Abstract: Currently, the majority of political leaders and practical executives claim rationality as a universal, generally accepted language of communication between the subjects involved into the political process. Political rationality underlies the formation of the diverse cognitive constructs that reveal the nature of development of the political realm. The basic categories and concepts of the originally emerged classical ideology of liberalism have been grounded on the principles of rationalism. The article examines the precise rational principles that formed the ideology of early liberalism. Analysis of the problem of rational in the indicated ideology is conducted on the basis of the historical-genetic approach, in combination with the principle of contextualization. This allows viewing the establishment of ideological trend under the influence of sociopolitical, cultural and intellectual context of the covered timeframe. The scientific novelty lies in determination and analysis of the problem of rational in classical political ideology of liberalism. The achieved results will be helpful; in further research of the transformation of rational principles, as well as analysis of the modern political realm regarding the possibility of application of classical liberal ideological concepts and categories.

Keywords: utilitarianism, reason, liberty, individualism, age of Enlightenment, rationality, ideology, liberalism, progress, French revolution

Abstract: The subject of this research is the shift in the role of cities in postindustrial era. The author believes that the cities experience inner transformation losing the traditional functionality, generated by the industrial era. Most importantly, city ceases to be a confined “place” with internal structure and differentiation based on the industrial production. It is state that the cities, which existed as industrial centers due to the industrial revolution, have depleted their development potential. This leads to the emergence of cities that lose their urban concept, becoming the urban spaces with the open and constantly expanding boundaries. The research is conducted on the basis of structural-functional analysis, comparing the functionality of industrial cities with the modern megacities. The author comes to a conclusion that city as an industrial project has exhausted itself. The largest cities become the centers of postindustrial world, holding a special place in the “flow” of commodities, workforce, capitals, and information. The development of a modern city leads to the long-term social and political changes. An industrial city in its classical type pales into periphery of social development and turns into a “suburb” of postindustrial society.

Keywords: social community, agglomeration, metropolis, social relations, post-industrial society, industrial era, city, nation, globalization, mobility

Abstract: The subject of this research is the social practices implemented in Soviet planning and the prospects of their application in modern Russia. Planned economy was one of the paramount achievements of the XX century. It allowed avoiding a number of negative social occurrences, such as unemployment and social inequality. However, namely planning was proclaimed the cause of dissolution of the Soviet Union, which justified an unambiguously negative attitude to such management approach in both, academic and administrative environments. At the same time, the Western economic literature does not have a definite assessment, which encourages considering the prospects for implementation of this practice once again. Methodological base includes the systemic method for ensuring a comprehensive analysis of planning as a management technique and social practice; the problematic-chronological methods identifies the transformation trends of this technique. The article provides information on the origin and evolution of the Soviet-type economic planning. It is underlined that the political leaders used this technique for their purpose, setting the unattainable tasks and using economic failures to find and blame the “enemies”. The conduced analysis demonstrates that the cause of inefficiency of planning as a management technique was technocracy, formalism and social indifference. Thus, the system of planning under the modern circumstance must develop as a method of coordination of the citizens’ needs and interests of government administration.  

Keywords: practice of management, planning, Soviet history, social needs, public administration, planning economy, social practices of interaction, social development, social transformation, social engineering

Abstract: This research is dedicated to examination of the role of social networks in electoral process of modern Russia. The author also reviews the factors that substantiate the effectiveness of using social networks in electoral campaigns. A conclusion is made that the activity in social networks does not have a strong effect on the voting results. Partially, it is due to the deficit of qualified specialists in the area of political advertising in social networks; or an improper choice of promotion platform. Among the main unsolved problems are the following: low users’ trust in the traditional political parties and their representatives; high level of fragmentation of Internet community; and comparatively weak connection between its separate segments. It seems important for the political party or a separate politician to structure their activity in accordance with the challenges of surrounding reality, skilfully form and promote their image using the existing opportunities of relevant technologies, especially information, which reflection is the Internet and the system of its interactive services.

Keywords: presidential elections, contemporary Russia, electoral process, election campaign, elections, social networks, State Duma, political parties, politician, civil society

Abstract: This article is dedicated to the analysis of historical prerequisites of modernization processes in the Chinese Republic – Taiwan; identification of the positive and negative sides of modernization in this country. Special attention is given to the specificity of the role of intellectual capital in modernization processes, peculiarities of Chinese traditionalism and other aspects that are relevant in formation of sociocultural strategy of modernization of the societies of post-Soviet space. The subject of this research is the strategy of implementation of Confucianism into the processes of establishment of the new state by the President Chiang Kai-shek. The object is the determination of innovative catch-up modernization model. The innovative advancing, innovative catch-up, or imitative catch-up vector of modernization is defined with the help of the specifically developed sociocultural methodology. The core of sociocultural strategy is the priority of human factor and his social interests in the state, rather that the economic or other indexes. The scientific novelty lies in demonstration of the positive and negative ides of modernization in Taiwan, as well a suggestion of the idea of creating circumstances for transformation of the innovative borrowing strategy into innovative advancing. The research is conducted for the purpose of tracing of the examples of modernization of various countries of the world and their institutionalization in the post-Soviet countries. Having analyzed separate aspects of the development of Taiwan society, the author concludes that the positive and rational-constructive factors of modernization prevailed the negative and destructive. The research results can help in comprehension of practical experiences of modernization of the post-Soviet societies, as well as determination of improvement of development prospects of Taiwan.

