Moscow University Bulletin. Series 12. Political Science

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The Problem of Conceptualization of Informal Institutions: the Case of Lobbying

Moscow University Bulletin. Series 12. Political Science. 2016. p.54-66

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450

The problem of studying informal institutions of power has existed as long as political relations have, but only in the last quarter-century has this problem begun
to reach the level of scholarly conceptualization. Informal institutions of power exist well beyond the borders of developing states; they are an integral part of the
political process of both Western countries and modern supranational political structures. This article is devoted to the problem of linkage between of the theory of informal institutions and lobbyism, an issue not widely treated in the Russian political science. The activities of interest groups are a key element of the functioning
of modern political systems, including in Russia, but only in a small number of countries does the interaction of interest groups and authorities take the form of a
formal institution. Drawing on the approach of American authors Gretchen Helmke and Stephen Levitsky, the article attempts to analyze the relationship between the
formal and informal aspects of the institution of lobbying.

Democratic Values In Contemporary Russian Society

Moscow University Bulletin. Series 12. Political Science. 2016. p.20–33

Selezneva A.V.

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708

This article is devoted to the analysis of democratic values in contemporary Russian society. It is based on data from the research project Political Values and their Perception in Modern Russian Society, conducted by the Department of Sociology and Psychology of Politics of the Faculty of Political Science of Moscow State University in 2013–2016. The theoretical and methodological basis of the research was the political-psychological approach.
The author discusses the hierarchy of democratic values in the minds of current citizens, paying particular attention to the socio-demographic factors (gender, age, education, region of residence) and party affi liations that determine citizens’ democratic orientation.
As a result of the analysis, the author reaches the conclusion that democratic values in Russian society are suffi ciently well understood and determine the citizens’ ideas that the democratic type of social structure is the best — the optimal variant. At the heart of a democratic society should be the values of freedom, human rights, legality and a strong state, the author concludes.

Keywords: democracy, democratic values, political psychology, mass consciousness, gender, age, education, region of residence, party affi liation.

Economic War Against Russia: Who Is Behind The New Coldwar?

Moscow University Bulletin. Series 12. Political Science. 2016. p.7–19

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328

After the collapse of the USSR the new geopolitical order seemed to have buried the Cold War forever. The Cold War concept is part of international relations, so it is necessary to study its modern form since the end of World War II. Although the USA is now the only superpower, the USSR was a hegemonic power in a bipolar World and Russia remains still a power. Geopolitical interests in the Mediterranean Sea, the crisis in Ukraine and the NATO approaching Russia’s borders have triggered a new version of the Cold War that should have a short life. The 2008 war between Russia and Georgia and the recovery of Crimea have shown the power of Russia in the region and the instability in the Middle East should encourage cooperation, not confrontation. There is no room for sanctions and retaliations.

Keywords: Geopolitics; Truman Doctrine; NATO; Marshall Plan; Ukraine; Crimea; Sanctions; Retaliation

Punishment By Penance In 18th-century Russia: Churchpractices In The Service Of The Secular State

Moscow University Bulletin. Series 12. Political Science. 2016. p.87-111

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268

This study focuses on the process by which the state actively came to rely on church practices, especially penance, and religion-oriented values in prosecuting serious felonies committed by lay people in Russia in the second half of the 18th century. This trend - strongly evidenced in legislation, ofﬁcial pronouncements and declarations, judicial proceedings and sentences - was conditioned by a great many factors. The spectrum of punishment for serious crimes was signiﬁcantly curtailed during the age of Enlightenment: the nobility, the upper two guilds of merchants, “eminent citizens,” and members of the clerical estate were exempted from corporal punishment. In addition, a moratorium on capital punishment, secretly introduced by Elizabeth in 1741, was conﬁrmed in these years. Addressing the topic of the humanization of criminal law promises to help scholars reinterpret such important conceptual problems as the relationship between church and state; mechanisms of social control; the role of the monarch’s personality in shaping government policy; and the compatibility, as contemporaries perceived it, between God’s commandments and state law.

Keywords: secularization; moratorium on capital punishment; church practices; sacralization of the monarch; social control

Conceptual Modeling Of The Chinese Politicalmentality (part 2)

Moscow University Bulletin. Series 12. Political Science. 2016. p.64-86

Rakityanskiy N.M.

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381

In this second part of their article the authors examine the particularities of power in the Chinese ritualistic society, it impersonalism, the mental capacity of the political community and the problems of its modernization. The article concludes that beginning in the second half of the 20th century, China sought for the ﬁrst time in its history to combine adaptive-imitative and reproductive-utilitarian tradition with the realization of a subjective role, adapting and repeating the lessons of the achievements of the Soviet Union and copying the principles of economy, the turnover of political elites and standards of consumer civilization from referenced subjects of the West. Keeping the basics of Chinese identity, taking from outside and calculating mental models, the Chinese Communist Party is organizing the construction of a bourgeois society on borrowed models. In the 21st century the Chinese mentality, with its pragmatism, orientation towards material beneﬁts, Sino-centrism and arrogance is not producing innovation and does not offer the world civilizational alternatives, creative ideas, cultural landmarks, philosophical meanings or images of a desirable future.

