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This article provides an applied analysis of the social network technologies used by Western IT-companies to exert a direct or indirect influence on political processes. The study focuses on a set of tools that were employed to shape the media landscape during the 2020 presidential election campaign in the United States. Overall, the empirical observations suggest that the largest networking services (such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, YouTube, etc.) more or less contributed to the success of the Democratic candidate.Having studied the relevant U.S. experience, the authors identify a set of manipulative techniques used by social network administrators to form specific electoral attitudes among users. These include blocking accounts; setting up search algorithms to produce pre-programmed results; labeling ideologically objectionable materials as "fake", "untrustworthy", "manipulative" and "potentially dangerous"; automatically recommending certain materials for viewing; and removing or pessimizing unwanted content.Seeking to expand their own audience, social networks flood the media space with so-called "partisan" content, which is vigorously welcomed by one part of society and just as vigorously rejected by another. This leads to polarization and radicalization of the masses. The most destructive consequences of this process can be witnessed in the United States, where Democrat and Republican supporters become not just political opponents but real antagonists.Social media, search engines and news aggregators, developing their capacity as political actors, pave the way to a qualitative change in the established electoral practices. The greatest concern is the ability of IT-companies to manipulate the political consciousness and behavior of citizens during crucial election campaigns. Considering this circumstance, the authors raise a question about the need to regulate the political and communication processes unfolding on the Internet platforms.

Science as a social institution that has a great impact on the formation of human capital deserves special attention. Of particular importance in this context is the issue of disseminating scientific knowledge and increasing interest in science in general. The article discusses the dynamics of studying the issues of interaction between science and society. The purpose of the article is to present an overview of the main areas of sociological studies conducted by Russian researchers in the field of examining the interaction of science and society both at the federal and regional levels. The exploration of this problem is carried out by scientists from such fields of knowledge as sociology, psychology, philosophy, journalism, economics, etc. Basing on the analysis of sources, the author has revealed that sociological research in the field of studying the interaction between science and society is carried out in several main directions. These are, firstly, studies aimed at studying the level of literacy of the population. Secondly, the study of attitudes towards the scientific community. The author makes the conclusion that the main indicators of public interest in science can be the analysis of reading popular science literature, visiting popular science and special events. For example, "Science 0+", open scientific lectures, YouTube videos, etc.

The purpose of the article is to study the political and legal systems of states on countering international extremism with the use of a systematic approach in the context of certain characteristics of Eastern and Western (European) countries, as well as the United States and Great Britain. The methodological base includes the use of comparative analysis (identifications and differences) and methods for constructing certain typologies of Western and Eastern states, which are grouped according to both qualitative and quantitative characteristics. Findings. In modern conditions, a systematic approach in scientific research has been used since the mid-50s of the 20th century. The article discusses this approach in the political and legal sphere on international issues; Eastern and Western (European) types of states in the context of countering extremism are analyzed as examples. The processes of globalization influenced the 21st century led to the emergence of "transnational extremism." In modern conditions, in order to counter international (transnational) extremism, it is necessary to develop new mechanisms and approaches, taking into account the realities of modern society. The world community has encountered the use of Internet space by extremist organizations, which threatens the security of modern society and individual countries. Countering extremism on an international scale is proposed to be carried out in the following areas: first, the development of an international legal and information base; second, the creation of a favorable social and economic environment in states and regions; third, the development of mechanisms to prevent the financing of extremist activities; fourth, the creation of an international analytical structure involving scientific personnel from different countries to identify the causes of extremism in different regions of the world community and develop forecasts at certain stages in different regions, and develop modern mechanisms to counter transnational extremism.

