© Peter Press LLC, 2009

Introduction

Political regionalism is a new scientific direction that is in its infancy. This discipline owes its emergence, on the one hand, to political science, and on the other, to regional studies, or regional studies. At present, the economic, historical, legal, cultural and civilizational aspects of regional studies can be considered sufficiently developed; in turn, political issues should take their rightful place in the range of regional studies knowledge. At the same time, political regionalism can both absorb the body of knowledge accumulated by other scientific directions within the framework of a variety of social sciences, and focus on the achievements of modern regional studies.

Important changes taking place in modern society at the regional and global level since the second half of the twentieth century are associated with the processes of integration and regionalization. The increasing role of regions in the evolution of the international community and in the life of many modern states makes the processes of regional development increasingly important.

Such dynamic transformations in the field of regional development are of increased interest to political scientists. They are also constantly in the field of view of a significant part of the national and local political elites, resolving issues concerning the prospects for political development, political transformations taking place in society, and their consequences in the process of developing cross-border relations of a fundamentally new type.

The objective and subjective processes taking place in the modern world and shaping the political reality in the regions differ significantly from those that took place at previous stages of the historical development of the world community. Fundamentally new are the roles assigned to regional elites and communities in the decision-making process related to domestic and foreign policy problems of regional development. The model of modern federalism is constantly being improved, which is due to stable trends towards granting individual territorial units a certain political status and powers, observed in various regions of the world.

It is also of interest to study the features and patterns of development of modern regional socio-political systems, identify the relationship between integration and disintegration trends in regional communities, study the influence of modern social changes on the structure of center-peripheral relations, consider the possibilities of adaptation and stabilization of regional systems in the context of the formation of a new world political configurations, analysis of the influence of globalization processes on the functioning and development of modern regional communities.

It is these kinds of political trends that determine the main features of regional development processes in the modern world that are the focus of political regionalism.

The study of regional political issues as an independent direction appeared in regional studies relatively recently and reflected the trend towards expanding interdisciplinarity of research in modern science.

Section 1
History and theory of political regionalism

The formation of a theoretical and methodological basis for political regional studies is associated with such social science disciplines as history, ethnography, economics, law, etc.

An analysis of interdisciplinary studies devoted to the problems of regional development shows that they form a political science component, develop concepts and models, approaches and methods that are used by modern political scientists and regional scientists.

The scope of interests of this scientific direction includes a wide range of issues related to the study of the political development of regions. For example, researchers V. Gelman and S. Ryzhenkov understand political regionalism as “a set of studies of both macro-political institutions and processes at the regional and local levels (the study of elites, elections, etc.), and specific aspects of regional and local government related with processes on a national scale."

Chapter 1
Brief outline of the development of political regionalism

Political regionalism has emerged as an independent scientific direction in 90s XX century, which was fully consistent with the fundamental change that occurred in the principles of scientific knowledge and marked the rejection of the theory of revolutionary paradigm change Thomas Kuhn and recognition that from now on scientific theories, concepts and approaches should not be considered as mutually exclusive alternatives, replacing each other as science develops, but rather be presented as complementary ways of knowing or constructing reality.

The interdisciplinary approach to the study of complex phenomena has a long history. Even in Antiquity, almost all sciences consisted of just one thing - philosophy. In the Middle Ages, law, theology and medicine already existed as independent disciplines in universities. By the middle of the 18th century. philosophy was divided into natural and moral philosophy and there was a process of gradual separation and emergence of new scientific disciplines. At that time, natural philosophy included chemistry, physics, biology and other disciplines, which later became known as “natural sciences.” Within the framework of the moral sciences, social and political phenomena, processes and institutions were mainly studied (in the 19th century they began to be called “humanities”).

The emergence of political regional studies is associated primarily with two sciences - political science and regional studies, the history of which, as well as their formation as sciences, have their own specifics.

The appearance of the first works on politics dates back to the 5th century. BC e. Since then, an extensive experience of political thought has been accumulated. The emergence of political science as a modern science is associated with the opening of the first department of political science in 1857 at Columbia College (now Columbia University), as well as the subsequent development of political science in other leading universities in the USA and Europe, the creation of national and international associations of political science and publishing journals devoted to key problems of political science.

The science of regions does not have such a long history. One of the first studies devoted to regional processes can be called the work I.G. Thunen"The Isolated State in its Relation to Agriculture and National Economy", published 1836.

At the initial stage (late 19th – early 20th centuries), the development of regional science was associated mainly with historical geography, within which it was called “local history” or “regional studies”. At the same time, the role of historical geography in the system of socio-economic sciences was very insignificant and was reduced to a description of the geography of the population, economy, migration processes, etc.

During that period, the domestic science of regions developed very actively, mastering a new problem field. Russian scientists made a significant contribution to the development of local history P.I. Melnikov-Pechersky And A.S. Gatsisky, who systematized research in the field of history and ethnography of the Nizhny Novgorod region, as well as provincial scientific archival commissions that prepared materials on the state of the economic, demographic and ethnic structure of the periphery of the Russian state.

Throughout the twentieth century. Research areas such as regional archeology, regional anthropology, regional ethnography, and regional linguistics were actively developing. Each branch of knowledge operated with its own research methods and set its own scientific tasks and goals.

At the end of the twentieth century. Regional studies is beginning to be viewed as a kind of macro-discipline that operates with the generalized, final results of specialized research carried out within the framework of sectoral humanities disciplines.

At this stage, a generalization of previous achievements takes place, and an attempt is made to develop multifactorial approaches to explain the processes of regional development.

The same period includes the systematization of extensive knowledge in the field of regional development obtained by individual scientific disciplines, the inclusion of economic, political and legal research into regional issues, as well as the formation of regional science itself. The term “regional studies” was introduced into scientific circulation by the American economist W. Izard, author of Methods of Regional Analysis: An Introduction to the Science of Regions. Currently, along with this concept, the term “area studies” has also become widespread in Western science.

In the process of development of political and regional sciences, the foundations were laid for the emergence of a new scientific interdisciplinary direction - political regional studies.

Based on interdisciplinary research devoted to the analysis of various methods, concepts and theories of studying regional political issues, it seems possible to us to highlight three main groups of approaches, closely related to each other and had the greatest influence on the formation of the theoretical and methodological foundations of political regionalism.

1. Political-geographical and geopolitical approaches.

2. Political-historical approaches.

3. Socio-political approaches.

Researchers developing these scientific directions have laid the foundation for the political component of the science of regions, directly or indirectly indicating the importance of political issues in the process of studying social, economic, cultural, etc. aspects of regional development.

1. Political-geographical and geopolitical approaches

The main attention of researchers developing these approaches is focused on comparing the political, economic, cultural, etc. potentials of state and regional communities, on which the formation of the structure of socio-political interaction depends.

