The scientific support of the state land policy is an important focus for regulating of land relations. It is science shall determine the development prospects of these relations and to warn against false and erroneous ways.
However, scientific works on the land relations are not enough. As a rule, they are considering important questions, but it are only certain aspects of land relations (methods of state regulation, land law, land management activities, information about the land and the like). This does not allow develop the uniform approach to the issue of land, which would include economic, environmental, legal, moral and organizational-technical aspects. In addition, the problem of combination of interests of the individual and society is the most acute exactly in the land question.
The self-sufficiency of land relations and their impact on economic processes, policy, demography and other spheres of public life allow speak about the presence of the some special industry knowledge. This is the theory of land relations, which is still insufficiently developed.
As is known, the earth gives the absolute majority of food products. The resources which necessary for the continued existence of human society are in land depths. People fought for the land even when the lack of land was not high as it is now [1].
So the science has accumulated considerable knowledge about the land, about the emerging around her social relations, about the distribution of products obtained by using the land and about other issues related with land use.
But the content of this knowledge is distributed between different sciences. As a result the system of scientific knowledge, which explains the development, the modern nature and the possible prospects of land relations, in fact, is missing.
Of course, science is developing. The current situation is likely to change. Such a change could occur, for example, in the course of the addressing environmental issues or the correcting deficiencies in modern land and agrarian systems [2, 3]. Therefore, the absence of independent land science for a limited time period would not be so problematic. On the other hand, knowledge about the essence of land relations, causes and directions of their development are fundamental to many other fields of knowledge. In result, the absence of such independent land theoretical science is a disadvantage.
Land relations are a complex system. Therefore, political, social, environmental issues cannot be ignored in determining the economic prospects of development of these relations, and vice versa. The theory of land relations is of a corresponding scientific field. This theory should examine the economic, political, social, environmental and other aspects which related of the actions of the people, their associations, various social groups and public institutions concerning land resources.
These activities cover the following main directions: the development of the necessary institutional conditions for rational use of land resources and for increase efficiency of their economic use; the ensuring the conservation of land resources as a necessary condition of existence of human society; the distribution of land plots between groups of land users and the consumption of material goods, directly connected with land. A special place in the theory of land relations is dependency between land relations and other kinds of social relations (power and subordination, commodity production, the development of the ethnos, the spatial location of production etc.).
The main goal of the theory of land relations is to show the interrelation and interdependence of the main components of this system. The theory of land relations allows work out strategy of development of these relations. Applied disciplines should solve tactical problems.
The practical value of theoretical knowledge about the system of land relations is that they not only provide the correct action (theoretical knowledge allow to predict how it will develop such relations in the future and why), but also allow for the subjects of land relations to avoid errors related to the incorrect positioning in relation to the running processes in the system of land relations. In particular, the theory of land relations gives an idea about a process how of regular or random and about unique characteristics of circumstances etc. This knowledge allows the parties to land relations adequately assess its role in such processes.
Development of the theory of land relations will significantly help to enrich those of sciences (economic, agricultural, social, technical, and others), which now are using various methods examine these relations (such sciences are studying of land relations with the various methodological approaches). This will be achieved by the developing for them a single logical-analytical theoretical basis and the disclosure such cause-effect relationships that go beyond the borders of existing sciences.
The theory of land relations has three interrelated functions: 1) cognitive (it explains the phenomena and processes in the system of land relations), 2) methodological (it provides the foundation for applied research of the various aspects of land relations) and 3) practical (it provides science-based regulation of land relations and the development of the state land policy).
The main tasks of this research areas are: 1) the study of regularity and trends in the system of land relations; 2) the scientific substantiation of prospects of their further development; 3) the analysis of optimal forms and methods of participation of the state in land relations and determination of ways of their improvement; 4) the methodological support of other sciences that study land relations and the achievement synergy of scientific conclusions and recommendations.
An important issue for systemization of knowledge within the framework of the new scientific direction is the question on its positioning in the current system clearly structured scientific directions. The theory of land relations is an integral part of science about land management.
The national system of land management’s has a long, exciting and challenging way [4, 5]. In the Soviet period, this system had a narrow and a broad understanding. In the first case it is the economic-technical and partly a legal event on optimization of land use through various surveys and planning decisions. In the second case (system of land management [6]) it is a complex of measures on implementation of the land policy [7]. The theory of land relations explores exactly system of land management.
Recently the substantial changes have occurred in land and property relations and related branches of science.
First, 1) the land cadaster disappeared, but the united cadaster of real estate is not a tool for the implementation of land policies. And now the technologies of such cadaster are not associated with the peculiarities of land as the main means of production; 2) the role of land management as a tool of agriculture activity was significant downplaying. In particular, recently the abandonment of territorial land management happened and the land plots ceased to be of objects of land use planning. Now the legislators discusses proposals to abolish the on-farm land use planning; 3) the new phenomena have emerged, for example, the land market which has to be regulated of state [8]; 4) the nonoptimality of some decisions which taken in recent years became apparent. For example, these decisions led to the irreversible elimination of agricultural land from the sphere of agricultural production or non-use of their; to the situation with unclaimed land shares; to the deterioration of the information support in agrarian sphere [9, 10].
Secondly, the reform of higher education and science has affected the structure of science. As a result, the existence of spatial land management as economic science was called into question. So, students-surveyors became technicians. From 2014 the graduate studies in this direction of science do not. However, the essence of land management is economic [11, 12].
Now the theory of land relations as a scientific direction emphasizes economic nature of land management. The presence of extreme directions is characteristic to economics. There are fundamental and applied research (for example, macro – and microeconomic). In land management such extreme directions are follows: 1) theory of land relations and 2) land use planning. Today, the land ecology, the land marketing and other directions of science are very important too.
Thus, the development of the theory of land relations as a scientific direction is not only necessary from the point of view of methodological support of the whole range of related applied sciences. But also it is a key economic component of science of land management, which the some scientists and managers mistakenly trying to present as a technical branch of knowledge.
References
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