This article provides an applied analysis of the social network technologies used by Western IT-companies to exert a direct or indirect influence on political processes. The study focuses on a set of tools that were employed to shape the media landscape during the 2020 presidential election campaign in the United States. Overall, the empirical observations suggest that the largest networking services (such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, YouTube, etc.) more or less contributed to the success of the Democratic candidate.Having studied the relevant U.S. experience, the authors identify a set of manipulative techniques used by social network administrators to form specific electoral attitudes among users. These include blocking accounts; setting up search algorithms to produce pre-programmed results; labeling ideologically objectionable materials as "fake", "untrustworthy", "manipulative" and "potentially dangerous"; automatically recommending certain materials for viewing; and removing or pessimizing unwanted content.Seeking to expand their own audience, social networks flood the media space with so-called "partisan" content, which is vigorously welcomed by one part of society and just as vigorously rejected by another. This leads to polarization and radicalization of the masses. The most destructive consequences of this process can be witnessed in the United States, where Democrat and Republican supporters become not just political opponents but real antagonists.Social media, search engines and news aggregators, developing their capacity as political actors, pave the way to a qualitative change in the established electoral practices. The greatest concern is the ability of IT-companies to manipulate the political consciousness and behavior of citizens during crucial election campaigns. Considering this circumstance, the authors raise a question about the need to regulate the political and communication processes unfolding on the Internet platforms. ; В настоящей статье осуществляется прикладной анализ сетевых социальных технологий, посредством которых западные IT-корпорации оказывают прямое и опосредованное влияние на политические процессы. Предметом исследования выступает совокупность инструментов форматирования публичного информационного пространства, нашедших применение в ходе электоральной кампании по выборам президента США 2020 г. Совокупность эмпирических наблюдений позволяет утверждать, что крупнейшие сетевые ресурсы (Facebook, Twitter, Google, YouTube и др.) так или иначе способствовали успеху кандидата от Демократической партии.Изучив релевантный американский опыт, авторы статьи выделяют набор манипулятивных технологий, используемых администрацией социальных сетей для формирования специфических электоральных установок у пользователей. В их числе блокировка аккаунтов; настройка поисковых алгоритмов таким образом, чтобы они выдавали заранее запрограммированный результат; маркировка идеологически чуждых материалов как "фейковых", "недостоверных", "манипулятивных" и "потенциально опасных"; автоматическая рекомендация тех или иных материалов к просмотру; удаление или искусственная пессимизация неугодного контента.Стремясь к расширению собственной аудитории, социальные сети насыщают виртуальное пространство так называемым "партизанским" контентом, который у одной части общества вызывает бурное одобрение, а у другой — не менее бурное возмущение. Это влечет за собой поляризацию и радикализацию масс. Наиболее деструктивные последствия данного процесса констатируются в США, где приверженцы Демократов и Республиканцев из политических оппонентов превращаются в полных антагонистов.Обретение социальными сетями, поисковыми системами и новостными агрегаторами политической субъектности создает предпосылки для качественного изменения устоявшихся электоральных практик. Наибольшую озабоченность вызывает способность IT-корпораций манипулировать политическим сознанием и поведением граждан в ходе судьбоносных избирательных кампаний. Осознание данного обстоятельства заставляет авторов статьи поставить вопрос о необходимости упорядочения политико-коммуникационных процессов, разворачивающихся на виртуальных платформах в интернете.