Keywords: traditionalism, modification, adaptation, central area of culture, Modernization, human factor, sociocultural doctrine of the states, loan, socialization, intellectual capital

Abstract: This article demonstrates the process of evolution of social work in the Sakha Republic (Yakutia). The content of social work is revealed through the main development trends of the system of social services of population in the Sakha Republic (Yakutia). The author conducts a theoretical overview of social work applicable to a separate region with its territorial peculiarities – low population density, isolation of rural localities from the center of the republic, which influences the extent of exercising the social rights of the citizens residing in remote districts of the republic. The author reviews the role of social policy of the government in advancement of social work and nongovernmental forms of social services. The theoretical-methodological foundation includes the institutional and systemic approaches; the empirical base is the results pf questionnaire survey and statistical analysis. The analysis of development trends of social work in the northern region is presented within the framework of the course of government social policy, particularly, the involvement of nongovernmental organizations into rendering social services. The research materials may be practically valuable for the specialist and educators in the area of social policy and social work.

Keywords: non-state noncommercial organizations, social organization, social help, social service, social policy, region, social worker, social work, society, state

Abstract: The subject of this research is the political orientations of Moscow student youth, which manifest as the factors of inclusion of young people into the sociopolitical processes. The object is the student youth of the capital – those, who most likely will join the ranks of the political, economic and cultural elite of the country. The author describes in detail the key theoretical approaches towards studying the political orientations and social attitudes of the youth in foreign and national literature. Special attention is given to the research results of political activeness and social landmarks of the young people in various countries: United Kingdom, United States, China, and Russia. The dependence of the political views and activeness of the youth from their social environment is determined. The empirical base for this work served the online survey conducted among the university students of Moscow (n=384); methodological foundation includes the approaches of G. Almond and S. Verba: the identification of cognitive, affective and value levels of political orientations of the youth. The scientific novelty lies in the empirical proof that the capital students are characterized by the low interests in politics, weak political activeness, loyalty to the government, and low level of protest moods. Among the ideological-political orientations prevails the adherence to the principles of social justice, while the free market principles share less than a quarter of the respondents.

Keywords: patriotism, political participation, ideological attitudes, political orientations, Moscow, youth, students, trust in power, protest moods, youth policy

Abstract: The object of this article is the implicit cognitive processes; the subject is the methodology of application of implicit cognitivistics in political science. The goal of this work consists in conceptualization of the research method of the cognitive-ideological matrices using the scientific approaches of implicit cognitivistics. Analysis of the theories of implicit cognitivistics and narratology from the classical to postclassical allows generalizing the methodology of research of the implicit phenomena and processes, as well as assess its heuristic potential and restrictions in application. Special attention is given to the insufficiently studies, both in Russia and abroad, topic of the implicit cognitive processes in the subject field of the political science. The provided original methods of research of the implicit cognitive processes were examined from the perspective of their possible use in the area of studying ideologies. The result of the work became the conceptualization of the new integral approach based on the implicit-cognitivist and narrative methodology that allows operationalizing the concept of “cognitive-ideological matrices”, and the assessment of its potential application in the political practice. The acquired scientific results are valuable in the area of studying the ideological identity, determination and quantification of its individual and group characteristics, as well as the analysis of attitudes and political orientations of various actors, based on the subjective perception of social and political phenomena and processes.

Keywords: implicit association test, Narrative Policy Framework, attitudes, ideology, cognitive-ideological matrix, implicit cognitivistics, explicit cognitivistics, narratology, modeling of cognitive processes, ideological identity

Abstract: The question of preparation of scientific personnel in modern Russian is especially relevant for overcoming the established in the late XX – early XX century negative trends in educational and academic sphere, as well as strengthening the scientific-technological sovereignty. This implies the expansion of the sphere of application of research work in various economic branches and formation of the sustainable layer of highly qualified specialists involved in research and development activities. Particular attention is given to the specificity of preparation of researchers in university. Based on the results of representative sociological survey, the author analyzes the motives, opportunities and limitations of participation of the students and post-graduates in scientific research. The theoretical-methodological base contains a set of regulations focused on the correlation between various aspects of research activities, including its material, social, psychological, communicative and other aspects. It is demonstrated that despite the positive changes of the recent years, an entire set of problems impeding the inflow and consolidation of youth in the research and development sphere remains unresolved. A conclusion is made that with the professional growth, young researchers give more significance to the social aspects of their activity, which must be considered in the course of preparation of research personnel, as well as development and implementation of scientific policy.

Keywords: research skills, scientific research, research projects, higher school, training, researchers, sociology of science, sociology of education, students, sociological surveys