Founder of the German school of geopolitics F. Ratzel believed that the justification of key processes occurring in states (or regions) should be carried out from the position of recognizing the constant desire of socio-political systems for territorial expansion, which can lead to the absorption of smaller and weaker regions. At the same time, regions that are under pressure from their geopolitical position, in order to avoid the loss of territorial autonomy, must carry out a radical functional transformation of their internal structures in the process of political modernization.

This approach characterizes global trends in political development, based on consideration of the prospects for the evolution of leading regions and states of the international community.

In this regard, we can highlight some historical factors that determined modern trends in regional political development.

First of all, the long-term global trend was territorial expansion.

English geographer P. Taylor identifies four main periods of [overseas] colonization.

The first non-competitive era of colonization (late 15th - early 17th centuries) - the main subjects of expansion were Spain and Portugal.

First competitive era of colonization (1600–1800) – Spain, Portugal, Netherlands, Great Britain, France, parts of Denmark, Sweden and Prussia.

The second non-competitive era of colonization (from the First Industrial Revolution in Great Britain and the French bourgeois revolution of the late eighteenth century to the 1870s) - Great Britain and France.

The second competitive era of colonization (late 19th - second half of the 20th century) - Great Britain, France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Japan and the USA.

The desire of powerful countries and regions to make profit through territorial military expansion is gradually being replaced by other types of colonial dependence, mainly political and economic. Austrian Marxist R. Hilferding pointed out the determining role of financial capital in the system of center-peripheral relations, in which colonized regions, under the political control of metropolitan states, are considered primarily as sources of cheap labor and sales markets. In this regard, the Scandinavian political scientist J. Galtung distinguishes two types of states: the “core” - the metropolis and the “periphery” - colonially dependent territories, as well as two types of social groups - dominant and subordinate. Moreover, both dominant and subordinate classes can be found both in the states of the “core” and in peripheral countries, and relations between them can be built in the form:

Cooperation, which involves the joint exploitation of the “periphery” by both elite groups;

Social imperialism – the elite’s suppression of the “core” of its own people;

Repressive imperialism - the suppression by a privileged group of the “periphery” of its people;

Divided imperialism, which is manifested in the interest of the unprivileged class of the “core” in the exploitation of the subordinate class of the “periphery”.

At the same time, starting from the middle of the twentieth century. forms of expansion take on an even more severe character. Using the resources of the controlled territories is no longer enough; the agenda includes the tasks of assimilation and unification of the population of other cultures and civilizations.

Simultaneously with the process under consideration, pockets of modernization are emerging everywhere, contributing to the structural transformation of regional communities that have retained their independence, the manifestation of activity of which in this context can be perceived as a response of original societies to an external challenge.

At the same time, the population of the regions, included in other systems of socio-political relations during the waves of colonization, is fully aware of the degree of uniqueness of their own culture, their path of historical development, in connection with which disintegration, centrifugal processes arise within the borders of the former metropolises.

The concept of “the state is a container of power” Giddens–Taylor covers a wider range of issues regarding the functioning of the state.

E. Giddens considers the power of the state from the position of its ability to make generally significant political decisions and defines the state as “ power container" The theorist points out that the state, within its borders, exercises control over all spheres of society and, if the scale of the problems goes beyond these territorial boundaries, seeks to expand its influence and demonstrate it beyond its borders.

The development of this theory was continued by the previously mentioned P. Taylor. According to his concept, states go through several stages of complication of their structure.

1. The state – the “container of power” – performs the function of military protection of its population.

2. The state – the “economic container” – is engaged in regulating socio-economic relations.

3. The state is a “container of nations”: this process is characterized by the fact that the state is assigned the function of stabilizing socio-political relations by forming an ideology of national unity, political institutions, a social system of values, etc.

4. The state - a “cultural container” forms a certain system of social ideas about the commonality of the historical past and modern interests of all residents, strives to unify the heterogeneous composition of the population to preserve the state.

For political regional studies, it is of interest to consider the nature and degree of influence of national power structures on political, economic, national, etc. processes in regional entities.

Block Review political-geographical And geopolitical approaches allows us to significantly expand the field of research devoted to political problems of regional development. The main conclusions that can be drawn as a result of the analysis of the author's provisions are as follows:

The process of state formation is explained in terms of interests of common defense;

The state continues to maintain trends towards various types of expansion;

The state acquires a new quality, which determines the desire for self-reproduction and the reluctance to lose its territorial “mass” by granting individual regions independence;

In the course of interaction with the periphery, the center in many cases is characterized by the manifestation of a desire to establish relations of domination and subordination;

The basis of relationships at the interregional and international level is the environmental factor, i.e. the development strategy of various regional communities and states is determined by their external relations and external balance of power.

At the same time, the following can be identified as the main disadvantages of these approaches:

Firstly, all relations in society, the state and in international relations are explained from the position of the use of force and resistance to this force;

Secondly, one of the central themes of research is the recognition of relations of dominance and subordination.

At the same time, political-geographical and geopolitical approaches had a significant impact on the formation of the theoretical and methodological basis of political regionalism.

2. Political-historical approach

The central point for all scientific schools based on this methodological approach is the desire to identify the genesis of regional communities and trace their evolution in the context of historical development, analyze the process of formation of natural and artificial borders, and study the factor of the geopolitical position of states and regions.

Within the framework of this approach, researchers are attempting to determine the optimal ratio of production and communication facilities in the region, to formulate the principles of their effective placement in order to identify ways of complex interaction of the objects under study, and to justify the direction of further development of the region.

This kind of research allows us to develop concepts of joint development, aimed at forming regional political and economic alliances that combine the advantages of various territories.

At the same time, these factors influence the formation of the economic potential of the region, the significance of which, in turn, determines the formation of the vertical power relations, the spread of centripetal or centrifugal (separatist) tendencies in a given local political space, and the formulation of value expectations and preferences.

Each regional entity has individual economic potential, a special political culture, distinct historical traditions, etc. This circumstance, as noted by the American researcher R. Putnam, leads to the coexistence on the territory of one state of all kinds of political and economic modifications of regions - from post-industrial, democratically developed, to agricultural, based on an authoritarian management style.

In turn, consideration of individual regions makes it possible to apply the results obtained to explain processes at the federal level. The main factors in this regard are not only the cultural, political and economic potentials of specific regions, but also the ability of territories to communicate, regardless of whether this interaction is integrative or disintegrative.

The main emphasis is on understanding the historical and political development of the state from the point of view of political and other types of changes initiated at the regional level, which becomes possible thanks to the internal dynamics inherent in the regions, through which structural and functional changes are initiated and stimulated. Such changes can serve as a reason for transformations on a statewide scale. At the same time, to understand current political events and determine prospects for further development, it is advisable to turn to historical traditions characteristic of a given country.

