The author points out that after the transformational slump all post-Soviet economies stepped on the path of growth. But its nature, known as recovery growth, appears inevitably fading, and in today's Russia its capacity has been practically depleted. And now the problem is not to stir up the rates of growth that would be dangerous. The comprehensive, mutually related reforms are needed which will secure sustainable economic growth in the future. The author argues that the country should learn how to insure economic development by means of private incentives rather than state regulation mechanisms.

The author explores the comparative advantages of the Russian economy and states that resource export orientation can be a strong factor of sustainable economic growth as for example in Australia. Economic relations with rapidly growing China are of extreme importance because the Chinese economy can provide a huge market for Russian commodities. The author warns that the rapid growth of rouble's real exchange rate can decelerate economic development but his forecasts for the nearest future are rather optimistic.

The article is devoted to the analysis of improving budget process trends. The author offers the concept of "financial technologism". Its usage should promote an essential improvement of the budget process. The given concept is based on the fact that the regulation of budget procedure is the process of determination of "rules of the game", and the order of interaction of different institutions within the framework of the budget process, and the trends and volumes of expenses are the strategy of institutions. The procedure within the budget process plays a principal role as compared with the trends and volumes of public expenditures.

The article deals with the problems of transition from the neo-liberal to the synergetic type of globalization. Against a background of this process, the most essential changes of the status of regions and municipalities in our country are considered. The authors conclude that Russia on the whole is necessarily to become one of the New Regionalisms.

The results of the study of 15 Russian regions conducted in the framework of the Federal Target Program "Diminishing discrepancies in socioeconomic development of the regions of Russian Federation (2002-2010 and till the Year 2015)" are presented in the article. Basic features of two models of regional power's economic behavior (rent-seeking and self-constraint), the role of regional economic, social and natural gaps in contemporary development of the subjects of Russian Federation are determined. The notion of the integral type of activity is introduced. The importance of landscape and ethnic factors in using schemes of property rights on basic regional resources is shown. On the example of some Russian regions with long lasting feudal model of land ownership the role of economic history in forming contemporary fragmented corporate structure of regional economy and poorly integrated regional agrarian markets is demonstrated.

The paper deals with theoretical approaches to the problems of property rights and contractual obligations and with analysis of economic consequences of the imperfect enforcement system. In particular, the authors consider Russian experience in the sphere of corporate conflicts. Legal and practical recommendations related to the improvement of legal framework, judiciary reform, executory process and different federal and regional authorities are also presented.

This paper studies the impact of federal state shareholdings on the performance of Russian companies. It focuses on mixed ownership companies rather than conventional state enterprises and distinguishes between several types of federal state shareholdings and golden shares. Econometric analysis shows that companies with state ownership generally perform worse than the average firm in terms of labour productivity and profitability. However, there are remarkable differences in the performance of companies with different types of state shareholdings. These differences are explained by different degrees of the federal state control over such enterprises. The paper concludes that the government should avoid keeping equity stakes in companies unless there is a necessity to retain them. Finally, the issue of golden shares in strategically important companies seems to be a reasonable alternative to retaining some control over them through equity ownership.

Well-known thesis that productive capacities constraints can be a strong obstacle to economic growth is discussed in the article. Basing on the Russian Economic Barometer data the author shows that the impact of such a factor upon economic growth in Russia is not as strong as many researchers think.

The problems of public sector swelling known as "the Leviathan's menace" are considered in the tenth chapter of the textbook. The size of state expenditures and the limits of public sector are analyzed. The concept of administrative resource is defined and the methods of its estimation are offered. The chapter also includes further readings, control tests and questions.