For a long time the hierarchically arranged system of society was considered as the most progressive to regulate complex social processes. Sharp expansion of the transport system has allowed the state to strengthen as the leading political institution. The expansion carried with it the growth of bureaucracy control over the population thus displacing all other forms of social order. For a long time it was believed that only the state could provide society with social benefits and develop the best rational solution. This very aspect is being questioned by the author. The main disadvantage of the state is the need to bear the costs of a complex bureaucratic institutional system. Technical progress, the development of a network society offers some new tools to make collective decisions and create self-sufficient social benefits. Here the question arises: whether it is possible to do without the state under modern conditions?

For most of its history, mankind lived in a stateless society. Now, more than 100 million people of the world population are minimally affected by the state, both in the leading countries and in the hard-to-reach underdeveloped territories. Absence of the state has both disadvantages and advantages. In a stateless society, the risks of reducing the level of well-being are lowered in case there is sufficient social capital and groups are rationally chosen.

The article raises the questions of transforming the state as a social institution and redistributing its functions within the society. In addition, the author highlights possible perspectives for a stateless organization of society, and conditions for the sustainable existence of anarchy.

The article deals with the analysis of the impact of economic globalization on the progress of democratization “third wave” democratization. Basing on the economic and political statistics data the author makes attempt to reveal the nature of the impact of the liberalization of commodity, financial and industrial interactions within the global economic system on the level of culturally-based demand for political freedom as well as the level of its institutional offer in the countries of the “new democracy”.

The article focuses on the ambivalent effect which the process of involvement of the societies undergoing democratization into the global division have on their political culture. on the one hand, economic globalization, on the one hand, encourages spreading in mass conscience of secular and rational values that are manifested in the expansion of political participation. on the other hand, the majority of “the third wave” countries are held within the periphery and semi-periphery of the world economy. This situation contributed to preserving in their mass culture prevalence of survival values, shaping a limited demand for political freedom.

The author concludes that increasing competition in global markets makes the governments to cut down social expenses what in its turn provokes mass protest and lead the ruling elites of new democratic states to choosing a policy of limited institutional offer of political freedom. And this kind of policy means moving towards non-liberal form of democracy. 

The article describes the scope and potentialities of state regulation of such a specific social institution as a science. Through materials of the history of the Institute of the Red Professors (an educational institution founded after the Revolution of 1917 to prepare teaching and scientific personnel in social and economic disciplines for higher educational institutions) an example of the practical realization of one of the state projects in the 1920–1930s is explored. Investigating a wide range of unpublished documents, the author turns to the analysis of the staff of the Institute of Red Professors, clarifies the composition and specifics of the students and characterizes the financial and infrastructural support of its work. The research is based on the methods of social statistics, such as a unilinear statistic analysis of the teaching personnel of the Institute of Red Professors in 1937, using the «Statistical Package for the Social Sciences»; dynamic analysis of the academic movement of students of the Institute of the Red Professors in History for 1931–1937. The author comes to a conclusion that the state’s regulatory functions came into conflict with the everyday realities of the 1920s–1930s. So, the Institute of Red Professors did not become a successfully implemented state project.

The article reviews of state structure projects on territories, occupied by rebel Maya people during the Caste War of Yucatan. That war was the most eminent ethno-social conflict in Latin America of the 19th century and exerted a considerable influence on the development of Mexican state formation and interethnic relations inside the country. The author highlights the unique syncretic cult, that is, the Talking Crosses cult, which became a foundation for the military-theocratic political system of rebels. Based on the mixture of elements of indigenous beliefs, Christian rituals, and political and social practices of Maya people in the pre-Columbian and colonial eras, this phenomenon of state building makes much from an example of the mutual diffusion and perception of religious, cultural and political practices among the white and indigenous population in postcolonial Mexico.

The article focuses on the processes in Japan’s domestic politics that accompanied the preparation, signing, and ratification of the 1960 Japan–U.S. Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security. Using this case as an example, the following features of the foreign policy process in postwar Japan are demonstrated. First, key decisions were taken by a limited number of people, among whom the key role was played by Prime Minister Kishi Nobusuke and Foreign Minister Fujiyama Aiichiro, as well as the Foreign Ministry officials who assisted them. Second, the attempts of influential politicians from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and factions led by them to exert a decisive influence upon the Government’s foreign policy course had no result and were motivated mainly by these politicians’ striving to enhance their prestige and influence in the domestic political arena, rather than by their principled position regarding foreign policy issues. Third, the anti-Treaty protest movement initiated by opposition forces and various civil society organizations, while managing to mobilize a significant number of supporters, was still affected by contradictions amongst the forces that joined it. Ultimately, this movement also failed, not being able to prevent the signing and ratification of the Treaty, though it succeeded in bringing down the Kishi government that resigned due to the political crisis into which the protests escalated.

