Over the past decades, Russian society has changed significantly. A virtual information and financial space is being formed, where there are no customary boundaries of territories. Social communication begins to develop in new forms, knowledge is exchanged and social consciousness is manipulated. To develop the economy, the most acute social need is its focus on social landmarks. An urgent need is the creation of mechanisms: the approval of uniform, equitable, social bases of legality in all regions of the Russian Federation; maintenance of civil peace; intellectual self–reproduction of the nation, through the appropriate system of education, education, health; reduction of income differentiation; self–realization of man. The ongoing social tolerance is not an expression of the slavish or heroic traits of the nature of Russian citizens, but rather the manifestation of expectations from the political process of what the immature market economy was not capable of accomplishing. Potential factors of the region's strategic development or its competitive advantages are highlighted in the paper. Five strategic directions of social management of the region's economy are grounded: the first is the creation and maintenance of a healthy atmosphere for sustainable development of the region; the second – stimulation of the aggregate consumer demand of the Voronezh region; the third is the democratization of capital; the fourth – the social orientation in agriculture; the fifth – the adjustment of the environmental policy of the region. For each direction, the distribution approaches are highlighted. So, the first direction involves: increasing the social responsibility of entrepreneurs, the entire population, executive and legislative authorities to society. The second is based on the skilful expansion of the intervention of regional and municipal authorities in the economy. The third should involve considerable investments in the regional economy, expand and strengthen the middle class, people living not only on wages, but also on other incomes. The fourth involves: improving the economic security of the country and preserving the integrity of the territories and the region as a whole. The fifth is aimed at saving natural resources and strengthening environmental control. The mechanisms for implementing these directions are considered.

competitive advantages of strategic development of the region, strategic directions of social management of the region's economy

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