Assessments and Expectations of the Populace of Sevastopol in Regards to the Issues of Economic Growth

Abstract

The authors point out the necessity to study the issues regarding the economic growth of regions as this provides welfare and social comfort for their citizens. The assessments and expectations of the populace of individual subjects in regards to the formation of the region’s socially economic conditions show themselves to be highly important, as they reflect the ability of further development of social economy leading industries, along with successful execution of activities by business structures. Studying social opinion and processing the results by means of the method of expert assessments were carried out in Sevastopol, where citizens of several different social groups and ages took part in the process. During the study, citizens were given the opportunity to assess the state of the city economic growth in real time and in the next 5 years answering a number of questions. Overall, citizens did not assess economy and factors influencing it during the retrospective period highly, though in the perspective period growing expectations seem to be a common occurence among the majority of the groups asked. The most optimistic group of those asked turned out to be students, the most pessimistic being government officials. The results of the given investigation can be recommended for using by public authorities, initially at the local level, upon executing managerial decisions and developing projects and programs for the region’s growth.