An important place within the framework of political-historical approaches also occupies "Unified Field" theory American geographer S. Jones, according to which the formation of territorial-political systems includes five interrelated stages:

The emergence of a key, basic idea;

Making a political decision;

Movement of people, goods, capital, ideas;

The emergence of a “field of tension”, similar to physical fields, in which the ratio of political forces acting for or against key idea, changes from point to point;

Formation of a political-territorial unit.

For studying the phenomenon of regional development, the systematization of the process of the emergence of a socio-political system, proposed by the American scientist, is of great importance due to the following political science aspects contained in his theory. Firstly,approach S. Jones highlights the problems of forming a core political ideology, a system of values ​​and expectations of people in the process of building a national state and a political nation. This issue reflects the debate between primordialists, who emphasize that communities of people are the product of consanguinity, a shared historical past, language, culture, and mutual obligations, and instrumentalists, who argue that “objective” interests underlie the emergence and maintenance of individual/group identity.

Autarky(from ancient Greek - self-satisfaction) - political and economic isolation of the state aimed at creating a closed national economy that ignores the international division of labor and international trade. Administrative region- taxonomic level of the political-administrative structure through which the central government implements its regional policy.
The Asian-North American Highway (ASAM) is a project of the world's longest international transport corridor Singapore - Bangkok - Beijing - Yakutsk - Bering Strait Tunnel - Vancouver - San Francisco.
Asia-Pacific - an emerging global pole of economic power (along with the USA and Western Europe). Here are located the majority of the world's countries that were developing most dynamically before the global financial crisis of the late 90s. Among the leading industrialized countries in the region are Japan, China with Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)- a regional grouping created in 1989. The association includes states of the Pacific Ocean, which differ greatly in their level of economic development. In 1995, a Program was adopted providing for the creation of a free trade and investment zone by 2010 for industrialized countries and by 2020 for developing countries.
Asia- the most populated continent on Earth . In the second half of the 20th century. The share of Asia in the world's population increased from 55 to 60%, while Europe and North America decreased from 31 to 22%. The share of Asia in world GDP increased from 17 to 35%, while Europe and North America decreased from 72 to 52%.
Analyst- a person who knows how to professionally (logically) reason and draw the right conclusions. The role of professional analytics has increased in the information age. In Eastern Europe, where the Soviet man was “created”, deprived of the ability to think, the profession of analyst is extremely scarce. Here, analytics are often replaced by sociological surveys, which in themselves are worthless. A professional analyst is obliged to identify trends before they are announced in the media or receive other (negative) forms of manifestation.
Enclave(from French - I lock it with a key) - territory or part of the territory of one state, surrounded on all sides by the territory of another state (for example, Lesotho). An enclave facing the sea is called a semi-enclave.
Anti-dumping duties- measures to eliminate the impact of underpricing by foreign suppliers of goods. They are assigned in addition to regular import duties. The amount of the anti-dumping duty should not exceed the discrepancy between the dumping and normal prices.
Assembly of the Regions of Europe (ARE) - a union of over 300 territorial communities of Western, Central-Eastern and Eastern Europe with a population of 400 million people. Created in 1985, the first AER members from Eastern Europe were the Moscow and Leningrad regions, the Republic of Karelia (Russia) and the Odessa region (Ukraine).
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)- founded in 1967 as part of Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Thailand. Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia were subsequently admitted. ASEAN's goals are economic, social, political and cultural cooperation, development of integration processes in the region.
Atlanticism- geopolitical theory of Western civilization, based on liberal democratic values ​​of a legal civil society. In military-strategic terms - NATO member countries, including the United States and Western European states. Supporters of Atlanticism believe that the main role in the world is played by maritime civilizations, from which cultural impulses come into the continent.
Barter trade- natural exchange of one good or service for another good or service.
Capital flight- transfer of capital from one country to another in order to avoid its expropriation, high taxation, inflation or in order to provide more favorable conditions for its investment.
Coastal zone- 1) Land-sea contact zone, characterized by the intensity of interaction of natural, economic, demographic and other processes. 2) Geopolitical concept, which has a broader interpretation. In traditional geopolitics - a contact zone of confrontation between the Sea and the Continent, a springboard for geopolitical expansion (Rimland). In geoeconomics, a contact zone between different economic systems, for example, free economic zones. In civilizational geopolitics - energy-saturated “shores” of a multidimensional communication space between civilizations, where different qualities interact (conflict).
Bipolar world- world order based on the dominance in international relations of two superpowers or socio-political systems (for example, capitalism and socialism).
Block- the unification of several states in order to increase their geopolitical quality and influence on international relations. Military-political and economic blocs are distinguished.
Large multidimensional spaces (LMS) theory- the doctrine of the latest (civilizational) geopolitics, developed on the foundation of geophilosophy (philosophy of immanent space). Strives to overcome the limitations of geographical and economic determinism of traditional and new geopolitics through the communication contingency of multidimensional space, creating frontier energy effective geospace.
Large spaces are autarky- geoeconomic theory of the German economist Friedrich Liszt, according to which effective global economic integration of the state is possible based on a combination of protectionist policies towards domestic producers and customs union with a gradual transition to an open economy. The transformation of the national economy into the world market is most effective through an intermediate stage (customs union). The state controls the reform process and, through protectionist measures, encourages the development of the domestic economy.
Big Spaces theory- geopolitical doctrine of Charles Schmitt, unification of several powers into a single strategic block. Schmitt considered the principle of imperial integration to be a logical pursuit of synthesis. A large space is under the domination of a state with idea-power. As an example, B.p. he considered North and South America, united the Monroe Doctrine. The goal of Nazi Germany was to create a worldwide empire (the Third Reich). In modern international relations, the idea of ​​Large Spaces can be traced to the creation states-civilizations with the dominant liberal democratic idea (American civilization, United Europe).
Greater Caspian- a geopolitical region that emerged in Eurasia as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Caspian region includes five countries directly adjacent to the lake-sea (Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran and Azerbaijan). In an expanded interpretation, it includes the South Caucasus and Central Asia.
Greater China- a supranational entity or a kind of transnational corporation, including, in addition to mainland China, Hong Kong (Hong Kong), Taiwan, Singapore and the vast Chinese diaspora (300 million huaqiao) with a population of more than 1.5 billion people.
Braudel Fernand (1902-85), one of the greatest thinkers and historians of the twentieth century, who contributed to the development of geoeconomics. A generally recognized leader of the Annales historiographic school, honorary doctor of many European and American universities. In the fundamental work “Material civilization, economics and capitalism, 15th - 18th centuries.” (1967) carried out a historical synthesis of all aspects of social life. World economic history appears as the alternation over five to six centuries of the dominance of certain economically autonomous regions of the world - world-economies.
Buffer state- one or more countries that separate centers of geopolitical power from direct contact.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP)- a macroeconomic indicator, calculated as the total value of the final products of the material production and service sectors for the year.
Gross National Income (GNI)- the main macroeconomic indicator reflecting the principle of “what is produced is what is sold.”
Gross National Product (GNP)- macroeconomic indicator, includes the amount of goods and services produced by national entities per year, regardless of their territorial location. GNP differs from GDP by the balance (the difference between cash receipts and expenditures for a certain period) of foreign economic transactions, including the balance of exports and imports of goods and services, the balance of transfers of wages of foreign workers and the balance of transfers of profits from capital exported abroad.
Washington Consensus- a project of the world economic order, implemented since the end of the 20th century. through the IMF and other international financial institutions in relation to non-Western states. The project is based on the replacement of the “outdated” Keynesian model of state regulation of the economy with a neoliberal monetarist model. The policy of monetarism is based on the maximum opening of national markets to transnational capital.
Great powers- subjects of international relations, whose power and influence have an important influence on world politics and economics. The Vienna Congress of the Victorious States in 1815 codified the status of the Great Powers. A “Concert of Great Powers” ​​was created, which included Russia, Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, and subsequently France. States of the anti-Hitler coalition (USA, USSR and Great Britain). Great powers are the countries of the “atomic club” that are permanent members of the UN Security Council (USA, Russia, UK, France and China).
Great Economic Deserts- antipodes to the world poles of economic and technological development. Geo-economic spaces characterized by a decline in business activity, a reduction in production, the destruction of social and industrial infrastructure and demographic depopulation.
Great Turan- the geopolitical idea of ​​creating a unified Turkic state was born at the beginning of the 20th century. in Turkey, irradiated by European nationalism, was revived after the collapse of the USSR. Türkiye, an associate member of the European Union, began to claim the role of a regional power.
Westernization- spread of Western values ​​throughout the world. Westernization reduces the sociocultural diversity of other civilizations, destroys identity and weakens the sense of space (Motherland) among local elites.
Vidal de la Blache Paul (1845-1918), the famous French geographer, having become the head of the department of geography at the Sorbonne (University of Paris), in his speech in 1899 called on scientists to concentrate their efforts on studying the interaction of humans with the natural environment in local areas. In each such homogeneous area, called “pays” in France, a person uses the capabilities of nature in accordance with cultural and historical traditions, goals and organization. Thus the foundations were laid "possibilism"- the theory of “selection” by man of the possibilities of nature that correspond to his way of life.
Foreign trade deficit- the excess of a country's commodity imports over its commodity exports.
Foreign economic strategy - the art of achieving economic goals by the state in the world market.
External debt- state debt to foreign citizens, firms and financial institutions.
East- a geopolitical concept opposite to the West. In traditional geopolitics it means Eurasia. In civilizational geopolitics - eastern civilizations.
Eastern civilizations- based on geocentric (transcendent) principles of the universe. Borrowing from the Western world is limited to the material and practical sphere and is excluded in the spiritual field.