The article attempts to consider the religious and political conflict in Ukraine in the context of exercising the Russian “soft power” having been applied in the period of 1990–2017. The author analyzes the formats and strategies of the Russian “soft power” in Ukraine using means and potentialities of the Russian orthodox Church (RoC) and the Ukrainian orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UoC MP). The elements of Russian soft power with the use of the religious factor are fixed within the election companies of the Ukrainian President The author also analyzes the influence of the religious factor while forming and later articulating the “Russian world” conception as a tool of Russian soft power. He demonstrates an evolution of the “Russian world” discourse produced by the RoC and RoC MP from “integration” aimed at transforming the political reality to “protective” aimed at preserving the spiritual tradition and identifies four stages of the evolution of the Russian soft power in Ukraine with the use of the religious factor. The author concludes that there is no global project to implement the Russian soft power in Ukraine using the religious factor but there are some local situational projects that represent a response to a specific political challenge.

The author considers the actions of Kuwaiti authorities aimed at resisting the influence of radical ideas on the Kuwaiti society. They could produce an increase in the number of extremist organizations exercising terrorist methods. The author analyzes the state policy focused at supervising the actions of Islamic institutions and exploiting them to achieve the goals of Kuwaiti state. All Islamic institutions are acting under the guidance of the Ministry of Awkaf and Islamic Affairs. “Al Wasatya”, the Islamic doctrine, which was elaborated by Kuwaiti Ulama together with their foreign colleagues is based on the ideas of moderation and tolerance of Islam, is used by the state as its instrument of influence. The foundation of International Center of “Al Wasatya” and its branches in different countries has become a state task directed at making its contribution in the common struggle against Islamic extremism organizations.

Besides the article describes an activity Islamic banks, that proved their effectiveness and became reliable instrument for stabilizing economic situation in the period of economic crises and also Islamic organizations, which activity has no anti-state character.

The author considers the key components of the nation-state concept in the political development of the PRC as well as the way this idea emerged in the historical perspective.

In the 21st century, facing the numerous challenges from Western civilization, the Chinese government has opted for a special development path associated with the ideas of nationalism, the growing role of traditional Confucian thought and cultural-historical heritage.

Particular attention is paid to the concepts that consolidate the Chinese nation. The author considers main tools for the formation of national self-consciousness, analyzes the role of the language, culture and tradition in the political strategies of the country’s leadership. She also argues that the state-wide common standard of language and writing plays a leading role in the construction of a “nation-state” in the PRC.

The article also considers the specificity of the nation concept in the development model of China and the transformation of the national idea in the modern political discourse of the PRC. 

The authors aim to analyze the features of communication capital as a new element in the formation of the information elite among young people, the possibility of identifying the communicative potential through new technologies, based on modern ideas about human intellectual resources, and also the formation of a “profession code”. It is noted that the process of identifying the human communicative potential allows forming a new media environment of the future for the media city and state management system, since the changes in the communications of modern society modify not only the professional communicative field, creating new professions in it, but also alter the professional requirements for Existing professions, in particular in the field of PR and media communications. The relevance of the selected topic is obvious, because one of the most studied problems of the modern scientific community is communicative management and a media centered society that forms a request for informed development and informed education.

The authors note that the public space of the 21st century is no longer determined only by material structures, such as streets and squares. But it also is not determined exclusively by the virtual space of electronic media. Rather, public space is formed in the complex interaction of material and non-material spaces. These hybrid spaces in the literature were called “media cities”. The authors of the article believe that the new functions of public space and media cities require new personnel with different sets of competencies. The system of personnel selection that has been formed in an industrial society can not meet the requirements of a postindustrial society oriented toward knowledge.

The authors propose the idea of forming the so-called “code of professions” – a set of requirements for new professions, not averaged, as before, but as individualized as possible, in accordance with the requirements of the new economy. All this rises a the question arises of the possibility for identifying the makings of communication potential, which would increase the efficiency of training specialists in the future.

The article notes that the most important prerequisites for Russia’s successful transition to sustainable development are the formation, development and rational use of human potential within the chosen profession.

The article attempts to examine the studies of two eminent historiographers and identify the key features of their research. The importance of such research is to enhance the role of historical studies and historiography, as a special field of historical science in the system of state power and public interests.

Using the materials of the works of AA. Chernobaev “Historiography of the History of Russia” and L.P. Repina “Historical Science at the Turn of the Twentieth-21st Centuries” the author attempts to reveal features of historiographic studies carried out in view of the fact that historiography is not static, but is of interest in the case when it is studied as a process.

He concludes that the study of AA Chernobayev’s research is directed to the study in the socio-political nature of the historiographic process, so the emphasis is made on external factors affecting historiographers, whereas the study of L.P. Repina is devoted to the features of research intellectualism, which indicates of an emphasis on the internal specifics of researchers.

The author of the article also tries to answer the question: “What is the difference between bibliographic work and that of historiography?” This conclusion can help researchers dealing with the issues of history and historical science to avoid the substitution of these concepts.