Public interest and economic policy

The state, the market, and the relation between group (individual) and national interests are heatedly discussed in political essays and the mass media. However, emotional and ideological arguments impart the feeling that public contradictions are inherently insolvable and a compromise between the needs of different social strata is impossible. What about science? Does it analyze this problem? What views prevail? These points were discussed at an RAS Presidium meeting in September 2009. The paper and a summary of its discussion are published below.