PROFESSOR VICTOR PETROVICH SALNIKOV IS 75 YEARS OLD!

The paper is dedicated to the 75th anniversary of Victor Petrovich Salnikov, doctor of law, professor, academician, Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation, Honorary Officer of the Internal Affairs Bodies, long-term member of the Expert Council of the Higher Attestation Commission, former head of the St. Petersburg University of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, retired police lieutenant general, editor-in-chief of the journal «Legal Science: History and the Presence». V.P. Salnikov is known not only in our country, but also abroad as one of the largest Russian theorists of state and law. His works devoted to the problems of legal culture attract the attention of a huge number of researchers around the world. The purpose of the paper is to emphasize the contribution of Professor V.P. Salnikov to domestic legal science. At the same time, one of the proof of the invaluable contribution of V.P. Salnikov to science is not only his own work, but also the works of his students, including a large number of academics and heads of government bodies. Methods: in the process of preparing the paper, various scientific research methods are used, among which the method of historical narration is the main one. Results: 75 years of life spent in constant scientific research for V.P. Salnikov proved successful and fruitful. The scientist celebrates his glorious anniversary in good health, with many creative plans and great optimism.

Social and institutional presence of the Heads of Government of the Americas on Social Media

This article examined the personal profiles of the Heads of Government of countries in South/North America and how they communicated with their audiences on institutional measures to contain COVID-19. Analyses were carried out on data collected from Twitter from November-2019 to November-2020. This study includes: i)quantitative analysis, measuring categories and emphases in the communication of tweets, retweets, likes, and comments on matters relevant to the pandemic; ii)qualitative analysis that allowed evaluating speeches to identify political interference and the effectiveness of communication at critical moments of the pandemic. It was possible to infer that each president has his singularities and understanding about Social Media’s use as a more direct communication tool with his audience. It was also found that successful communication is not directly proportional to the volume of messages on Twitter, but to socio-political aspects and institutional leadership that can make a difference in Social Media in combating COVID-19.

The murder of Ken Saro-Wiwa

Ken Wiwa heard of his father's execution in November 1995 while he was in New Zealand, as part of his campaign against the Nigerian government's planned judicial murder of his father and eight other Ogoni leaders. The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting was due to be held in Auckland the following week. At the time of his death Saro-Wiwa was the leader of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), which sought to challenge the situation whereby a community which had contributed to the exchequer an estimated $30 billion in oil revenue found itself without basic amenities, living in a wretched environment, and being daily assaulted by oil exploration. He had accused Shell Oil company, which had a very close relationship with the Nigerian government, of 'waging an ecological war against the Ogoni'. After the executions, Nigeria was roundly condemned by international leaders, as was Shell itself.

A Comparative Corpus-Based Content Analysis of Head of Government Addresses in Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic: Japan and Western Countries

Addresses made by heads of government reflect their views and opinions. This article presents a quantitative content analysis of public addresses made by heads of government of the five countries, namely Japan, the USA, New Zealand, Germany, and Slovenia, which were done in response to the novel coronavirus (Covid-19). Word frequency analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis were used to identify the content specifics of these addresses. The comparative analysis of speeches concerning the novel coronavirus enables us to determine how these addresses reflect the speakers’ perspectives and political orientation and what they attempted to convey to the public.

Building a Model for Financial Management of Digital Technologies in the Areas of Combinatorial Effects

The race of states for digital leadership faces the challenges of digital transformation foresight, providing combinatorial effects and acceleration of digitalization processes, contributing to a more efficient allocation of limited financial resources. This situation determines the relevance of the authors’ study, which aims to develop an appropriate model for the allocation of funds for digital technologies. The methodology of the study is based on the concepts of technological modes and cyclical development of the economy. The paper presents the authors’ definition of the concept “digital space,” which is new to Russian scientific literature. The key research method is mathematical modeling. The scientific novelty of the paper is chronological architectonics of digital transformations, built by the authors, and the model of distribution of financing under the investment constraints due to the trust limit of the society institutions, the time of fluctuations of the system of technological adaptation, and the response of the institutional environment to the digital limits of the transformations. The practical significance of the proposed models is the identified tandem interconnected digital technologies of the areas of combinatorial effects that accelerate the dynamics of Industry 4.0, as well as the resulting tools for the effective management of digital technology financing. The obtained theoretical and empirical results are desirable for the heads of government agencies, foundations, corporations, and development agencies, as well as enterprises interested in accelerating digital transformation and increasing strategic competitiveness in the digital space.

When character forges the crisis: Personality traits of world leaders and differential policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic

The rapidly growing scholarship on the COVID-19 crisis has focused on a variety of macro-level factors to understand government policy responses. The current study addresses an important gap in this line of research by evaluating the extent to which government leaders’ personality traits have led to divergent policy responses during the pandemic. To do so, we use data from the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker initiative (OxCGRT) to measure differences in both the speed and magnitude of these responses across countries and NEGex, a dataset that maps the personality traits of current heads of government (presidents or prime ministers) in 61 countries. Our results show that personality matters. We find that world leaders scoring high on “plasticity” (extraversion, openness) provide a stronger overall response, as well as a more rapid response in terms of financial relief. Whereas, leaders scoring high on “stability” (conscientiousness, agreeableness, emotional stability) offer both a quicker and stronger financial relief response. Our findings underscore the need to account for the personality of decision-makers when exploring policy decisions taken during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as during other crisis situations.

When character forges the crisis: Personality traits of world leaders and differential policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic

The rapidly growing scholarship on the COVID-19 crisis has focused on a variety of macro-level factors to understand government policy responses. The current study addresses an important gap in this line of research by evaluating the extent to which government leaders’ personality traits have led to divergent policy responses during the pandemic. To do so, we use data from the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker initiative to measure differences in both the speed and magnitude of these responses across countries and NEGex, a dataset that maps the personality traits of current heads of government (presidents or prime ministers) in 61 countries. Our results show that personality matters. We find that world leaders scoring high on “plasticity” (extraversion, openness) provide a stronger overall response, as well as a more rapid response in terms of financial relief. Whereas, leaders scoring high on “stability” (conscientiousness, agreeableness, emotional stability) offer both a quicker and stronger financial relief response. Our findings underscore the need to account for the personality of decision-makers when exploring policy decisions taken during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as during other crisis situations.