Thirty Three Angles of Political Reality

Oznobishchev S.K.,

Head of the Division, Primakov National Research Institute of World Economy and International Relations, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, s.sko96@yandex.ru

elibrary_id: 251323 | ORCID: 0000-0002-1623-8529 |

DOI: 10.17976/jpps/2019.03.12

Rubric: Reflecting on Matters in Print

For citation:

Oznobishchev S.K. Thirty Three Angles of Political Reality. – Polis. Political Studies. 2019. No. 3. https://doi.org/10.17976/jpps/2019.03.12

Abstract

This article analyses a panoramic spectrum of methodological approaches to the study of political processes and political reality, reacting to the publication of the Handbook “Modern Political Science: Methodology” that incorporates chapters prepared by the thirty three leading Russian political scientists. The authors observe a gradual, but more and more decisive, retreat from the formerly dominating principles of the Marxist methodological paradigm in modern Russian political science. Directions, and the scale of application and implementation within the political science in modern Russia of key methodological paradigms of world political science, include: positivism, behaviorism, structuralism, system analysis, constructivism, etc. A conclusion is made regarding the “mosaic” or composite character of methodological grounds of most of Russian political science schools and books, and the almost complete absence of “pure” methodological lines. The article leads the reader towards the conclusion that political science in Russia is reaching not quite methodological maturity and unity, but at least wide methodological pluralism, enabling researchers to apply in their studies all main worldly spread methodological achievements and paradigms.

Keywords

methodology, political science, sub-disciplines, Marxism, positivism, behaviorism, constructivism, conflict studies, political realism, institutionalism, scientific paradigm.

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Content No. 3, 2019