A Comment on: "Birth of the Leviathan: Building States and Regimes in Medieval and Early Europe" by Thomas Ertman(Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1997, 350 pp.)Understanding the origins of the modern state –and the different forms these political units eventually took- is a central enterprise in the discipline of political science. Relevant not only as a necessary first step in the development of several fields inside political science (e.g. how can we talk of an international, or better inter-state system, if we do not know where this concept of "inter-state" comes from?) but also for the contemporaneity of state-building in the 21st century. Pivotal as it is, the literature still has too many open-ended pathways and many more to discover. It is in this scenario that Thomas Ertman's Birth of the Leviathan appears as a very welcome contribution to the study of the origins of the Modern State.The problem Ertman poses is not entirely new. In his own words: "Why had some states developed in a constitutionalist direction during the formative centuries of European state-building, while others had become absolutist? And why had military pressures driven some states to construct effective, proto-modern bureaucracies, while others remained wedded to administrative methods that seemed highly dysfunctional?" (p. xi). The resemblance to the questions in which, to take a well-known example, Charles Tilly had been working on for a long time is strong. (1) Notwithstanding, three features stand out in the Birth of the Leviathan: a) the type of intra- and inter-state changes that the author discusses along the extended process of state-building (the time frame for the study is circa the fall of the Roman Empire and the French Revolution), b) the complexity of the theory proposed, and c) the impressive empirical research undertaken to support his theory.As Ertman's quote above suggests, the goal of the book is to explain why some states developed an absolutist regime while others came up with a constitutionalsystem. Moreover, and reaching to Max Weber's thought, the author also provides an answer to the diversity (divergence??) in the paths of state infrastructure –that is: why some states ended up with a modern bureaucratic administration while others remained, to their own detriment, with patrimonial systems. Thus four variables define the typology of states presented: patrimonial absolutism (France and Spain), bureaucratic constitutionalism (Great Britain), bureaucratic absolutism (Germany), and patrimonial constitutionalism (Poland and Hungary).There are two sets of dependent variables. The political regime on one side – i.e.absolutism and constitutionalism- respond to differences in the strength of representative institutions. Grosso modo, polities situated inside those territories characterized by large-scale and mostly unsuccessful experiments to install homogeneous political regimes during the Dark Ages will be more prone to an absolutist regime. (2) On the other hand, states on the periphery of these historical processes could "begin their state-building from zero" and thus were more prone to develop constitutional regimes with strong representative institutions that constrained royal power.The other dependent variable is the one concerning state-infrastructure. This can take the form of patrimonialism or bureaucracy. The core of the explanatory or independent variable would be that the states involved in early conflict (3) –"early" being defined as pre-1450- tended to build state infrastructures with "outmoded and even dysfunctional" institutional arrangements (most commonly office-holding and the grant of state functions, such as taxing, to private hands). On the contrary, latecomers to war were able to take a bureaucratic path for two reasons: a) they could benefit from the know-how and learn from the errors of states which had been involved in the expansion of the state-authority for a long time, and b) the exponential increase in the supply of personnel professionally trained to run state affairs. (4)A problem the author encounters is that this scheme cannot explain two of its four cases: bureaucratic-constitutionalism and constitutional-paternalism. Why did Great Britain follow the bureaucratic path given it was a clear case of early state-builder for war purposes? And why is it that Hungary and Poland, two cases of latecomers to war, ended up with patrimonial administrations? The explanation for this anomaly rests in the existence of strong representative institutions that influenced state infrastructure. In the case of Great Britain, redirecting the state in a bureaucratic path (against the attempts of interest groups to impose patrimonialism), in the cases of Hungary and Poland, acting as an agent of patrimonial administration.Let me offer some final comments (in an unjustly oversimplified