The article analyses the ideological basis and key results for social policy in modern Russia. According to the author, social policy in Russia is based primarily on the identification of a dignified life (quality of life) and material well-being, "principle of seepage", human capital theory. Argued that social policy in Russia is not able to achieve significant improvement in the quality of life of large segments of the population because resistant reproduces the high levels of poverty, inequalities in income and distribution wealth. The author believes that the theoretical basis for improving social policies in Russia could be the concept of human development.