Any system, including society, is not immune from the critical accumulation of internal contradictions, as well as from destructive external influences that can cause a malfunction in its functioning up to the emergence of various crises, the typology of which is one of the areas of research in sociology, philosophy and a number of other humanitarian sciences. At one time, not without the submission of Marxist theory, it was believed that a crisis is a sign of the non-viability of the system and its rapid destruction. However, as practice shows, crises are not only a test of survival, but also an incentive to improve the functioning of the system.
Definition of a concept
Like many other scientific terms, the word "crisis" is Greek in its origin. In this language, krisis means "decision." However, over time, this term has acquired so many new readings that the very concept of crisis often needs to be substantially adjusted.
First of all, the crisis assumes the existence of a certain problem, which becomes a milestone on the way of the development of the system. In many ways, it is determined by the presence of two or more warring parties, offering their own development options. Thus, the crisis, understood as a kind of demarcation line, delimits the existence of the system into three stages. At the first, pre-crisis, there is a confrontation and uncertainty regarding the choice of the development path. At the time of crisis, uncertainty is replaced by the clear victory of one of the conflicting parties. The third stage, post-crisis, is characterized by the acquisition of a system of qualitatively new characteristics, mainly in an organizational sense.
Thus, the crisis is primarily understood as an extreme aggravation of contradictions in the system, threatening the cessation of its existence and characterized by malfunctions in the functioning of the usual regulatory mechanisms.
Causes of occurrence
The causes and consequences of crises primarily depend on the nature of the system itself. However, it is possible to determine some common grounds for their allocation.
The causes of a failure in the system can be both objective and subjective. The former stems from the periodically arising internal need for modernization. A crisis in this case may arise due to an error in the choice of a development strategy, external influence or current circumstances.
The subjective causes of the crisis are generated not only by management errors, but also by various force majeure circumstances such as a man-made or natural disaster or natural disaster. Another source of system malfunctions is undetected or neglected imperfections in the management system, and the adoption of risky decisions.
Reasons for classification
Perhaps, as the main characteristic of crises, one can single out their diversity. It manifests itself not only in the causes that have arisen and their consequences, but also in the very essence of the crisis situation. However, any problem can be predicted and solved. To facilitate this process, a typology of crises has arisen according to various criteria.
There are a lot of reasons for classifying a crisis as a subgroup. Among the most important are the causes of its occurrence, nature and consequences. An important criterion for the classification is the crisis. From this point of view, experts distinguish macro- and megacrisis. A significant role is also played by the time factor, from the standpoint of which the crisis can be designated either as protracted or as short-term.
Finally, after all the upheavals of the 20th century, such an important phenomenon in the development of the system as the repeatability of the main stages of its existence was revealed. Because of this, a crisis can be designated as regular or periodic.
It is necessary to take into account the presence of so-called systemic crises when, as a result of a malfunction in the operation of one element, others fail. The difficulties that have arisen in the economy can provoke a social explosion, the result of which is often a political crisis. However, in this case, the chain of actions can spin up in the other direction.
Crises of socio-economic systems
This area is perhaps the most important for each person, since the individual lives in society, and society is the most characteristic example of a socio-economic system. To facilitate the creation of a typology of crises of this kind, differentiation of the problems is made with the identification of such spheres of society as economic, social, political and spiritual.
Such a separation allows not only to more accurately identify the forms of crisis manifestation and thereby predict it, but also to facilitate the adoption of anti-crisis measures. In general, based on the differentiation of the problems, we can distinguish such types of crises as:
- economic;
- social;
- political;
- organizational;
- psychological;
- technological.
Within each of these types, subspecies can be distinguished.
Economic crises
The main reason for its occurrence is the accumulation of unsold products and production capital, which is manifested in the growth of unemployment. Economists note that the very nature of the production cycle produces the appearance of crisis phenomena, which, on the one hand, indicates the growth of contradictions that are not resolved by traditional methods, and on the other hand, helps to eliminate obsolete principles from the system and modernizes it.
Along with specific types of economic crises (monetary, credit, banking, foreign economic, investment, mortgage, inflation, stock, etc.), there are structural ones affecting all areas of the economy. These include:
- commodity market, the essence of which is the correction of the economic system;
- production and structural, causing requirements for updating part of the production structures or their complete replacement with more adequate to the current moment;
- systemic transformation, entailing a complete restructuring of the economic system of society.
The main factors of crises in the economic sphere include the reduction of manufactured products and the use of production capacities to their full extent, a drop in the level of gross domestic product, the termination of regular payments (including social payments), the absence of innovative technologies, as well as bankruptcy and bankruptcy of enterprises .
Social crises
The reason for their occurrence is the contradiction caused by the conflict of interests of various public groups or institutions. As a rule, a social crisis is either a background or a consequence of an economic crisis, the onset of which inevitably exacerbates problems within society. The relationship with the state of the economy is understandable: discontent arises in society with rising prices and unemployment, a decrease in educational and health budget items, and various crisis centers arise in which people try to find help and support.