manner) that follow from the reading. Ertman's book turns out to be a rigorous and intensely (with historical descriptions that might be too dense in some instances) researched study. His comprehension of the subtleties of state-building in modern Europe certainly surpass most of the work this reader has seen in the literature. While the work of a Charles Tilly analyzed the role of war, coercion, and capital in trying to explain why such different paths of state-building ended up with the same outcome -i.e. the nation-state- Ertman's book goes much deeper. The inclusion of the analysis of changes in the domestic structures is particularly welcome. In other words, where Tilly saw a path towards convergence in the form of the nation-state, Ertman disentangles a process that leads to the formation of critically different types of states. This divergence becomes particularly relevant when one reflects on the contemporaneity of this work, since it was not only the convergence in the nation state form, but also the stark differences –especially in state infrastructure- that defined and continue to define the European countries studied. (5)Some final thoughts, that would have to be more developed to do the author justice, will be irresponsibly thrown as questions for further consideration:The author seems to focus too much in the methods of resource extraction (e.g. taxing) without taking seriously the given pool of resources each territory had. A better consideration of this issue –for example benefiting from Tilly's hypothesis on the importance of cities as centers of capital and their interplay with central governments- might be a good idea (Was it the same for a King to have a Madrid than a Ghent?)What is the real role of war? The author measures the effectiveness of state administration by their fighting performance. But, is losing a war, let's say Jena, a valid yardstick to define efficient and inefficient administrations, or as in the case of Jena other things might be in play (Napoleon's mighty army)?Is it acceptable to have such a flexible theoretical model? Are not the explanatory variables modified to fit the cases, thus incurring in a grave methodological problem? In general, how heavy are the costs in parsimony of such a detailed and complex study?In any case, The Birth of the Leviathan is an essential study for anyone trying to understand where the central political unit in international relations comes from, and why has this institution differed, not only in its path –as Tilly tells us- but also in its final form. The interested reader should save some time to seriously engage in a dialogue with Ertman and his Birth of the Leviathan.(1) "What accounts for the great variation over time and space in the kinds of states that have prevailed in Europe since A.D. 990, and why did European states eventually converge on different variants of the national state? Why were the directions of change so similar and the paths so different?" Tilly, Charles, "Cities and States in Europe, 1000-1800"; Theory and Society, Vol. 18, No. 5, Special Issue on Cities and States in Europe, 1000-1800 (September, 1989, p.565). Nevertheless, there is one important distinction between these two questions that will be discussed at the end of this essay.(2) It is not completely clear though, at least to this reader, the logical explanation for this hypothesis. Is it that the post-Dark Ages and its failed attempts to impose working political systems (e.g. the Carolingian Empire) generated such a marked decentralization in the political landscape that the only viable solution for the Crowns was to try to impose a severe centralization over the aristocratic landlords? Or that such decentralization and the pattern of landlord aristocracy that followed were not compatible with the bicameral representative organizations (typical of constitutional regimes)? Or both? This is particularly troublesome since the author defines the variance in political regime as "a ruler who was relatively constrained (constitutionalism) or unconstrained (absolutism)" (p. 19).(3) Here the author wisely sticks to Tilly's maxim "War made the state and the state made war." (4) A phenomenon linked to the proliferation of the University as a social institution.(5) As the author remarks at the end of the book: "…patrimonial institutions can also have nagging long-term consequences. Despite the reforms of the 19th century, patron-client relations, lack of clear boundaries between politics and administration, and redistribution of public funds towards political insiders remain a serious problem in Spain, Portugal, France, and Italy…" p. 322. *Ph.D. StudentDepartment of Political ScienceUniversity of Pennsylvania.Profesor Depto. Estudios Internacionales. FACS - Universidad ORT Uruguay. MA en Estudios Internacionales, Universidad Torcuato Di TellaE-mail: gcastro@sas.upenn.edu

