SUMMARIES

N. V. Anokhina, Ye. Yu. Meleshkina. - The Proportional Electoral System and Dangers of Presidentialism: the Russian Case.

In December, 2007, Russia will be for the first time electing Parliament according to the proportional system, with a number of other innovations of the electoral legislation to be applied. What may these innovations mean for the country? Will the proportional principles promote further democratization of Russia, or will they favour conservation of the established power configuration? The authors of the article try to answer these questions by turning to some examples of application of proportional and mixed electoral systems under the conditions of presidential or mixed forms of rule with a powerful president, and by analyzing the effects of the Russian variant of mixed system.

A. A. Dmitriyenko. - Attitude of the Pre-Revolutionary Peasantry toward the State Duma (With the Vyatskaya Province as Example).

The subject of the article is the problem of comprehension by the Russian peasantry, of the electoral legislation due to the appearance of the pre-Revolutionary State Duma. Classification is presented of both the appraisals on this score and the behavioural reactions on the part of the Vyatskaya Province peasants. The conclusion has been made that the Vyatskaya Province villagers perceived the role of the State Duma after their own fashion: according to the opinion they adopted, it had for its mission first of all to solve their economic problems.

Yu. S. Pivovarov. - The Sources and the Essence of the Russian Revolution.

The article presents a broad panorama of the development of the Russian Revolution in a comparativist context and poses the problem of the structural dimension of this grandiose historical drama. The author proves that the Russian Revolution is a much more profound, larger-scale and more complex phenomenon than the Russian communism. In his opinion, the bolshevist revolution was a more complex historical phenomenon than the Emancipation revolution and the Community ones. No doubt, in Russia, an anthropological catastrophe took place in the century that has just passed, the Russian twentieth century turned out the result of the Revolution that sustained utter defeat. The losers were all: the people, the intelligentsia, the priesthood, the elites etc. The author makes the conclusion that, unfortunately, Russian society doesn't want to understand it, and this means that the bolshevist revolution is still going on.

A. F. Ivanov, S. V. Ustimenko. - Autocratic Democracy: Dualistic Character of the Russian State System.

The policy of building the power vertical pursued by President V. Putin has led to systemic paraconstitutional construction. As a result, in the Russian political arrangement, paradoxical coexistence is to be observed of institutions originating from two opposite political principles - that of division of powers and that of autocracy. Restoration of autocratic institutions presents itself not only as the answer to the demand of effectiveness of the political regime, but also as a manifestation of Russian political tradition. Its most ruinous effect is caused to the institutions of representation. Nomenclature comes to the place of the elections, and the multiparty system turns into a political cartel.

K. V. Podyachev. - The Institution of Citizens' Addresses to Government Bodies and Transformation of the Russian Political System: Possibilities of Emergence of a New Channel of Political Influence

In this article, the subject of analysis from the positions of political science is the institution of citizens' addresses to government bodies, which presents a unique phenomenon belonging at one and the same time to the sphere of state (public) power and to the sphere of non-political (civil) society. It is due to the described peculiar nature of theirs that citizens' addresses are able to serve as a significant connecting link between "political" and "civil" reality, which is especially important under the conditions of the weakening influence of electoral mechanisms. Development of the institution in question may become a significant element of the search for the Russian way to public policy.

A. V. Pavlov, S. A. Sidorkin. - "The Simpsons" as Phenomenon of Ideology and Policy.

In the article, the authors investigate the political and the ideological components of the animated cartoon serial "The Simpsons" that enjoys vast popularity all over the world, Russia being no exception. The interest of philosophers and political researchers for the animated cartoon serial which has proved a significant cultural phenomenon that has influenced the values and convictions of a whole generation, is quite understandable. The authors analyze the outer political context in which the serial exists, and they are also seeking to make out what political values it has in itself. They come to the conclusion that "The Simpsons" present a distinctive expression of the neoliberal ideology of late 20th century capitalism, one of the manifestations of which is the culture of postmodernism.

A. A. Nikiforov. - Revolution as Subject of Theoretical Treatment: the Sub-Discipline's Progress and Dilemmas.

The importance of the problem of revolution is due to the new cases of the phenomenon and to the insufficient inquiry of the problem within the Russian scholarly community. The article defines the place of the issue of revolution within contemporary social and political science abroad and in Russia. The author focuses on the fundamental theoretical approaches to this problem. The review and analysis of the theoretical concepts are presented in the historical and intellectual context of their formation. In conclusion, the author outlines the prospects of the development of the issue of revolution by defining the possible ways of integrating the discussed sub-discipline in political science.

V. I. Pantin. - Russia's Political Self-Determination in the Modern World: the Main Factors, Tendencies, Prospects.

The article analyzes problems related to processes of Russia's political self-determination in the modern world, as well as internal and external factors influencing these processes. As is demonstrated, the choice by Russian society and by its political elite, of the general direction of internal development and of foreign policy is to a great extent determined by such factors as the system of basic values, social and political institutions, correlation of forces between different centers of political force, e. a. In this connection, the tendency now observed, of Russia's keeping certain distance from the USA and the European Union, is not by chance. It is determined both by essential differences in the systems of basic values and orientations and by quickly changing statuses of this or that state or states in the modern world. At the same time, the article contains a forecast of probable voluntary or involuntary rapprochement of the positions of Russia and of the countries of the West in the period of 2012 to 2020. This rapprochement will be most likely conditioned by China's strengthening, by degradation of controllability in the system of international relations, by the situation in the Middle East becoming more unstable, and by other factors.