The overall decline in living standards observed in these cases is one of the many causes of the demographic crisis. Along with environmental, it is included in the group of global crises of our time. A social crisis manifests itself in a significant excess of mortality over fertility, which leads to an aging of the population and its reduction, as well as an increase in the number of emigrants, which are mainly educated people.
Negative trends in society can also cause psychological crises. They are most pronounced in societies that have entered a transitional period, like those experienced by Russia in the 1990s. last century. In this case, we are talking about a general increase in the number of neuroses: a person does not feel protected and is in a state of fear.
Social crises can also include political ones. As follows from the concept, the crisis in this case is manifested in the clash of interests of various groups in the political field, which is realized not only in the regular struggle of parties or in opposition of the ruling strata and the opposition, but also in the disorganization of the country's political life. They arise if there are serious doubts about the legitimacy of the government or its inability to resolve the accumulated problems.
Territorial classification of crises
Depending on the area of distribution, the crisis can be individual, local, regional, national, transnational and global. It should be borne in mind that this typology of crises is organically combined with others. For example, a political crisis can cover both a separate region (for example, Catalonia or the Basque Country in Spain), or an entire state (Russia before the 1917 revolution).
For the first time, they began to think about this relationship after the first world economic crisis that occurred in 1825. In the future, the level of globalization has made such crises more protracted and severe in consequences. In particular, the most severe of world crises was what happened in 1929. The fall in stock prices on the largest US exchanges, which began on October 24, provoked not only the collapse of the country's economy, but also led to an open confrontation between social groups. Since after the First World War the economies of European countries were closely connected with the American one and even were in some dependence on it, the crisis quickly assumed alarming proportions. One of its consequences is the curtailment of democracy in Germany and the rise to power of the National Socialist Party.
Classification according to the nature of the course
Since the development of the system implies the possibility of failures in its operation, the crisis can be predicted. This is especially true for regular or cyclical crises. In the nature of their course, some phases can be distinguished. The first is recession. The crisis in this case is only beginning to manifest itself in various forms, for example, there is a drop in production or an oversupply of goods on the market. The next step is stagnation, during which the system tries to adapt to changing conditions. This stage occurs until the situation of equilibrium between the needs of society and its capabilities is again established. In addition, at this stage, a search is made for fundamentally new ways out of the economic crisis, which is, as a rule, primary, as well as their testing.
After gaining balance, the recovery phase begins, during which the connections between the various elements of the system are restored. In economic terms, this is manifested in an increase in the flow of investments, the creation of new jobs, which helps to reduce unemployment and improve the standard of living of the population. This leads to the entry of the system into a new phase - recovery. The capital accumulated at the previous stage allows the implementation of various innovations, which entails quantitative and qualitative changes in the life of society. However, at the same stage, inevitably there is an accumulation of new contradictions, which again lead to a phase of decline.
However, this sequence is not always performed flawlessly. Researchers note the existence of irregular crises in which a phase change does not occur. These include:
- an intermediate crisis, characteristic of phases of recovery or recovery, which are temporarily interrupted;
- a partial crisis that is similar in nature to the previous subspecies, but differs from it in that it covers not one sphere of society, but several at once;
- industry crisis.
The transition from one phase to another can be caused not only by natural causes. Sometimes in order to stimulate development, accelerate it, artificial crises can be provoked.
Classification of crises by causes
As already mentioned, various types of crises are interconnected. Negative trends in the economy can create a social explosion, and they themselves can be caused by a lack of innovation, that is, a technological crisis. However, the causes of crisis phenomena sometimes arise from the most unexpected side. In particular, natural crises almost independent of human will stand out. These may include various disasters: hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis. But sometimes their development merges with anthropogenic activity, and in this case an environmental crisis arises.
This is evidenced by facts such as the emergence of previously unknown diseases, and therefore being incurable, the depletion of non-renewable natural resources or their pollution, as well as global warming caused by the greenhouse effect due to increased emissions of carbon dioxide. This is caused not only by economic development, with an increase in the number of people on the planet requiring an increasing amount of resources. In the early 90's. of the last century, it was proved that the environmental crisis can be caused by local hostilities: during the war in the Persian Gulf, at least 500 oil wells were blown up.
Regardless of the reasons for the appearance, it should be understood that the environmental crisis is one of the most serious problems facing humanity today.
Crisis management
Timely recognition of negative trends in the development of the system allows us to predict possible shocks and take care of methods of dealing with them in advance. In this regard, a typology of crises is essential. The correct definition of the type and nature of the crisis is in itself a guarantee of quick recovery. In addition, understanding the crisis as one of the conditions for the existence of the system indicates that overcoming it is a controlled process, even if we are talking about some kind of natural disaster.
The company has accumulated considerable experience in combating negative trends. This is evidenced by a large number of different crisis centers, and qualitative changes in politics, designed, if not to get rid of crises at all, then at least to reduce the possible damage.