Geographical axis of history(or Heartland) - Mackinder's term , denoting the intracontinental axial area of ​​Eurasia, occupying a central position in the global geopolitical space. Mastery of the middle axis provides the path to world domination. At various times, Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union have been cited as geographic interpretations of the Heartland.
Geographical boundaries– there are natural, political, state, economic and other boundaries that have contact, barrier and filtering functions.
Geographical determinism (geodeterminism)- along with social Darwinism, one of the foundations of traditional geopolitics. Exaggerates the role of natural and geographical factors in international relations.
Geographical factor- one of the foundations of traditional geopolitics. In the modern world, the geographical factor has ceased to play a significant role in the military-political space and cannot protect against a nuclear strike or transnational terrorism.
Geographic information systems (GIS technologies)- technical (computer) tools for studying and processing spatial information and conveniently presenting results for making management decisions.
Geomars- energy-excessive (energy-saturated) boundary communication fields, allowing one to overcome the distance between geostrati. For example, in real geographical space the Eurasian marginal zone of civilizations (EURAMAR) or the land-sea contact zone (MOREMAR).
Geopolitics- the science of the patterns of distribution and redistribution of spheres of influence (centers of power) of various states and interstate associations in a multidimensional communication space. Geographical mind of the state (according to Haushofer). The new geopolitics is identified with geoeconomics. In order to overcome geographical and economic determinism, the latest technology is being developed civilizational geopolitics.
Geopolitics n warehouse- application of geopolitical technologies in solving local regional problems.
Regional geopolitics- “internal geopolitics”, the object of which is not the state, but a territorial conflict. Basics of R.p. laid down in the school of new French geopolitics by Yves Lacoste, publisher and head of the magazine Herodotus.
Geopolitical doctrine- code of foreign policy of the state in a specific international situation. The doctrine is formed on the basis of the geopolitical code of the country and the possible transformation of the geopolitical space.
Geopolitical power- the totality of military (including nuclear), demographic, material, territorial and spiritual (value) resources of a state or military-political bloc.
Geopolitical thought- traditions of realism and pragmatism in geopolitics. Realism is based on classical works on state management and conflict resolution in international relations from positions of power (military, economic). Idealists proceed from the primacy of law in international relations. In modern geopolitics, the traditions of realism and pragmatism dominate over idealism.
Geopolitical expansion- expansion of the sphere of influence of a state or bloc (military-political, economic, cultural).
Geopolitical vectors- vectors of power (military-political, economic, cultural) influence of a state or bloc on the outside world. Geostrategic directions of foreign policy at the global, regional and local levels, based on the characteristics of geopolitical code. The main geopolitical vectors are manifested in strategic partnerships.
Geopolitical "islands"- territories included in a relatively short period of time in different geopolitical spaces (platforms). They experience the greatest transformation when changing geopolitical space, often accompanied by ethnonational and ethnoconfessional conflicts. For example, Crimea, Transnistria, Abkhazia, Karabakh, etc.
Geopolitical concepts. Traditionally, geographical terms are used, giving them a broader interpretation. Geographical concepts - north, west, east and south, sea and continent. And geopolitical concepts - North, West, East and South, Sea and Continent.
Geopolitical code- a historically established multi-vector system of political relations between the state and the outside world based on the balance of national interests, providing a certain state status at the global, regional and local levels (superpower, regional power, etc.). Includes state interests, identification of external threats and technology for their elimination or neutralization.
Geopolitical pragmatism- realism in foreign policy, based on the state’s own selfish and pragmatic interests. Realists place responsibility for international relations on great powers.
Geopolitical region- 1) a territorial community with military-political and economic power; form states based on various criteria of neighborhood and unity in order to ensure collective security;
2) political-geographical and geo-economic multidimensional space with increased conflict, fraught with the most serious consequences for the rest of the world.
Geopolitical situation- is determined by the total power of material and intangible resources (military-political, economic, technological and passional) in the multidimensional communication space of the Earth.
Geopolitical space- geographical interpretation of a multidimensional communication space (military-political, economic, demographic, sociocultural, informational, etc.), uniting the political, social, spiritual and economic spheres of people’s activities with a common panidea. It is determined by the boundaries of the distribution of the military-political, economic and technological power of the state.
Hestrategic region- a territory of global significance for international security; form states belonging to the same military-strategic system.
Geostrategy- a set of directions of foreign policy and foreign economic activity of the state in the international arena. An integral part of the national security doctrine, including the technology of state behavior to achieve its goals in the geopolitical or geo-economic space. The art of neutralizing the destructive (for society) consequences of an external or internal challenge (negative boundary energy) of the multidimensional communication space.
Geostrati- the result of spatio-temporal stratification of different-scale processes in multidimensional space. The geostratum is characterized by the energy field and the proper time of the area, saturated with events in a given geopolitical, geoeconomic and other spaces. The geostratum reflects materialized (in economics or politics) or crystallized (in culture) passionarity.
Geophilosophy- the science of intercivilizational relations and the transformation of the world immanent order, based on the idea of ​​​​the plurality of worlds multidimensional communication space with high frontier energy. Geophilosophy is the methodological foundation of the newest civilizational geopolitics, helping to overcome the limitations of geographical and economic determinism.
Geoeconomics- new geopolitics from the standpoint of the economic power of a state or bloc. Achieving foreign policy goals, world or regional “power”, an advantage through economic means. Geoeconomics studies the transformation of international economic relations, world economic integration and the creation of competitive regional economic conditions under the influence of globalization factors. Geoeconomics is the policy of redistributing resources and world income. The main super-incomes (frontier energy rent) are received by the world poles of economic and technological development.
Geoeconomic rent - the main source of global income and system profit in the multidimensional communication space. Geoeconomic rent is formed on the basis of high frontier energy (functions of places) and due to heterogeneous social time (post-industrial and developing countries). The main excess incomes (frontier energy rent) are received by the world poles (megalopolises), located at the boundaries of the multidimensional communication space.
Geoeconomic strategy- the art of achieving economic goals in the global market and preventing potential conflicts with the help of geo-economic technologies. Methods of control over communication material flows of energy and other resources for the purpose of participation of subjects of international economic relations in the creation and redistribution of the world gross product.
Geoeconomic wars- struggle without the use of military force for advantageous regional positions (raw materials and sales markets, transport corridors) in the world economy. The economic blockade of the enemy is widely used. For example, during the Napoleonic era - the Continental blockade of Great Britain.