Great Britain has always been a country of traditions. Its high standards and rules of life are famous throughout the world. Working with articles from The Guardian information resource, we tried to analyze and understand how traditional British values are transformed nowadays. Analysis allowed us to identify several major categories of British traditional values. We found that not all values still exist in the modern world. Some of them gradually lost relevance, and some raised to a new level. In our work, we considered the following basic categories: politics, family and culture. Political values have lost their popularity, because attitudes towards political leaders have changed. It can be easily seen on the example of T. May political strategy. Due to Brexit Britain ceased to feel like a united country. Basic family values did not lose their positions and remain popular among the most part of British people. Cultural values (tolerance in particular) also continue to exist in the modern life, adapting to new realities. The results show that there are two opinions in the modern British information space. The British themselves still believe that they live according to old or common traditions. However, through the informational materials on The Guardian website, we saw that the society, in fact, doesn't follow traditions as much as before. The results of the work are important for the understanding of the process of mediatization in the UK and displaying social trends in the media. The work will help to study the functioning of the British media further.

The purpose of the article is to reveal the peculiarities of the theatrical art of Western Muslim communities of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. on the example of Great Britain. Research methodology. The method of analysis and synthesis, the method of typological analysis, the historical and cultural method, the method of art research and theoretical generalisation was applied, which contributed to clarifying the peculiarities of the traditions of Islamic theatre and its development at the modern stage in Western Muslim communities, identifying the peculiarities and characteristic features of the theatres of the Muslim community of Great Britain . Scientific novelty. Peculiarities of theatrical art of Western Muslim communities were studied using the example of Great Britain; on the basis of the analysis of the productions of the "Khayaal Theatre" theatrical campaign, the peculiarities of the understanding of the place, role, and potential of theatrical art by representatives of modern Muslim communities in Europe were considered; the activity of the theatre of the multi-national Islamic school with education in English "SOBIS" (Cardiff) was analysed in the context of preserving the traditions of the Islamic theatre. Conclusions. The rich culture and spiritual experience of the Islamic world, represented in the productions of Western Muslim communities, exerts a noticeable influence on modern European society. The study revealed that the development of theatrical art in Western Muslim communities in the late 20th and early 21st centuries testifies to the selective integration of the leading trends of European performing arts, the attraction to multiculturalism, provided that traditional cultural and religious Islamic values are preserved. The originality of the scenographic solution, which has a direct connection with Islamic history, its visual and architectural heritage, expresses the ideas and values of Muslims. The main Muslim theatre companies in the UK are Khayaal Theatre, Ulfa Arts, Arakan Creative, Muju and others. Interactive forms of theatre, in particular forum-theatre, can become a powerful way of interacting and informing about the issues of British Muslim identity. Characteristic features of the activities of the theatres of the Muslim community of Great Britain are: honouring and popularising the philosophical-aesthetic, literary and artistic Islamic traditions; development of a diverse repertoire in order to reach a wide audience; promotion of intercultural dialogue, interaction of traditional and modern, mutual understanding between Muslims and people of other faiths and traditions.

The paper deals with the multifaceted representation of Georgian public figure Ilia Chavchavadze (1837–1907). Paradoxically, he is treated as a great and gifted son of Georgia by various and sometimes drastically different segments of modern Georgian society. In the framework of memory studies, Ilia is a stunning example of how certain historical figures are manipulated by different regimes to legitimize their power and/or to stake their political claims. For the Soviet regime, he was a fighter for equality and revolutionary changes. By researching different attitudes towards Ilia from the historical perspective and using theories of cultural memory, numerous questions related to controversial interpretations of Ilia Chavchavadze's activities will be answered. The aim of the given research is to analyze the narrative dynamics surrounding Ilia Chavchavadze's personality and to analyze the struggle between narratives which ended in the complete triumph of the official policy of memory within a strict ideological framework. We focus on the nature and reasons for the dramatic transformations of Ilia Chavchavadze's image in different political and social contexts.

This paper aims to provide an in-depth study of the late first century BC epigraphic source, the Laudatio Turiae, otherwise known as the Eulogy of Turia. This oddly under-studied document and artefact, this paper argues, can give us great insight into the social and political environment of the turbulent triumviral period, and also into that of the newly-formed Principate. The Laudatio Turiae is also valuable to modern scholarship as an example of the genre of laudatio funebris, providing us with one of only three surviving examples of this genre dedicated to women. As such, it can also be argued to be a significant source for our understanding of Roman women, both in terms of their role within the specific and pivotal period in which this source was created, and also in terms of more universal and enduring attitudes towards women and their place in society throughout the Roman world. This article looks to address the historical value of the Laudatio Turiae, and also to consider the ways in which its genre alters or limits this value.

Due to the development of the information society, countries face the task of effectively regulating the relevant social relations. The mechanisms of such regulation should correspond to the specifics of such relations. Digitization is one of the modern methods of legal regulation, which is the use of information technology at the state level. The existing scientific achievements on digitalization processes need constant improvement, which corresponds to the specifics of this field. The object of research is digitalization in law in the light of international experience. The article aims to study and analyze digitalization in law in the international legal aspect. The following methods were used during the study: systemic, systemic-functional, comparative, sociological, analysis, synthesis, analogy, observation, classification, and statistical analysis. The article analyzes the phenomenon of digitalization, identifies the main approaches to understanding it. On the example of international experience (such countries as France, Germany, Italy, Georgia, Greece, and Great Britain), the mechanisms of using digitalization in public administration are determined, the legal regulation of informatization is analyzed. Also, based on the study and analysis of doctrinal teachings of international information experience, it is proposed to improve the domestic legal mechanism to ensure the effective functioning of public relations.

The development of modern societies is based on the latest concepts of the knowledge economy and knowledge society, which implies sectoral and disciplinary connection and integration of all available knowledge of a society and putting it into the function of achieving social goals (development). The purpose of this paper is to look at the scope of this concept in the world and make a comparison with the degree of knowledge application and integration of science in Serbia, with a focus on social sciences. Accordingly, an overview of general global trends and challenges in the field of social sciences, education, and the application of knowledge is given first. After that, examples of good practice and one case study (Social Science Research Park in Great Britain) are presented. Then the state of social sciences (and their practical application) in the Republic of Serbia was analysed. It was observed that there is a solid institutional framework for the development and networking of knowledge, but also that there are open questions and problems that need to be worked on in the future. In the final part of the work, potential solutions were offered for the identified challenges that could contribute to mitigating the observed problems and more effectively achieving the set goals.

