CONCEPTUAL BASICS OF POSTINDUSTRIAL STAGE OF ECONOMIC SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT: THEORETIC PRINCIPLES

Abstract

The development of the modern economic system, regardless of the dynamics of its main indicators, initial conditions or the degree of integration into certain regional system formations, indicates the transition to a new postindustrial stage of development. The purpose of the article is to study the evolution of scientific approaches to determining the essence of the postindustrial stage of development of society, the establishment of its main driving forces and factors of formation. There are applied general scientific methods of analysis and synthesis, grouping and comparison, systemic and historical approaches. An abstract-logical method is used for theoretical generalization and formulation of conclusions. A critical analysis of the positions of leading scientists on the essential characteristics of the postindustrial economy is conducted. It is substantiated that the scientific origins of the theory of postindustrial type of development are based on the conceptual provisions of Bell's theory of postindustrial society, which has been developed in the West since the mid-1950s. The main features of postindustrial society, according to D. Bell, include the growing role of theoretical knowledge as a basis for scientific and technological innovation; growth of the share of production of services; formation of professional and technical class; increased attention to theoretical knowledge, strengthening the role and importance of science, focus on the future; formation of a system of meritocracy, i.e., a person's social position is determined solely by his or her intellectual potential and ability to generate new knowledge; formation of the economic theory of information on the basis of replacement of the labour theory of value by the knowledge-based theory of value. A study of the main stages of periodization of society on the basis of Toffler's wave theory is carried out. The main features are outlined, the driving forces and factors of formation are determined, the characteristic of the third stage of historical development – postindustrial society – is given. It is concluded that a society of postindustrial type appears and develops not as a result of evolutionary laws or specific historical events, but as a result of society's influence on itself.