Universalism and uniqueness in contemporary soft power strategies

The author analyses the principles and regularities of the competition of soft power strategies of different states as an actual problem of comparative politics. The article addresses the question of determining principles and key elements of competing soft power strategies in the system of international relations, which is of current interest in comparative political science. As a methodological foundation of the analysis is used the H. Hotelling’s law of spatial competition and its political implications, formulated by A. Downs. The author examines two contrasting tendencies: drift of the content and strategies of soft power of different states towards unification and convergence of communicated values and standards or on the contrary increase of ideological and value polarization in the wake of escalating international and global tensions. The principles and rules of spatial competition of H. Hotelling and A. Downs have been applied for typology of national strategies of soft power to evaluate their effectiveness and segmentation of potential audience for maximum impact. It was concluded that, due to the polymodality and civilizational diversity of the world, universalist soft-power projects today can only have limited success, with significant costs and reputational losses, while attracting value-close countries and pushing away the others. This division provides the basis for the international clustering by interests and values

"China" as an Analytical Concept: A New Beginning for Chinese Political Science

The emergence in recent years of a large number of institutional concepts in the world of Chinese political science indicates that Chinese political science is experiencing an "internal shift" that is different from the complete Westernization of the past. Chinese political scientists are seeking theoretical explanations for China's political development based on China's internal context and are looking to provide intellectual arguments for China's modern state building. In this paper, it is proposed that the core of this internal shift of Chinese political science is the consciousness of "China" as an analytical concept, and that China is not only an object of description, but also an analytical perspective for explaining "what is China". Such a view is different from that held by the European and American left and pure traditional researchers or reactionists. On the one hand, this paradigm provides more universal political knowledge in the sense of comparative political science; on the other hand, it can advance Chinese political research by drawing a clearer and more accurate knowledge map of Chinese politics. The emergence of institutional concepts in Chinese political science implies that Chinese political science as a discipline is increasingly moving from the "form" of discipline establishment to the "content" of "what is China". This signifies a real new beginning.

Video games as a screen-interactive platform of historical media education: educational potential and risks of politicization

Screen culture today, absorbing verbal-narrative and written culture, is the dominant memorial-representative format for the reproduction, preservation and broadcast of cultural information. Among the varieties of screen culture, since the beginning of the 21st century, video games have become especially popular and widespread. They possess unique interactive-procedural qualities, which, together with the traditional grammar of screen narrative, create an original complex of rhetorical techniques that effectively influence the mass public consciousness. In turn, the plot and visual design of video games is often based on historical narratives, becoming a platform for virtual interactive reconstruction of history. The study is devoted to the up-to-date topic of analyzing the on-screen phenomenon of video games as an innovative platform for historical media education, identifying its educational potential and the risks of political distortion of history. The methodological basis of the study is cultural-civilizational, dialectical and historical approaches, as well as structural-functional analysis, comparative-political science approach and systemic method. The study made it possible to identify a wide range of historical video games and classify the modalities of the implementation of historical topics in them with its general educational potential. In addition, the fundamental deconstructive nature of the actualization of the historical metanarrative in the procedural-interactive architectonics of video games has been determined. Finally, three main strategies for distorting and falsifying history in video games have been revealed. According to the results of the study, it was revealed that almost every significant cultural and historical era, with an emphasis on military battle plots, is reflected in the video game format. These game projects have serious educational potential, procedurally immersing the gamer in the context of the main historical facts, cultural aesthetics of the era and internal determinants of historical dynamics. At the same time, the postmodern essence of video games has been established, which poses a threat to the invariance of the perception of history, latently encouraging the intentions to rewrite it. Other risks are contained in the identified examples of politicization of the historical narrative of video games, which are concretized in the tendency to belittle the role of Russia in the international arena and the Eurocentric value accentuation.

The Arab Spring

The Arab world’s resilient autocracies are a central puzzle in the comparative politics of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). But just as the Arab Spring was a critical juncture for MENA regimes, the popular uprisings that began in 2010 and 2011 also reoriented the study of MENA politics toward questions of social justice, redistribution, and inequality. Protesters, activists, and opposition groups articulated clear demands that aimed to dismantle systemic inequalities of political and economic opportunity after decades of failed neoliberal policies and cronyism. Identity groups and geographies conventionally considered peripheral to the study of MENA politics now featured as prime movers and arenas of contestation. This annotated bibliography focuses explicitly on these themes and their application to the study of the Arab Spring in comparative political science. The resources included in this guide fall under three main categories. The first grouping includes general and case-specific accounts of the Arab Spring. This includes not only zeitgeist cases like Tunisia and Egypt, but also those where the rapid spread of the Arab Spring forced changes to politics “as usual.” This includes second-wave cases like Sudan and Algeria, where protest movements coalesced several years following the Jasmine Revolution. The second category considers how structure and agency factor into analyses of regime strategy, contentious politics, political economy, the military, and political Islam. Third, the bibliography highlights the identity politics of the Arab Spring, including youth, minority populations, and gender.

