The articles of the monograph were collected on initiative of Institute of Economics of Russian Academy of Sciences (Ural branch), while organizing the Russian-German scientific seminar on transformation and modernization problems of the two countries economy. We see significant structural changes of social, political and economic nature after the fall of the Berlin Wall in Germany and after the collapse of the Soviet Union in Russia.The main task for Germany today is not to lose its «leading position» in international competition, while Russia's entry to the global market was followed by a long-lasting social crisis of a transitional economy. In this regard, the review of the driving forces of development, that could provide a proper level of social protection in countries with traditional social orientation today, is objectively required.