Geoeconomic poles. At the end of the twentieth century, three world poles of economic and technological development emerged - North American (NAFTA), Western European (EU) and Asia-Pacific. The United States has absolute economic power, significantly ahead of Japan, which ranks second in the world in terms of macroeconomic indicators. In Western Europe, the leader is a united Germany. China is developing dynamically in the Asia-Pacific region, which, according to experts, will become the second world power in the future.

Geoeconomic code- a multi-vector system of economic relations with the outside world, established on the basis of a balance of national interests, including the international and intercorporate division of labor, and ensuring the effective functioning of the communication framework of the economy. The code is stored in the “genetic” memory of the multidimensional communication space of the state (region) and changes in the process of transformation of the geopolitical space.

Geoeconomic thinking- ability to develop geo-economic technologies in a multidimensional communication space.
Geo-economic position of the state- attitude to the main communication directions of the movement of capital, production, goods and services.
Geoeconomic space- geographical interpretation of multidimensional economic space.
Globalization- an objective process in modern international relations, the highest stage internationalization, based on the development of information technology. Regionalization acts as a subject of globalization, giving a powerful cumulative effect in the formation of world geo-economic poles.
Neoliberal globalization is the internationalization of the economic, political and cultural life of mankind, accompanied by ignoring many civilizational imperatives. This is the teaching of Western fundamentalists about the all-powerful market and global justice.
Economic globalization - the process of formation and development of a single world economic (mainly financial) and information space, ensuring acceleration of capital turnover and the introduction of new ideas.
Criminal globalism (mafia)- the interweaving of globalism with mafia subcultures, the formation of a single world space of the criminal economy.
Ethnic globalism - the influence of large diasporas and ethnic entrepreneurship on the formation of a single space.
Global challenges- exacerbation of existing or the creation of new problems caused by the contradictory process of globalization. “Challenges” are a consequence of new factors in global development that disrupt the stability of the normal functioning of the mechanisms of reproduction of social life, intercivilizational relations, international political and economic relations within the boundaries of the existing world order.
Global threats- specific military-political, economic and other threats that necessitate immediate action to eliminate them. Global threats include terrorism, religious extremism, ethnic hatred, uncontrolled migration, illegal arms trade, etc.
Deep South- a geo-economic macro-region, a deep global Periphery with characteristic processes of demodernization and criminalization of social and economic relations. The macroregion includes many countries located primarily in the tropics and subtropics (Central Africa, Indian Ocean Arc). Some post-Soviet states, such as Tajikistan and Ukraine, are approaching the Deep South.
State border- determines the limits of the territory of the state, is formed in the process of historical development and reinforced by a system of treaties and agreements between neighboring states.
The state is a structure of domination that is constantly renewed as a result of the joint actions of people.
Frontier state- a power located on civilizational (super-ethnic) and other boundaries. States created on the borders of civilizations are highlighted (USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand). Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Ukraine and Kazakhstan were formed on ethnic and religious boundaries. During the period of confrontation between the superpowers, states were created on geopolitical boundaries (North and South Vietnam, North and South Korea, West and East Germany). An example of a foreign superethnic state is Russia.
State-civilization- the most effective form of confronting global challenges and threats in the modern world. The largest poles of economic and technological development are represented by similar entities - United Europe, the United States and China. The classic state-civilization is China, where political, sociocultural and religious borders basically coincide. A united Europe is associated with the historical core of Western European civilization. American civilization is recognized as such by its scale of impact on the surrounding world (military-political, economic, cultural and information expansion). The state-civilization was the Soviet Union, which disintegrated into national entities.
"Humanized" geopolitics- American foreign policy doctrine aimed at the forceful implementation of human rights and democracy. Carried out under the slogan of “limitless justice”, it is one of the forms of manifestation of modern state terrorism.
GUAM- a “soap” interstate association of states (Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova), created as a counterbalance to the CIS and Russia. It does not have a common economic foundation for development; it plays the role of a geopolitical project directed against Russia.

