Articles

The author examines the historical evolution of the process of autonomization in Russia and the political mechanisms that contribute to the emergence of autonomies. It is noted that the process of forming autonomies in Russia has been developing for many centuries, it continued after the revolution of 1917, already in the system of cardinal transformation of the internal state structure, and with some changes it was preserved by the beginning of the 21th century. The study of the historical prerequisites for the emergence of autonomies is particularly in demand in the context of the need to unite the country, actively improve the forms of statehood and implement effective national policy.
The emergence of autonomies in Russia throughout its history is associated with the constant increment of state lands, with the intensive or extensive expansion of the state, with the diversity of national characteristics of their population. However, despite the fact that the autonomies in Russia in most cases were voluntarily attached to the Center and had some degree of independence, these territories did not violate the principle of unity of the vast empire due to their subordinate position. At the same time, granting partial autonomy to certain regions of the Russian Empire did not contradict the principle of the integrity and indivisibility of the country as a single political entity and was culturally, economically and politically expedient.

The article offers an assessment of the process of self-organization of communities and the formation of their living space through the use of grad models (civitas, cités), consideration of the practices of strategic and tactical symbolic construction of the reality of localities (cities). The urgency of the problem is dictated by the need to understand the mechanisms of self-organization of communities in the context of the processes of the Western model of globalization, the implementation of resource flows outside the regulatory administrative boundaries of territories, the development of information and communication capabilities of interested participation. An attempt is made to explain the processes of self-organization of communities and the construction of space in the vector of development and maximization using theoretical models of rent-orientation, as well as the justification of the integrating political platform of the civitas is proposed. Examples of interaction of civitas as models of justification of justice and legitimacy, their synthesis as conditions for obtaining a competitive advantage of individual and collective actors of the political processes of the city are considered. In modern conditions, the dominance of the Market civitas as a universal platform for community self-organization and organization of physical, communicative, symbolic spaces is noted. An approach is proposed to determine the status of a full-fledged subject of the community and the nature of its positioning in space by analyzing the application of political practices of objectification, the organization of structured personal and public spaces of vital activity. In the context of self-organization, the article touches on the mechanisms of interested individual and group exploration of space, the use of the “name — define — involve” algorithm. The practices of self-organization of local communities and the formation of spaces using a symbolic resource and a complex of other intangible and material resources are considered. The study also touched upon the problem of the foundations of citizenship in modern communities, the circumstances of the use of inclusion and exclusion practices by communities.

The subject of the essay is the main stages of the historical past of French civilization, in the depths of which the political mentality of the ruling elites was formed. In the beginning, the authors consider the mental and civilizational results of the five hundred years of Romanization of Gaul as a province of the Roman Empire. The role of Christian proselytism in the formation of the monotheistic mentality and the political role of the Church of Gaul are revealed. The thesis about the mental heritage of the Roman Empire in the conditions of its collapse and the formation of the foundations of an original Christian nation is revealed. Then there is the convergence of the Roman and barbarian social structures of the Frankish Empire, as a result of which a monotheistic mental space was formed and Catholicism became the state religion. The conclusion is made about the historical and mental-political significance of chivalry. In the next section, the authors turned to the philosophical, theological and scientific heritage of the enlighteners of the Middle Ages and the New Age, who influenced the development of the political mentality of the French elites. The separate part of the essay examines the influence of the French Renaissance on the ruling elites, who, having mastered the mental models of the Italian Renaissance, began to build their national identity on their basis. The centuries-old theological and political nature of French political power in the Renaissance was transformed into a subject-pragmatic one. For the first time in the political history of Europe, politics was separated from religion. Christian dogmas as the basic mental attitudes of the elites gave way to the semantic primacy of secular principles of existence. During the period of absolutism, on the soil cultivated by the Renaissance, anti-absolutist and anti-clerical mental and political attitudes were formed in the elite environment, which determined the nature of the revolutionary events of the 18th-19th centuries. During the period of the Consulate and the First Empire, Napoleon I, seeking to ensure the economic dominance of the Empire and its military superiority over the countries of the continent, pursued a policy of mental reconstruction of the elite in order to create a new nobility. In the course of the analysis, the authors reveal the dialectical nature of the mental dynamics of the French elites.

Combating corruption in rapidly developing countries is one of the key directions of state policy. Despite decades of research, no universal approach has been proposed that can guarantee a minimum level of abuse of power for personal gain. Governments of countries, considering successful experiences, have to develop unique management approaches to address this issue, taking into account the specific political system, sociocultural characteristics, and dynamics of economic development. The goal of this article is to trace the evolution of anti-corruption policies in China. The study has demonstrated that the party leadership promptly changed approaches to combating corruption, in line with the changing forms and scales of corruption, understanding its origins and causes at different stages of the country’s development. China has a zero tolerance policy towards any manifestations of corruption and is actively combating abuses in government agencies. China’s current anti-corruption policy in the territory uses coercive instruments.

