MIDDLE CLASS AND SOCIETY'S INTELLECTUAL POTENTIAL

Abstract

Introduction. In sociology, the tendency of the middle class reduction, structural changes in its composition is mainly considered within the framework of socio-economic consequences: decline in production and taxation base, the increasing impact on the budget, the threat of weakening social stability, and derogation of faith in social justice. However, the process of reducing the middle class (in combination with a number of other factors) results in deeper destructions: decrease in the society's intellectual potential, in the population's de-qualification and deprofessionalization. The aim of the study is to describe the socio-psychological portrait of a middle class representative and to analyze the hypothesis of the scientific practicability of introducing the coefficient of inventive activity as one of the criteria for developing the society's intellectual potential.