"Declaration on Regionalism"- legal document of the Assembly of European Regions. The EU regional policy is based on the principles of territorial concentration of capital, financing of targeted programs, cooperation with local authorities and the transfer of specific management decisions to the most optimal territorial level (principle subsidiarity).
Depressed region- a territorial community whose contribution to the state budget is lower than the subsidies received.
Dialogue of cultures- mutual perception and exchange of values ​​and information is unequal in nature and gives rise to conflicts. At the borders of civilizations there are “hot fronts” of mutual misunderstanding, suspicion and hostility. IN EURAMARE marked the largest conflicts (world wars) in human history. Soviet society was built on pronounced conflict and negativity in interpersonal and ethnic communications. However, the conflict must be viewed not only as a “troublemaker,” but also as a creative function of a new cultural dialogue. For example, in the clash of civilizations of the Old and New Worlds, ideas about human rights, the right to remain oneself, arose. These rights were implemented by the Anglo-Saxons in North American society.
Diaspora(from Greek - dispersion) - the stay of a significant part of the people (ethnic community) outside the country of their origin. See, global diasporas.
Doctrine- 1) doctrine, scientific or philosophical theory; 2) a political code (standard) of rules that must be followed. For example, the doctrine national security, military doctrine.
Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC) - formed in 2000 on the basis of the Customs Union (CU) established in 1995. The EurAsEC includes Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. At the same time, the current territorial configuration of the Community due to the inclusion of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan reduces the effectiveness of the economic unification. Failure to implement agreed decisions and low executive discipline, and Kyrgyzstan's unilateral accession to the WTO complicated the formation of the Customs Union. Therefore, the creation of the EurAsEC was not a natural subsequent stage of integration, but an attempt to make the project more realistic and viable.
Eurasianism- “a mental movement on the dangerous edge of philosophizing and politics” (S. Averintsev). The doctrine of Eurasianism, which originated among the White emigrants, was an attempt to comprehend the October catastrophe on the basis of developing a new Russian worldview. This “geographical materialism,” based on “pan-Christian Orthodoxy,” is considered by some to be an anti-European totalitarian doctrine, while others consider it to be a project of the future for Russia.
EURAMAR- Eurasian marginal (frontier) zone of civilizations, one of the main concepts of the theory Large multidimensional spaces. Contact zone of dialogue of cultures, the most important “engine” of the spiritual progress of mankind and, at the same time, barrier “hot fronts” of mutual misunderstanding and suspicion (the world's largest military conflicts). The basis of eccentric sociocultural systems, a barrier against the “sea elements” of an open society and Westernization, a barrier against chimera - forms of contacts of incompatible superethnic groups.
"Europe of Regions"- a form of European regionalism, cross-border cooperation and integration on the continent.
EMS- was created in 1979 by EU countries with the aim of stabilizing mutual exchange rates, strengthening the coordination of economic policies and developing mutual trade. In 1997, a new exchange rate mechanism was adopted, the main goal of which was the creation of a single euro area.
European integration- political and economic process of integration on the way to a United (Western) Europe. In Eastern Europe, it is a form of imitation of economic reforms that allows one to temporarily exploit the people’s expectation of the imminent arrival of a rich life. Used as a cobblestone in the struggle for power at the initial stage of development criminally corrupt democracy.
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) ) - an international financial institution created in 1991 to promote the transition to an open economy based on entrepreneurial initiative in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The Bank encourages co-financing and foreign direct investment from private and public sources, helps mobilize domestic capital, and provides technical cooperation in relevant areas. The Bank's shareholders include the European Community, the European Investment Bank, European and other countries. The EBRD is a regional international financial institution operating in the public and private sectors.
"European House" - is built on the principles of a legal civil society, political and monetary-economic union. Its foundation is formed by two largest and independent regional organizations - the Council of Europe (CoE) and the European Union (EU), which differ significantly from each other in the number of participants, institutional structure, functions of governing bodies and mechanism for achieving goals. The Council of Europe serves as a “school for the European rule of law”, where democracy and human rights are taught. Only members of the Council of Europe can become sites of economic integration.
European world order - is determined primarily by the geostrategic partnership of the European Union and the United States, the European Union and Russia. These interconnected geopolitical poles are characterized by asymmetry. Russia remains the world's second nuclear power, while the EU is under the nuclear umbrella of the United States, which accounts for 90% of NATO's military capabilities. Economically, the EU is significantly ahead of Russia, but is dependent on the supply of energy raw materials.
European region- is a territorial entity immediately preceding the level of the state. The region has a government with corresponding political powers. The constitution (law) of the state guarantees the region's autonomy, identity, powers and form of organization. The region has its own Constitution (law) or statute of autonomy and a change in its status cannot be made without its participation. Depending on historical, political, social and cultural characteristics, a region may have a different status. The region expresses its own political identity and chooses the type of structure that it prefers (Declaration of European Regionalism).
European regionalism- the policy of Western European states, based on the principles of “Atlantic” federalism, which provides for the liberation of civil society from the tutelage of the state. The essence of European regionalism lies in a gradual transition from supranational associations to a Europe of regions. In this process, the Council of Europe seems to be ahead of the European Union, laying the foundation for the future of civil society. In European regionalism, the central concept is the principle subsidiarity. In order to promote European regionalism and strengthen the role of individual territories, it was created in 1985 Assembly of the Regions of Europe (ARE). In 1994, the Council of Europe adopted the “Charter of Local Self-Government”, and in 1996 the Assembly of European Regions - "Declaration on Regionalism".
European Union (EU) - world pole of economic power (along with the USA and the Asia-Pacific region). An international organization that created the trade, customs, economic and monetary union of United Europe. The EU is an integration association in the field of foreign policy, justice, internal affairs and European security. The process of European economic integration is based on four freedoms. This is the freedom of movement of goods, services, capital and labor. Europe is moving towards political unification through a common market.
Eurocentrism- a geopolitical concept that substantiates the central position in the global development of “exemplary” Western European culture. The claims of Western European civilization to an integrating role in the world, starting from the era of great geographical discoveries. However, the “spiritual superiority” of European culture is causing increasing resistance among the peoples of Asia and Africa. The movement against Eurocentrism is gaining strength here. Europe, responsible for unleashing two of the bloodiest world wars, has no moral right to teach other nations.
Euroregions- cross-border communities of international cross-border cooperation of European countries in the field of economics, culture, education, transport, ecology, etc., created on the basis of the principles subsidiarity. The functioning of Euroregions is carried out on the basis of a redistribution of power between the central government and border communities, which are empowered to independently regulate their activities and conclude interregional cross-border agreements in accordance with state legislation.
Common Economic Space (SES)- the agreement was signed in Yalta in 2003 by Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan. Effective integration of the four countries should give new impetus to the development of dialogue with the EU, which was previously undertaken within the framework of Russia-EU and Ukraine-EU. The creation of the CES is an important step towards the formation of a common European economic space (CEES). The first stage involves the creation of a regime free trade in relation to the import of goods originating from SES member countries, for which customs tariff rates will be agreed upon. At the second stage, it is created customs union with a common tariff and the formation of a free trade zone without exceptions and restrictions with an agreed competition policy is completed. At the third stage, complete freedom of movement of goods and services, capital and labor is ensured. In the future there will be a transition to economic union four states and the use of a single currency and will complete the formation of a common European economic space according to the EU plus SES formula.