Local self-government is one of the major institutions of civil society. Most democracies in the world have a developed system of local self-government, to which a number of state functions are delegated. To characterize this institution and clarify its inherent features of private and public law, it is necessary to study modern systems of local self-government and theoretical achievements in the field of private and public law. The work aims to analyze local self-government given the features inherent in public and private law. The object of research is local self-government in public and private law. The following methods were used during the study: analysis of regulations, articles and monographs, comparisons, abstractions, analogies, and generalizations. The study of the question of the attribution of local self-government as a subject of law to private and public law revealed a number of features that are characteristic of both public and private law. Based on the analysis of the scientific literature, the main characteristics of the system of local self-government in the world are determined, in particular, on the example of such countries as the USA, Great Britain, France, and Japan. Based on the theoretical achievements of legal scholars on private and public law, it was possible to identify their differences, basic features and, on this basis, to conclude that local government is characterized by features of both private and public law.

Ibn Khaldun is one of the prominent scholars, studied and created works on religious science in harmony with secular science. His full name - Abdurahman Abu Zayd ibn Muhammad ibn Khaldun (b. 1332, Tunisia / died. 1406, Cairo) – Arab historian and philosopher. He is considered as a follower of Ibn Rushd, in 1349-1375 he served in high posts under the rulers of Tunis, Fes, Garnot, Bujojya (Chorus). In 1382 he arrived in Egypt and began to work as a teacher at the local madrasah. Ibn Khaldun was part of the delegation negotiating the conditions for the surrender of the city of Damascus to Amir Temur. On this occasion, he succeeded in honoring a personal conversation with Amir Temur. According to Ibn Khaldun, Amir Temur asked about the Maghreb countries, their location and their cities. Regardless of the personal attitude to the foreign political activity of Amir Temur, Ibn Khaldun gives a decent objective assessment of the personality of Temur. He was surprised by Amir Temur's deep knowledge of military history, characterized him as a "witty, loving, argumentative person". In his main work "Kitob ul-Ibar" ("Book of good examples", 1370), he outlined his thoughts on the development of society and the history of Muslim nations (in particular the Maghreb). The study of the socio-political and philosophical views of prominent scholar Ibn Khaldun is of great importance in modern philosophy of history. The purpose of the article is to characterize the main directions of the religious educational philosophy of Ibn Khaldun, his attitude to history, society, the state, government, as well as the sanctification of their relationship with religious practice. The innovative component of the article lies in an in-depth study of the main aspects of Ibn Khaldun's religious and educational philosophy views in terms of solving religious-philosophical and sociopolitical, religiously enlightening issues.

Does linguistic democracy exist or is it only a lull? Linguists and politicians believe that it has never existed, not even in countries where political democracy is a tribute to preserve. They rather believe there are only dominating and dominated languages.The dominating languages are explained by the number of people who speak a language. Presently, the US and China are respectively illustrative examples of dominance and dominating languages in the world. English ranks first in the top ten world's most important languages and Chinese is gaining supremacy over many other languages. The dominating languages are hegemonic that means their use covers indoor and offshore territories. The dominated languages, therefore, are considered second-class languages, they are disregarded. This linguistic attitude has always prevailed in the world. The transfer of a dominant language to other people is considered to be a demonstration of power, traditionally, military power but also, in the modern world, economic power, and aspects of the dominant culture are usually transferred implicitly. The power of a country explains the extension of its language. English, Spanish and Portuguese are the dominant languages of the Americas. In Africa, the languages of some of the colonizing powers like Great Britain, France and Portugal are more firmly entrenched than ever, as English is in several Asian countries. This study will concentrate on highlighting issues related to linguistic dominance which could help to clarify whether the winning of independence can lead to language recovery or not. KEYWORDS: Language, dominating, dominated, power, hegemony.