Political Development in Contemporary Social Sciences: Categories and Meanings, Criteria and Reference Points

The article aims to conceptualize political development as a category of social analysis in contemporary scientific discourse, where many widespread approaches have proved to be inadequate for understanding the ongoing systemic changes at the level of the state, society and the world order. The authors present systemic approaches in studying changes in the public sphere with special attention to social and political transformations and identity research promoted by IMEMO scholars. The paper offers a typology of the main methodological approaches used in the conceptual analysis of political development, and assesses the prognostic possibilities of these approaches for the study of political development in the context of global transformations; a framework for concepts relating to political development is elaborated and presented in visual form. Research efforts are focused on clarifying the substantive and discursive basis of the central concept of the article and derived notions relating to it (development ‘with adjectives’: responsible, dependent, catch-up, sovereign, sustainable), and a distinction between political development and political dynamics is drawn on the basis of this analysis. The authors substantiate the criteria for assessing the conformity of changes within a political community with the objectives and prospects of political development. These include a) the ability of political institutions to adapt to public demand so as to ensure security, manageability and individual development; b) the ability of political elites and political leaders to assess emerging risks and challenges and to calculate not only short-term but also long-term consequences of decisions taken; c) finally, the prospects of societal consolidation to overcome the internal divisions threatening the integrity of both society and state and to achieve economic, financial, technological and cultural sovereignty as a political development priority. ‘Politics of development’ is a key element of the framework for analyzing social and political changes: this concept is reconsidered to identify its horizons, priorities and alternatives in a broad political context, and to detect internal and external political factors and management technologies, determining trajectories of social and economic transformations. An important resource for promoting the relevant political agenda are identities oriented on development.