Keywords: mentality; history; tradition; ritual; Sino-centrism; polytheism; Confucianism; Taoism; Buddhism; legalism; adaptive imitating; reproductive; utilitarian; legitimation; adoption; reproduction

Decentralization: The Evolution Of The Concept’s Interpretation

Moscow University Bulletin. Series 12. Political Science. 2016. p.50-63

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248

This article examines decentralization in its historical and political context. The main objective is to analyze the evolution of the concept in the light of changes in various institutional design forms. The emergence of the decentralized system of management in France, aimed at engaging citizens in the political process and political decision-making while expanding their political rights, led to the creation of a new form of the political organization of power. A review of the historical and geopolitical context highlights three stages in interpreting the concept of decentralization: as self-governance on the local level, as a regionalization incentive and as a multidimensional concept that includes both the encouragement of self- governance and the redistribution of powers between different levels of government in the political, administrative and ﬁnancial-economic arenas.

Keywords: decentralization; delegation; redistribution; self-governance; evolution; historical context

Political Mobilization In Ethnic Conflicts

Moscow University Bulletin. Series 12. Political Science. 2016. p.39-47

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322

This article considers approaches to the notion of “ethnopolitical conﬂict” as such have developed in scholarship outside Russia. The author addresses the content of the politicization of the ethnicity process, the complex of causes of ethno-political conﬂict, the dynamics of the deployment of mobilization processes and the system of resources that promotes the achievement of goals (the concept of “structure of political opportunities” advanced by Charles Tilly and Sidney Tarrow). There are two major factors that play the role of mobilization “constraints”: an objective time factor - ethnopolitical orientations can dominate in mass attitudes and the people's views for a short period, as a rule, mainly during the exacerbation of intergroup relations - and a subjective factor, characterizing the willingness of political elites to achieve a compromise; the active use of ethno-political rhetoric by political parties, primarily in electoral confrontation; the marginalization of ethnic elites; and the adequate and timely application of conﬂict confrontation resolution technologies.

Keywords: political mobilization; ethnic conflict; politicization of ethnicity

Countering Violent Extremism In The Global Information Space: Views And Trends

Moscow University Bulletin. Series 12. Political Science. 2016. p.21-36

Karasev P.A.

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301

In this article, the authors address the problem of countering violent extremism in the global information space. Special attention is paid to the analysis of approaches by international organizations - including the UN, the European Union, BRICS and others - to the solution of this problem. The article compares the approaches of the US and the Russian Federation to the problem of countering violent extremism online, evaluating their efﬁciency and prospects for the future. The authors conclude that there can be no alternative to international cooperation in countering violent extremism and terrorism in the global information space.

Keywords: UN; information space; international information security; countering violent extremism; Internet; social media

Analysys Of Aproaches To Energy Security Studies In Political Realism

Moscow University Bulletin. Series 12. Political Science. 2016. p.7-20

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307

The article analyzes different theoretical approaches in energy security studies within the theory of political realism/neo-realism. The author notes that the modern trends in realism (offensive, defensive, neoclassical) expand the understanding of energy security from the point of view of a state’s foreign policy and have a number of advantages in assessment of common problems of the national and international security. For political realism material resources are at the same time both the purpose, and the means instrument of expansion of power of the state. Energy resources create an opportunity for a sate to expand its power, sphere of inﬂuence, to strengthen its ﬁnancial and economic potential. In the article it is emphasized that representatives of neo-realism argue that the existing high dependence in world economy on oil and gas is connected with risks of violence. Armed conﬂicts and collisions doesn’t stop also at the local level when military aspects of energy security are determined by struggle for the rent received from export of energy resource. At the same time these modern neo-realist trends limit ours comprehension of a state behavior and behavior of other actors on the international scene.

Keywords: energy security; international security; energy recourses; state; national interests

Topical Issues Of The History Of Socio-political Doctrines And Political Textual Study: Materials From A Moscow University Round Table

Moscow University Bulletin. Series 12. Political Science. 2016. p.91-127

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260

This article presents materials from the round table “Topical Issues of the His- tory of Socio-political Doctrines and Political Textual Study” hosted by the Program on the History of Social and Political Doctrines in the Department of Political Sci- ence at Lomonosov Moscow State University on the occasion of the program's 45th anniversary. Participants discussed the speciﬁcs of the history of the relationship of socio-political doctrines and political textual study, methodological problems in the area of scholarly knowledge and the ﬁeld's development as an academic discipline. The discussion was attended by K.M. Anderson, O.Yu. Boitsova, A.A. Gorokhov, A.A. Zotkin, I.A. Kozikov, N.P. Martynenko, A.V. Myrikova, S.V. Perevesentsev, B.A. Prokudin, O.E. Puchnina, A.A. Chanyshev and A.A. Shirinyants. Reports given by the speakers can be divided into several main sections: the place and role of the political textual study in the system of political science; political textual study as scholarship and an academic discipline in the Program on the History of Social and Political Doctrines; and working with texts in the framework of the course “The History of Socio-Political Thought.” The last section is presented with a historical and political science analysis of selected speciﬁc texts.

Keywords: history of socio-political doctrines; text; political textual study; political and textual analysis

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