Political activism in social media (e.g. of Moscow, Ekaterinburg and Shies)

The purpose of the research is to study the practice of its manifestation in the modern political process of Russia, in particular in Moscow, Yekaterinburg and Shies, based on the analysis of scientific ideas about political activism in social networks. The main methods in the work are the comparative political science approach, case-study and content analysis. The analysis of recent political events shows that modern online technologies and forms of civic participation are gaining great importance in political discourse. With the advent of the Internet, the approach to an audience in the media space and the forms of interaction have changed. There are spontaneous emergence of Internet activism in Russia and the growth of its influence which were described. The role of the Internet in activating citizenship was examined, the main channels / Internet platforms (YouTube, telegram channels, etc.) and their functions in Internet activism were highlighted. It is argued that online activism and subsequent offline actions were shaped by network structures as unique events open to any participant. A study of political protest actions in recent years shows that, at this stage of the developing civil society in Russia, Internet activism, which has consolidated various segments of the locals around solving political issues, contributes to civil mobilization and raises awareness of protests. In some cases, the agenda in the Russian media can be formed mainly due to the activation of the masses in the digital environment. It is concluded that in the short term because of the growing dissatisfaction with conventional forms of political participation, the confrontation between authorities and society in the Internet can create a new political reality in Russia. Protest actions organized using the Internet, previously not frequent, have become very common in Russian politics in recent years. The practical significance of the work lies in the area that the results of the study make a certain contribution to development of the theoretical base of researches on Internet activism.

Kōmeitō: The Party and Its Place in Japanese Politics

This chapter surveys the history, operation in coalition, support base, and key policies of Kōmeitō (the Clean Government Party). It begins with an overview of party typologies and argues that Kōmeitō is not easily placed in any comparative political science category. The chapter then delves into the party’s history, detailing its origins in 1964 as an outgrowth from Sōka Gakkai, an influential Japanese lay Buddhist organization. It discusses Kōmeitō’s increasing institutional disaggregation from Sōka Gakkai after its formal separation in 1970, its role in changing Japan’s political system in the 1990s, and its entrée into governmental coalition with the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from 1999. The analysis extends to the present and draws on elections data, party publications, interviews with Kōmeitō politicians, ethnography within Sōka Gakkai, and other sources to track ways the party has relied on Gakkai vote-gatherers to secure a pivotal position within Japanese politics, even as its adherent supporters have become increasingly diverse and liable to critique the party their religion founded. It concludes by considering challenges Kōmeitō faces from within Sōka Gakkai, from the LDP, and from Japan’s demographic, political, and societal shifts.

THE ROLE OF THE STATE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION: PROSPECTS FOR THE INTEGRATION OF TWO THEORIES

The article is devoted to the study of the state's role in the development of technological innovations. In scientific literature, scientific and technological progress has long been recognized as the most important engine of economic development. However, there are economic and political forces that tend to oppose innovative development and create barriers. The study of the conditions that promote or hinder the development of technological innovation has become one of the mainstream trends in comparative political science. Nevertheless, the constant comprehension of the above-described problem has not yet been completed, and moreover, has led to some contradictions that still remain unresolved. The article analyzes two seemingly competing theoretical approaches to explaining the state's role in the development of technological innovations from the perspective of institutional theory and the theory of "agency relations". The author comes to the conclusion that the two theories do not contradict each other but describe “different” dimensions of the problem. While the institutional perspective emphasizes the resource advantage provided by state ownership, the theory of “agency relations” emphasizes the double agency problem with the allocation and use of resources. Both theoretical logics provide powerful arguments, and therefore, their traditional opposition reduces the explanatory power of each.

Tools and Means to Facilitate Understanding of TVET Models in Developing Countries

The topic is to bridge concepts from Western international and comparative TVET research with TVET development in developing countries. The main aim is to offer a concept to facilitate the understanding of the often diverse TVET models in developing countries. In the conceptual approach, the authors will rely (1) on two typologies of TVET models, as these allow a comparison to be made, while at the same time permissibly simplifying the complex characteristics of TVET. Both are selected from the long-standing scientific discourse in international comparative science. One from the more German background of comparative TVET research and the other from the comparative political science. (2) In order to understand the context deeper, they use the concept of work culture. After the explication, they give an outline of findings from a case research within the Egyptian construction industry and then show the prospects and the limits for this conceptual approach.