Moscow University Bulletin. Series 12. Political Science. 2022. 4.

The article is devoted to the problem of conceptualizing the concepts of “stateness” and “state sovereignty”, revealing the structure of the factors of stateness and the essence of state sovereignty. The study is based on a system-organic vision of the nature, existence and development of the state as a single and integral sociopolitical organism, and not as a state machine. It is shown that the socio-political organism of the state can be considered as an autopoietic system capable of its own reproduction.
The identification of the factors of stateness and the essence of sovereignty by the author is based on the achievements of modern researchers of the problem, on the causal methodology of Aristotelian organicism and the doctrine of the essence of Hegel, which made it possible to determine the structure and meaning of the four grounds-factors (aitions), to reveal the essence of state sovereignty. As a result, within the framework of the teleological approach, the acting, ideal, material and target factors are formulated as key aspects of statehood that determine the statics and dynamics of the existence and development of the state.
The presence of autopoietic properties of the state made it possible to propose a relational model of the socio-historical process of state life, in which three, mutually conditioned, organic functions, in a causally closed loop, cyclically provide the metabolism (self-maintenance) of state, self-restoration of stateness and selfreproduction of state power.

Contemporary public administration systems in Europe, including those in countries with a unitary form of government, have undergone significant changes over the past forty years. The general trend towards decentralization affects all spheres of society, from the environment and the quality of governance to economic growth and the well-being of citizens. In the countries of the European Union, decentralization takes various forms, in some cases contributing to the efficiency of the public sector, democratization and political stability, but at the same time creating serious problems in the way of reform and ensuring equal access of citizens to social benefits.
Political decentralization in unitary states is the result of complex political processes within these countries. Unitary states today are placed in such conditions when the central authorities are forced to conduct a political dialogue with regional authorities and make all sorts of compromises in order not only to prevent conflicts, but also to avoid the possible collapse of the country. The result of this dialogue is the partial transfer of some powers to the regions, which can transfer the process of decentralization of unitary states into the category of federalization and lead to a change in the form of statehood and the general political landscape when it comes to Europe as a whole.

The article presents the results of a study of the communicative image of two constituent entities of the Russian Federation (Moscow and Primorsky Krai), as well as the images of their heads in the mass consciousness of residents. The results were obtained in the course of an analysis of federal and regional media, as well as a survey of citizens. The communicative image of each region was described according to the developed model by the following indicators: improving the living environment, organizing points of attraction for citizens, infrastructure; attractiveness for investments, large companies, brands; the strategic importance of the region for the State; adequate availability of jobs and employment. The same indicators were used as the basis for the developed questionnaire.
The study revealed that the subject’s communicative image is not always a key factor in the perception of its head. In the case when the communicative image of the region is built in relation to the leader, the latter experiences his positive influence, while the negative aspects of the leader’s perception do not affect the image of the region (Moscow case). In the case when the policy of forming the communicative image of the subject and its leader are not connected with each other, the regional factor practically has no effect, and the negative aspects of the leader’s perception reduce the level of attractiveness of the image of the region (the case of Primorsky Krai).

The article focuses on the process of forming the frame of Kaliningrad region in local, Russian and foreign media. The goal was to determine the features of regional construct at different positioning levels. As a result of the frame analysis, the strengths and weaknesses of the positioning of the exclave were identified.
The author notes from the point of view of internal political framing a dangerous situation, characterized by the formation of a centrifugal tendency in regional media. In the Russian media, a special role is assigned to the federal center, which is able to protect the Kaliningrad region from possible aggression. In turn, foreign media outlets note the colossal development of the military industry in the region, which puts in the frame a high degree of militarization. The results of the study made it possible not only to theoretically generalize the features of the created constructs, but also to give recommendations to the authorities of the regional and federal levels in order to correct errors in the Kaliningrad region’s positioning strategy.

The article presents the results of a study of the political and psychologica characteristics of youth political leaders as a special group in the structure of the modern Russian political class. The research sample includes more than 60 subjects corresponding to the category of ‘youth political leader’ by age and by the specifics of their career trajectory (having experience of participating in youth projects before “entering” the political class). The variability of the values of the studied features made it possible to draw conclusions about the typical characteristics of youth political leadership in modern Russia as a special phenomenon providing for the normativity of certain ideas and attitudes related to the subject’s attitude to politics, the current public agenda and the perception of their place and role in the political system. Thus, as a result of the study, a collective political and psychological profile of youth political leaders as a specific social group has been compiled.

The article presents the results of an applied political research devoted to the implementation of the manipulative effect of search engines (SEME) during the election campaign in 2021 in Russia. SEME is a technology for influencing a wide audience, aimed at transforming behavioral effects and shaping public opinion through changes in the issuance of digital search engines. The order of issue, as well as the tone of the results, can significantly influence the attitude of undecided users and their subsequent electoral choice. According to the results of the study, a number of manipulations in the nature of search results were recorded, associated with an increase in negative coverage of the electoral process, election results and the state of the party system, achieved through the active dissemination of materials from foreign information resources.

The political protests that took place in the Republic of Belarus in 2020 once again brought to the fore a number of issues related to political communication in a network society and the information sovereignty of the nation state. In this paper, on the basis of mathematical and political analysis, the dynamics of the processes under study is considered, taking into account the influence from the external environment on the network subsystem of political communication. As part of the study, methodological tools were tested for analyzing the political role of social media. A combination of methods of political and social analysis, content analysis of social networks (for registration and monitoring of protest activity) and mathematical modeling methods based on nonlinear dynamics were used. The author uses a model of social activity developed by the authors, based on diffusion equations (Langevin equations, in particular), reflecting the information and communication interactions of individuals in society on the example of the Republic of Belarus. One of the main parameters of the model is the coefficient of social activity, the change of which can be indicative from the point of view of analyzing the state of society in the context of ongoing social conflicts. The simulation results are compared with real data of protest activity (based on data in social networks) in Belarus in 2020.