Closed economy- the economy of a country that does not export or import goods and services.
Salzburg Forum- annual meetings of the European business elite, including the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.
West- a geopolitical concept opposite to the East (Western civilization, Atlanticism, thalassocracy). The West includes predominantly highly developed countries that profess the principles of democracy and civil society. The war in the Gulf and the Balkans, and other military conflicts showed the strength and weakness of the West. Its technical superiority is overwhelming and cannot be neutralized by military means. The West is extremely slow in making decisions and acts effectively only with universal political support. The West is indifferent to material losses and extremely sensitive to the deaths of its citizens. If international terrorism forces the West to switch to strategic defense, then this will mean the beginning of the end of a civilization raised on expansion.
Western (Western European) civilization- sociocultural integrity (community), based on the anthropocentric principle of the universe. The “core” is the person who transforms the immanent world. It arose as a random resumption in another place and social time of random processes associated with the endless movement of thought with the great movement of capital.
Protective measures- import restrictions applied when the import of a product causes damage to national producers. Protective measures are temporary; they provide an opportunity for domestic producers to adapt to open competition.
"Golden Billion"- post-industrial countries (USA, Western Europe, Canada, Japan, etc.), which in 2000 accounted for approximately 15% of the world's population and 80% of world GDP.
"Golden Billion" theory- modern Eurocentric doctrine of the “chosen people”, who are guaranteed a privileged existence on Earth. A billion citizens of post-industrial countries are opposed by the rest of humanity, serving the interests of transnational capital.
"Zone of vital interests"- a key concept of American “humanized” geopolitics. This status can be practically obtained by any region of the Earth that is of interest to American capital. For example, the energy-rich Persian Gulf area.
Free Trade Zone- the territory of several states with eliminated tariffs and other barriers.

Iconography of space - a system of symbols of public life, reflected in a self-organized space under the influence of religious, national and sociocultural history. Includes works of art, architecture and other symbols of social life. Ideas about iconography are developed in the works of Jean Gottman and Karl Schmitt. Iconography has psychological inertia and is difficult to transform.
Ilyin Ivan Alexandrovich (1883, Moscow -1954, Zurich), Russian thinker, publicist and futurologist. A staunch supporter of the integrity and indivisibility of Russia, he advocated a strong state. He considered the ideal type of a rule of law state to be an autocratic monarchy, in which strong power would harmoniously coexist with personal freedom and recognition of the social and spiritual values ​​of the people. In the article “What the dismemberment of Russia promises the world,” he considered the geopolitical position of Russia as a stronghold of European-Asian, and therefore universal peace and balance. Therefore, he considered the fragmentation of the state-historical monolith of Russia into parts in the name of any “freedoms” or “democracies” to be death, the beginning of the end for all of Europe.
Investments- long-term investment of capital. There are three main types of investments: financial, physical and intellectual. In the financial (stock) market, investment is the process of placing money in securities in order to generate income. Investors are individuals and legal entities purchasing securities. Financial investment includes portfolio investments (investments in securities), credit and deposit operations and real (direct) investments (long-term investments in material production). Physical or targeted investment is associated with the purchase of specific machines, mechanisms, etc. Intellectual investments include the purchase of patents, licenses, know-how, training and retraining of personnel, etc.
Investment climate- actual economic conditions in a given place.
Human Development Index (HDI)- an integral indicator of human development, taking into account data on GDP per capita, life expectancy, infant mortality, level of education and ecology, etc. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP), created in 1965, began publishing human development reports in 1990. After the fall of the world socialist system, the HDI became one of the most important macro indicators in cross-country comparisons.
Innovative development model- an economic development model based on high technologies that contribute to the creation of competitive products in the foreign market.
Innovation centers or incubators- support centers for small innovative entrepreneurship, where a favorable environment is created for training personnel for new competitive domestic firms (premises, equipment, communications, marketing, etc.), and venture capital funds are provided. There are thousands of incubators in the world, mainly in highly developed countries (USA, Germany, England). Based on funding sources, incubators are divided into state, university, corporate and private. The average stay of newly created companies in the incubator is from one to two years.
Intellectual wealth- the main commodity of the post-industrial era, measured by knowledge, ideas and creative work.
Intellectual work- creative non-standard work associated with the creation of new technologies, new product samples, and improvement of production. Creates intellectual rent - an additional product from the use of scientific experience, a special ability to obtain and process information. The annual volume of the global market for science-intensive products is about 3 trillion. dollars.
Intermodal transport corridors- international communications. They concentrate on general areas of public transport (railway, road, sea, river, pipeline) and telecommunications. Under the conditions of a preferential (preferential) regime, they ensure high quality of service and a variety of services provided, acceleration of the passage of material, financial and information flows.
Internationalization- interaction of national economies in the world market.
Internationalization of production- a modern trend in the global economy, allowing TNCs to capture new markets bypassing customs barriers. A significant volume of trade operations of TNCs is carried out within the framework of intra-company turnover. Global trade communications stimulate the transfer of production to developing countries with cheap labor. This leads to the elimination of jobs in developed countries and negatively affects the local labor market. The expansion of foreign goods is destroying traditional production in developing countries and exacerbating the problem of mass unemployment.
Inflation- increase in the general (average) price level in the economy.
Information revolution- global mobility of information, capital and skilled personnel as a result of technological progress. It is caused by information technologies, leading to the limitation of status institutional culture. The priority of spiritual technologies over material and practical ones becomes dominant. The global mobility of information, capital and skilled labor undermines the role of the state in many of its fiscal functions.
Information resources- a product of the intellectual activity of highly qualified and creatively active workers.
Information Technology- a modern technological system of enormous strategic importance: political, defense, economic, social and cultural.
Regional infrastructure - the multidimensional communication environment surrounding production (socio-political, economic, technological, etc.).
Islamic fundamentalism(in Arabic - Salafism) - “return to the righteous ancestors” or “the road to Mecca.” It is the eastern analogue of the European Reformation (reliance on spiritual leadership and democracy). How does political ideology rely on the anti-capitalist sentiments of the social marginalized and other segments of society affected by attempts modernization (Westernization).
Historical and cultural region- a territorial community that was formed in the process of long-term development and developed its own civilizational (sociocultural) code.
Historical development of the concept. In the theory of historical thought, two concepts of historical development have emerged. The world-historical concept (I. Herder, K. Jaspers, etc.) justifies the formation of a single universal human culture. The cultural-historical concept (G. Rückert, N. Danilevsky, K. Leontiev, O. Spengler, A. Toynbee, P. Sorokin, D. Andreev, L. Gumilev) denies a single universal culture. The ethnosphere is presented as a set of cultures (civilizations), the age of which is limited.

