sometimes characterize as a single socio-economic space of the state. Some researchers include time as a separate factor.
The processes
In the framework of a single economic space, there are multiple socio-economic processes of formation and development. Social, because the goal of almost any activity is to satisfy human needs, which forces him to participate in social production. Living conditions of people and relations in society affect the ability to enter into certain economic ties that make it possible to satisfy needs. These interests, in obtaining a part of the public good, are the motive for the activities of people who proceed in the form of an economic process.
The processes taking place in a single economic space are divided into two main types: natural, which are carried out by a person in the process of interaction with nature, and social, arising in society about the production and distribution and consumption of products. Both processes are closely related and, in addition, are under regulatory influence. For example, if applied to the economy, then, depending on the type of economy (planned, market, mixed), the social part can be significantly affected, for example, by national traditions, religious practice. All processes are carried out due to the interaction of elements of a single economic space, including enterprises, natural resources, institutions, landscape, climatic conditions.
Description of the Russian space
Russia can be seen not only as a country, but also as a large integration project, primarily because of its huge geographical area, which is several times larger than the European Union. The single economic space of Russia is distinguished by the extreme heterogeneity of the territories:
- natural and climatic, the country ranges from the tundra to the subtropics, any kind of landscape, vast body of water;
- civilizational, the country is home to more than 180 nationalities, representatives of all the major religions of the world, which have the most diverse value systems and behaviors;
- economic heterogeneity, due to historical, natural and economic reasons, individual parts of the country have a very different level of development, from the post-industrial economies of large cities and northern suburbs, whose peoples live by hunting, almost in a pre-industrial economy.
- administrative-political, federal government, which includes the territory of national and autonomous republics, regions and territories.
The development of the Russian space
Each economic space establishes the rules governing the existence of the country's subjects. The Russian Constitution guarantees fundamental freedoms of economic life, including the free flow of financial, human and commodity resources, and the protection of competition. The establishment of customs and trade barriers between the country's territories and the issue of other money is prohibited by law. The creation of the Russian single economic space, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, was difficult, along with the need to separate its economy from other territories of the once common state, a transition to a market-based method of regulation was underway.
The heterogeneity of territories and different national structures also impeded the organizational process. Many regions of Russia had closer economic ones with neighboring countries than with the center. Despite the obvious successes in the formation of a single economic space, there is still a strong unevenness in the development of individual parts of the country and not all domestic barriers have been eliminated. In addition, the development of new technologies requires the formation of new common spaces, for example, information.
Integration Economic Spaces
An increasing degree of globalization of the world economy is prompting countries to join regional integration groups to increase the competitiveness of their economies. Naturally, the degree of a country's involvement in a single economic space of a union can be different. Strong constraints on integration are the sovereignty of the country, national, religious characteristics and obligations, etc. Integration processes can take many different forms, for example, the space of the European Union and the common economic space of Europe do not coincide, since the latter includes four more countries that are not members of the EU
Cooperation is governed by the agreement on the European Economic Area. The presence of such a common market shows the difficulty of creating a common space. Countries such as Norway and Iceland are not members of the EU only because of their reluctance to share fishing quotas and fund common agricultural programs that they simply do not have.
The EU came closest to the characteristics of a full-fledged common economic space. In addition to the free movement of resources, most countries use a single currency, a European parliament is working, and other supranational bodies have been created. Countries coordinate macroeconomic, monetary and monetary policies, delegating a significant part of sovereignty to general government. After the accession of the Eastern European countries to the EU, the development of the level of economies became too strong for development. However, the European Union is still the most successful project for the integration of a single economic space.
