Security Services: A Leading Sector of the “New Economy”?

Private firms and individual agents that provide security and detective services to people have always existed regardless of government power and its military and/or police units. However the demand for such services quickly declined as industrial society emerged, within which a certain degree of social homogeneity was achieved. The centralized state security industry provided greater "economies of scale" and the wealthy "welfare states" were fairly secure. The situation began to change at the turn of the 1970s – 1980s. During the next “industrial revolution” paradoxically brought to life the processes of deindustrialization and a reduction in the share of people employed in industry in rich Western countries contrary to its name “industrial”. The same economic process led to a split in the ruling elite in the USSR, where citizens could only turn to the police and state security agencies for security and detective services. Progressive democratic discourse shaped the reality of the late 1980s, in which the demand for private security services was driven by a surge in crime during the collapse of the totalitarian socialist state. With the transition to a market economy based on private property, the demand for such services would have to fall sharply. On the contrary, within the framework of structuralist discourse, the demand for the services of global security organizations in Russia is part of a general trend associated with the transition to the post-industrial society. The public official assessment of the security services market in Russia in 2022 will be 120 billion rubles. This value seems to be somewhat underestimated. When recalculating the real market volume in 2022, it was about 2 trillion rubles. On the contrary, within the framework of structuralist discourse, the demand for the services of private security organizations in Russia is part of a global trend associated with the transition to a post-industrial society. The public official assessment of the security services market in Russia in 2022 amounted to 120 billion rubles. This estimate seems extremely underestimated. When recalculated, the real market size in 2022 was about 2 trillion rubles. The emergence of a new economy is associated with the destruction of the “welfare state”, which began half a century ago and to which rich societies are unlikely to be able to return. One should take into account such features of the structure of the new economy as positional consumption, a sharp increase in social heterogeneity, and the undermining of the state’s monopoly not only on violence, but also on the emission of money. In these conditions, the security services sector appears to be one of the most important economic activities both now and in the near future.