Abstract: The subject of the study is the organizational model of local self-government introduced by Federal Law No. 8-FZ of February 3, 2015, which provides for the election of the head of the municipality by the representative body of the municipality from among the candidates submitted by the competition commission based on the results of the competition. The purpose of the work is to give a comprehensive assessment of the organizational model of the "competitive" head of the municipality and determine further prospects for its use, for which the tasks are set to consider the main features of the organizational model of the "competitive" head of local self–government and identify their strengths and weaknesses. In his work, the author relied on general scientific and private scientific research methods, namely: analysis, synthesis, historical method, modeling method, special legal method, etc.   The results of the study of the organizational model of the "competitive" head of the municipality revealed a number of significant shortcomings, on the basis of which the inexpediency of the widespread use of the model in question and the need for a selective approach depending on the type of a particular municipality is shown. The scientific novelty of the conducted research is due to objective factors of reality and consists in substantiating practical problems by the lack of theoretical development of the specified organizational model of local self-government. As a result, legislative solutions aimed at improving legal regulation in the field of organizational foundations of local self-government through the wider use of the institute of rotation are proposed.

Keywords: head of the local administration, competition commission, contest, representative body, subject of the Russian Federation, responsibility, control, requirements for the candidate, term of office, head of the municipality

Abstract: Protest mobilization is a complex multidimensional process, the implementation of which depends on a number of factors, both objective and subjective. Regular practices of large-scale demonstrations directed against the activities of state structures in various regions of the world, as well as an unprecedented decrease in the level of violence in the world, actualize issues related to the grounds of protest activity, as well as tools that characterize protest mobilization. In this regard, the subject of the study are the tools of protest political mobilization, and the purpose of the study, in turn, is to determine the boundaries of the use of violence and nonviolence as tools of protest mobilization. В В  Based on the principles of the theory of "adversarial politics" by C. Tilly to the analysis of violence and nonviolence in political activity, as well as using the analysis of current data on the practices of protest activity, the authors made a number of conclusions: 1) both violent and nonviolent instruments are rooted in the basis of protest activity, which are mixed within the framework of mass actions in various proportions; 2) violence is an integral part of mass protests, but the magnitude and intensity of violence is determined by the level of political dissatisfaction with the subjects of collective activity and the scale of the available resource base; 3) according to statistics, nonviolent forms of collective protest actions are more successful in realizing the stated goals of the subjects of mobilization.

Keywords: mass politics, protest performances, nonviolence, violence, political struggle, political protest, mobilization, protest, power, political conflict

Abstract: The subject of the study is the level of civic activity of Vologda Oblast residents in the public life of the region. The research is based on general scientific, interdisciplinary and private scientific methods. In the course of the study, an online questionnaire survey was used as a quantitative research method for data collection; data analysis methods used in the course of studying the subject of the study: statistical analysis, interpretation. The empirical part of the study presents the chi-square method, one-dimensional data distribution and correlation analysis. The methodological basis of the study was societal neo-institutionalism. The purpose of this study is to assess the level of civic activity of residents of the Vologda Oblast. Based on the conducted research and the theory considered, the following conclusions were drawn: the majority of respondents have a significant level of unrealized political activity, while they are distinguished by a fairly high level of readiness for mobilization within civil society, which can be implemented not only in the framework of constructive activities, but also destructive with the accumulation of unrealized political participation. Respondents showed a low level of participation in public life, which indicates incomplete realization of their mobilization potential, social capital is not used sufficiently. There is a connection between the level of knowledge of the authorities in the areas of responsibility of the LSG bodies and the assessment of their activities. Also, the level of knowledge of authority is related to the level of trust in the head of the municipality. Groups of respondents with this knowledge mostly trust the head and evaluate the work of the LSG bodies higher than do the groups of respondents who stated the lack of this knowledge. The civic activity of residents of the Vologda Oblast as a whole is characterized by high indicators of readiness to work in public organizations, but at the same time weak indicators of involvement in public life.

Keywords: political behavior, socio-political activity, protest activity, democratic institutions, civil society institutions, aerobatic research, MSU, Vologda region, Political participation, Civic engagement

Abstract: The subject of this research is the phenomenon of archaization of legal form, which is reflected multiple modern legal systems, including the legal system of modern Russia. The author believes that the state of current Russian legal order testifies to the downfall of one of the declared goals of Russia’s policy of the last three decades – establishment of the so-called rule of law; while the general academic theory of law has not yet formulated a precise understanding of the corresponding processes, as fearing to go beyond the scope of certain ideological boundaries, it first and foremost deals with the formally due than with actually essential. Archaization in the legal systems of modern countries is the revival of the forms of law, legal practice and legal consciousness that are inherent to the pre-capitalist societies. The thesis is substantiated that the process of archaization of law and legal form as a whole, should be considered as one of the objectively determined development patterns and functionality of the societies of dependent peripheral capitalism. The article reviews the objective prerequisites for this phenomenon: its conditionality by socioeconomic relations (preservation of the elements of other production methods in terms of peripheral capitalism), inequality in distribution of the key social resources, and specific social-class structure of the corresponding societies. The general definition of archaization of legal form acquires more precise contours when the author turns to the realities of modern Russian legal order.

Keywords: social inequality, legal consciousness, legal ideology, customary law, peripheral capitalism, capitalism, the rule of law, legal order, archaization of law, socialism

Abstract: The subject of this research is the  aggregate of philosophical ideas and methodological paradigms that underlie the concepts of the “first” legal (statist) positivism in England of the XIX century. The author traces the impact of certain philosophical trends and legal concepts of the XVIII – early XIX centuries upon the philosophical and methodological foundations of the positivist concepts of J. Bentham and J. Austin. The article describes the influence of social atomism, and exploratory rationality of Modern Age upon the “first” legal positivism of philosophical rationalism of the XVIII century. The impact of such philosophical and legal concepts as nominalism, the historical school of lawyers, and philosophical positivism of A. Comte upon the “first” legal positivism was reconstructed. The scientific novelty consists in reconstruction of the influence of an entire number of philosophical and legal ideas and concepts upon the development of “first” legal positivism. Correlation between the legal doctrine of J. Bentham, philosophical concepts of the XVIII century, and the legal teaching of T. Hobbes is underlined. The author draws the ideological parallels between the philosophical nominalism, logical paradox of D. Hume, and legal doctrines of J. Bentham and J. Austin. The author reveals the key “channels” of the impact of German Historical School upon legal positivism, describes the similarities and differences between the scientific positivism of A. Comte and the concepts of legal positivism of J. Bentham and J. Austin. The philosophical-methodological framework of the concepts of “first” legal positivism were subjected to a significant influence of the methodological paradigm of philosophical rationalism, social atomism, exploratory scientific rationality of Modern Age, and nominalism.

Keywords: Austin, Bentham, scentific positivism, historical school of law, investigative rationality, philosophical rationalism, philosophy of law, legal positivism, legal methodology, history of legal thought