This article examines several issues related to Hungary, the personality and management style of its leader Viktor Orban, and the policies pursued by this European country towards migrants and refugees. Hungary is a state whose migration policy over the past years has been at odds with the European mainstream. This is largely due to the views of Orban himself. For him, the issue of migration is central, axial in his worldview. This course is perceived differently: the Hungarian Prime Minister has both supporters and opponents. In the scientific research literature one can also find polar assessments. At the same time, Orban is a significant figure for the study of migrant discourse, and his policies obviously strive to be framed in a new eclectic ideology. The Prime Minister of Hungary continues to pursue his course, maneuvering between various forces and interest groups — potential allies from other states, opponents from the European liberal establishment, his own electorate, and voters of other Hungarian parties.

The article examines the problems of the current state of Russian-Turkish relations through the analysis of the theoretical and methodological apparatus of neo-Ottomanism (new Ottomanism) as a foreign policy tradition, which, from the author’s point of view, today occupies one of the leading places in the foreign policy course of the current government of R.T. Erdogan. The complexity and uncertainty of this phenomenon require the use of specialized analysis methods: a system-structural analysis of the foreign policy of states (developed by the corresponding MGIMO school), a scientific approach within the framework of FPA (foreign policy analysis), separate tools for analyzing the strategic culture and foreign policy institutions of Ankara (according to the methodology of G. Almond and S. Verba). According to the author, for the current foreign policy of Ankara, the tradition of neo-Ottomanism is system-forming due to its ideological saturation of the initial ideological foundation. At the same time, the ambiguity of its interpretations lays down an expansive interpretation of Turkey’s foreign policy behavior in the international arena, which is fraught with problems and conflicts for Moscow’s foreign policy in realizing its interests in areas of international politics that cross Ankara.

The formation and functioning of various models of the world order has a deep and complex history that does not fit into the traditional chronologically consistent scheme, and these models themselves did not inherit each other, but were combined in varying degrees of harmony. The dynamics of international relations, at least in the medium term, will be determined by the trends observed over the past decades — such as inequality in the levels of economic development, the redistribution of shares of world wealth, the rivalry for global dominance between the United States, gradually losing its position as sole leader, China, Russia and other global players, and finally, the search for new tools balancing the global status quo.
Expansion geopolitics will also remain the dominant trend in the short- to medium-term perspective. One of its striking manifestations is the Belt — Road Initiative, implemented by the PRC. Expansion geopolitics seems to get start most intensively in West Africa. The region, on the one hand, needs large infrastructure investments, on the other hand, — has a number of advantages that could create a production and logistics hub in it, the starting point of a project similar to the Chinese Belt — Road initiative.

This article raises questions related to the political interpretation of A.I. Solzhenitsyn. It is demonstrated that Solzhenitsyn’s work in this aspect can be described as a political and philosophical legitimation of the project of “conservative modernity”. The main plot dominant in Solzhenitsyn’s reflections is the political and philosophical criticism of Western secularism and its political consequences. Secularism is described by Solzhenitsyn as a “perversion” of the Christian idea, in this respect Bolshevism and Western liberalism are equated with each other, embodying the radical features of the Western modernist project. The main question that worries Solzhenitsyn: how is modernity possible, in which the basic Christian principles and rules are preserved and developed? The solution to this issue is connected with the political implementation of this project — the construction of a conservative version of democracy, in which the observance of human rights and the construction of a rule of law state is based on Christian, not secular values.

This article presents the stages of politicization of Russian literature in the era of the Great Reforms. The first stage is the end of the reign of Nicholas I (1848–1855), the second is the period of preparation for the Great Reforms (1855–1861), the third is the period of the Great Reforms (1861–1866), the fourth is the period of the end of the Great Reforms (1866–1881). The first period can be characterized as the period of the emergence of political literature, as yet without a pronounced social ideal. Censorship increased during this period, but important features of the liberal ideal were articulated in the literature. The second period was characterized by the weakening of censorship, the emergence of a number of new newspapers and magazines. Then literary criticism begins to play an important social role and the maximum politicization of the literary process takes place. At the same time, a patriarchal social ideal was formulated in a number of works of art. The third period was distinguished by the fact that raznochintsy authors began to play an important role in literature. This led to the emergence of opposing parties of “nihilists” and “anti-nihilists”, as well as to the emergence of the phenomenon of the anti-nihilist novel. First half of 1860 became the time of the formation of a social ideal of raznochintsy. The fourth period can be characterized as a period of reflection on the results of the Great Reforms, as a time for writers to rethink their views and develop new ideas about the social ideal.

The change in the relationship between the state and science is clearly manifested at the present time (we are talking about a slowdown in the growth of funding and a change in its principles, precarious employment in science, the prevalence of technoscience, etc.). After presenting the most characteristic features, the article discusses what these changes are related to and how objective they are. Based on the analysis of statistical data and strategic documents of a number of states, the reasons for the ongoing transformation are revealed. It is emphasized that its risks have been presented in many futuristic concepts representing scenarios for the development of society (from the knowledge society to transhumanism), but have not received due attention. It is concluded that we are witnessing a transition from the classical model of the relationship between science and the state, which emerged during the scientific and technological revolution of the twentieth century, to a new model characterized primarily by the expansion of the number of stakeholders, the creation of new forms of innovative research organization, networking and internationalization of scientific research, new techniques for evaluating and stimulating scientific activity, expertise of scientific projects, including public.