Articles

This article discusses the main criteria and attributes of the modern information society. In the fi rst part of the article the author shows that the dynamics of social changes increase after the acceleration of technological progress; in the most dynamically developing information societies, moreover, characteristic phases of conceptualization, institutionalization and implementation can be identifi ed. We are on the threshold of an innovation avalanche, the author continues, which will increasingly infl uence the political process, public administration and socio-political activities. In this connection, seven major megatrends and technological drivers will set the further direction of the development of the information society and the fourth industrial revolution. On the one hand, these megatrends still seem abstract and “piecemeal.” On the other hand, they become the basis for practical applications and developments, attracting signifi cant investments. For example, once such innovations as photography, the telephone, television were also exclusive and accessible to a limited number of people; but eventually the cheapening of technologies contributed to their ubiquitous and large-scale distribution. The author comes to the conclusion that the concept of the information society in part brings about a kind of political program that aff ects both national states and the entire world community.

A round table devoted to the analysis of ways to achieve civil harmony in various socio-historical conditions was recently staged by the Department of Political Science at Lomonosov Moscow State University as part of the department’s “Lomonosov Readings-2017” conference. The purpose of the round table was to discuss possible trajectories of the preservation of civil peace in phases of confl ict and harmony under a complex ideological situation that features, at the present stage of development of society and the state, the segmentation of public discourse and the absence of a common language. The round table demonstrated that the study of citizenship – as both a phenomenon connecting history, politics and culture, and at the same time as a particular kind of socio-political practice — entails a rather wide range of methodological approaches. Within the framework of the round table, this issue was discussed in aspects of confl ict and harmony, including material from various periods of the history of Russia, as well as in the contexts of historical memory, in the perspective of the problem of constructing a civil nation-state, of a common civil identity and of schismatic disruption — all of which fi nd refl ection in discussions of topical issues on the Russian Internet and in Russia’s media space.

Partisan governments play an important role in the elaboration of macroeconomic policies of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries: they manage fiscal policy and coordinate with a Central Bank that conducts monetary policy. Ideology is a crucial parameter of the ruling coalition. This study focuses on the infl uence of the ideology of the ruling coalition on macroeconomic policies of the OECD countries. Using statistical methods, the analysis examines the relationship between the “rightism” of the ruling coalition and such characteristics of budgetary policy as budget balancing, state expenditures and tax collection. The fi ndings show that the infl uence of ideology is determined by a set of social and economic factors, so the nature of the infl uence that ideology wields may work in diff erent directions depending on the conditions.

The purpose of this article is to identify political factors in the institutionalization of the civil service in Russia at the present stage, the problems associated with them and the prospects for overcoming them. The study demonstrates the applicability of institutional theories of public service; the author proposes a model of institutionalization of the civil service (which is examined in the light of recent reform experience in an appendix) and attempts to identify the roots of existing problems, in the end proposing options for their rectifi cation.
This study bears out the assertion that modern dysfunctions of the civil service have been largely determined by a non-optimal institutional choice made in the early 1990s. The design of civil service reforms is carried out by a narrow circle of the politico-bureaucratic elite, which contributes to the long-term preservation of the institutionalization of the civil service in an unfi nished stage. The more time that passes after the beginning of political transition in Russia, the more the dependence on the previous stage of development increases and the incomplete reform of the bureaucracy leads to increasing political and socioeconomic costs. The political factors for a successful continuation of the institutionalization of the civil service are its integration into the strategic course of the country’s president; provision of support for reform among the civil servants themselves; and the implementation of a one-stage reform permitting the attainment of the goal within a single presidential cycle.

This article examines the defi nition of political risk using the example of the Eurasian integration of the Republic of Armenia. The authors analyze the typology of the main political risks and their genesis in the current context, highlighting a wide variety of political risk factors and their subject-object relations. These create certain diffi culties, but at the same time open new opportunities for study. According to the authors, analysis of political risk may be in demand when optimizing Eurasian integration strategy via updated concepts of “multi-speed,” “asymmetric” and “flexible” integration.

In May 2017 a research project on Russian citizens’ perceptions of the former Soviet republics was presented at a round table held by the Department of Sociology and Psychology of Politics of the Faculty of Political Science of Lomonosov Moscow State University. The three main topics of discussion were: problems of perception of the states of the post-Soviet space; comparative analysis of the images of these countries; and factors that infl uence the formation of images of states in the mass political consciousness. As the discussion showed, the perception of other countries refl ects, fi rst of all, the psychological state of one’s own society: as the positive assessments of one’s own country grow, the assessments of other countries become more positive as well. The study showed a very low awareness of neighboring countries among the respondents. Maximum emotional response among them was elicited by Ukraine and Belarus. Further, in the images of all the post-Soviet countries, a marked contradiction between the positive assessments of the peoples and the negative assessments of the authorities of these countries was observed.