The textbook analyzes concepts, key ideas, and problem complexes used to describe the complex and contradictory world of politics, identifies the logic of its development, and determines the place and role of politics in a person’s life. A distinctive feature of this edition is that the theoretical interpretation of politics is organically complemented by empirical analysis of political practice.
This textbook provides the most complete and systematic presentation of the problem areas of modern political science. It examines the origins of the formation and the subject field of political science, its current schools and directions, ways of organizing political space, mechanisms for distributing power, and the main institutions that coordinate interests. Methodology and theory of politics are organically complemented by examples from political practice in various countries, making the course engaging, understandable, and relevant for every reader. Comparative analysis used to describe contemporary political practices of developed Western countries and Russia allows one to understand the specific functioning of political systems and institutions, forms of political communication in different sociocultural contexts, and to identify the newest trends in the development of political practices in the 21st century. It meets the current requirements of the federal state educational standard for higher education. For students of higher educational institutions studying in humanities fields and specialties.