V. V. Pasynkova. - "Successor Parties", Trade Unions and the State in Russia and in Countries of Central and Eastern Europe: Modelling of the Relationships.

In the article, the author undertakes to consider in theoretical aspects the relationships between the post-Communist institutions with common Communist legacy, i.e. between the former Communist parties (successor parties), the trade unions and the state. In the general form, the successor parties, the trade unions and the state are presented as interrelated participants of post-Communist transformations. More particularly, two models of the relationships between the successor parties, the trade unions and the state have been distinguished in post-Communist Russia and in Central and Eastern Europe, and in order to illustrate the models, analysis of the cases of Russia, of Poland, and of Hungary has been carried out.

V. F. Artyushkin. - Regional Conflicts and the Process of Price Formation in the World Oil Market.

In the article, the author takes up to consider processes determining price formation in the world oil market. A statistically verified mathematical model is offered, that allows to single out those changes of the world demand that are caused by the specific nature of the market. Probable causes are discussed, of the discrepancy between the model calculations, on the one hand, and the real state of the market, on the other. The search for explanations is realized with the application of political event analysis covering the past thirty years. Some theses are formulated in the article that make it possible to work out principles of price forecasting with both economic and political processes taken into account.

M. V. Ilyin. - Conceptual Homonymy: Constitutions and Regimes. Generations of Constitutions.

The journal is opening a new section - "Ideas for Further Cultivation" in order to attract the attention of the political science community, of politicians and citizens to ideas that need development and clearer and more consistent conceptualization by our political scientists. M. V. Ilyin, a notable political scientist, who has a relish for analysis at the level of concepts, has suggested to the journal two ideas which involve uncommon comprehension of the nature of constitutions and of regimes, as well as distinguishing generations, or orders, of constitutions. The author destroys the conceptual homonymy of the terms "constitution" and "regime", and so doing, he proceeds from the assumption that constitution presupposes fixation of invariable characteristics of modern political organization, whereas regime fixes variable characteristics of modern political organization.

Ya. A. Plyays. - Political Parties Construction in Russia: Analysis of Dissertation Researches by Russian Political Scientists.

Quite a considerable number of Candidate and Doctor dissertations on the party themes have been defended for the incomplete 20 years that have passed since the official recognition in our country of political science. What is reflected in them is, on the whole, the real, very contradictory process of parties construction in Russia and of the formation of a new party system both at the federal at the regional levels. The author of this scientific review thoroughly analyzes the basic conclusions of a whole number of theses defended since the beginning of the current century and considering general questions and concrete aspects of the Russian legislation on parties, stages of parties construction, typology of contemporary Russian parties, Russian "power parties", the crisis of modern political parties, parties' electoral activities.

O. Yu. Malinova. - How the Impossible Proves Possible: a Glance at the Perestroika Taken Twenty Years Later.

The work is a review of the book by a well-known British political scientist and historian Archie Brown "Seven Years That Changed the World" issued lately by the Oxford University Press and having for its subject analysis of the political history of the USSR of

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1985 to 1991. According to Brown's conception, the perestroika began as a reform, but shaped as systemic transformation, for it led to the change of all the key characteristics of the communist system. The main question the author of the book is concerned with is how did changes turn out possible in an extremely authoritarian system whose existence had lasted for about 70 years and which had more than once stood the trial of its durability? How did it happen that it proved at all possible to begin them - one would think, in defiance of "theory"? He sees the main reason that induced the beginning of the changes, in the "subjective factor", for in consolidated authoritarian systems, peaceful transformation can be started up only "from above". Therefore A. Brown's attention is concentrated mainly on the activities of M. S. Gorbachev and other members of the top party leadership. At the same time he attaches great significance to the appearance in the power structures, as well as in expert institutions that assisted the party leadership, of people disposed in favour of changes.

I. S. Semenenko. - Social Inequality in the Mirror of Public Policy.

"Social Inequality and Public Policy" is a research realized and published by experts of the Gorbachev Foundation and of the Russian Academy of Sciences. It is focused on the social differentiation of Russian society and on its reflection in public policy. The authors of the monograph reviewed in the work presented here, dwell thoroughly on the economic content of inequality, present system analysis of the inequality problem in the context of development, substantiate the concepts of "normal" and "redundant" inequality. Recommendations are formulated for overcoming the "redundant" level of inequality, within the framework of the socio-economic policy of the state and of initiatives in the sphere of corporative social responsibility. The results are published, of a complex sociological research related to the attitude of Russian society toward the problems of inequality. Special attention in the review is given also to non-economic factors of inequality, to its territorial dimension and to prospects of social consolidation and development in the context of the world experience.

V. M. Yurchenko. - The South of Russia as the Object of Complex Socio-Political Analysis.

This work is a review of 'The Atlas of Socio-Political Problems, Threats and Risks of the South of Russia', compiled by scientists of the Southern Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, under the supervision of Academician G. G. Matishov. As the author of the review points out, the research reviewed is characterized by systemic and complex quality of the presented analysis of the situation in the Southern federal district and in some neighbouring territories. The attempt made by the authors of the Atlas, to evaluate in its complexity and to present in the clearest and most visual form (i.e. graphically, too) the situation in the Southern federal district and neighbouring territories, is not only timely and useful for the scientific community, but also crucially important for political parties, deputies, managers, journalists, and for the public.