Capitalization- 1) transformation of surplus value into capital, i.e. using it to expand capitalist production; 2) determining the value of property (market value) based on the income generated.
Caspian region- cm., Greater Caspian.
Quasi-states- territorial entities that have state attributes, including power. For example, the Transnistrian Moldavian Republic, Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
Keynes John Maynard (1883-1946) - English economist, founder of the theory of “Keynesianism,” which influenced the economic policies of leading Western countries. The main scientific work “The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money” (1936). Author of the doctrine of economic insulation. The economic world space should consist not of a single market, but of a system of “islands” (in Latin “insula”) with relative economic independence.
Keynesianism - the theory of state anti-crisis regulation of the economy, based on the policy of increasing consumer demand through high wages. The basic principles were formulated by the English economist John Keynes.
Chinese civilization- the longest civilization in time, immanently oriented towards the Great Order, based on social harmony and justice.
Regional cluster theory- modern Western teaching, which is a further development of theories of concentration of production, including the Soviet theory of territorial production complexes. Industrial clusters represent a group of geographically adjacent and interconnected companies and firms and related organizations that operate in a certain production area and are characterized by commonality of activity and complementarity.
Colonial expansion- imperialist expansion of European and other states. After the Great Geographical Discoveries, there were 12 imperialist states that owned overseas territories. Of these, five states (Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, France and Great Britain) for several centuries had predominant political control over most of the world.
Command economy- a method of organizing an economic system in which material resources are state property. Coordination of economic activities is carried out through central planning.
Communication frame- the historically established multidimensional space of the state as a result of the long-term geopolitical transformation of the territory included in it. The communication framework of a new independent state is, as a rule, part of a no longer existing geopolitical space. Therefore, the will of government officials is required to transform the geopolitical and geo-economic code in order to form a communication framework in accordance with national interests.
Communication(from lat. - make common, connect, communicate, confer with someone) - a concept that has a universal meaning, revealed in a specific geographical, historical, socio-cultural, socio-psychological, economic, information and other spaces (communication political, social, economic, intercultural, interethnic, scientific, technological (letters of the alphabet and numbers). In the material and practical sense, “communication” means means of communication, transport and communication. In the sociocultural space, communication is usually defined as the “transfer of information” from person to person in the process of any activity.
Complementarity(complementarity, complementarity) is an immanent concept that has meaning within the boundaries of a single sociocultural space (civilization). “Opposites do not exclude, but complement each other” (Niels Bohr). Complementarity is a special case complementarity. Complementarity(from French, compliment) - a transcendental concept (an act of understanding) that goes beyond the boundaries of the empirical experience of a given culture or civilization. L.N. Gumilev used the concepts of positive and negative complementarity in relation to any ethnic systems. Whereas the principle of complementarity functions only within the boundaries of a specific civilization with a certain behavioral stereotype. This is the fundamental difference between the outwardly similar concepts of “complementarity” and “complementarity”.
Convergence theory is the doctrine of the evolutionary development of society and the interpenetration of capitalism and socialism, forming a single industrial society. The methodological basis for the emergence of the theory of convergence was the theory of industrial society. For the first time, ideas about the similarity of the two systems were formulated in the teachings of the American sociologist Pitirim Sorokina about the “hybridization of society.”
State competitiveness theory - The country should achieve high competitiveness primarily in strategic industries that have undoubted competitive advantages and in the export of which the country occupies a leading position in world markets. Based on the previous theoretical heritage, a teaching with a practical orientation was developed in the works of the American economist M. Porter.
continental shelf- a leveled part of the underwater edge of a continent or a continental shelf. Its area is 31 million square meters. km or 7.5% of the ocean floor. The average depth of the shelf (130 m) contributes to its economic development. Most of the ocean's biological, mineral and energy resources are concentrated here. The shelf has been and remains the most bioproductive zone of the ocean, where the spawning grounds of most fish species are located. The potential mineral reserves of the shelf are commensurate with the natural resources of the land. Oil and gas are being extracted on the continental shelf, artificial islands are being built for deep-sea piers, airports and industrial enterprises.
Conflict- a clash of opposing interests and goals. Conflict and negativity of communication are considered as a “troublemaker” and a creative function of new communication. 1) In psychology, a collision of two or more strong motives that cannot be satisfied at the same time. 2) In classical geopolitics, conflict is placed at the center of international relations. There are different types of conflicts: military-political, economic, social, etc. At the end of the 20th century. Ethnonational and ethnoconfessional conflicts have become widespread. Major armed conflicts gravitate towards areas of economic “vital interests”, such as oil and gas production.
Cohen Saul is an American geographer, author of the famous work Geography and Politics in a Divided World (1963) and many others. He proposed a model of geostrategic zones and their corresponding geopolitical regions. Cohen was one of the first to substantiate the possibility of the collapse of the bipolar world order and the increasing role of geopolitical regions characterized by relatively homogeneous economic, political and cultural characteristics. Thus, an attempt was made to avoid the limitations of geographical and economic determinism in geopolitics.
Local history- studies the nature, population, economy, history and culture of a separate part of the country or locality mainly through the efforts of local enthusiasts.
Cultural-genetic code- stable signs of belonging to a particular civilization (superethnos). Cm., civilization code.
The concept of cultural and historical regions is the teaching of the Eurasian N.S. Trubetskoy, which L.N. Gumilev interpreted as follows. According to the concept, contact at the super-ethnic level gave negative results: “The Eurasian concept of ethnocultural regions and chimeric entities in marginal (outlying) zones turned out to be suitable for interpreting world-historical processes. Where two or more super-ethnic groups collide, disasters multiply and the logic of creative processes is disrupted. Imitation (mimesis) arises as the enemy of originality, and thus the principle of “know thyself” or “be yourself” is violated.
Cultural-historical types theory. The teachings of the Russian sociologist and ideologist of Pan-Slavism N.Ya. Danilevsky, set out in the book “Russia and Europe” (1871). He identified the following cultural and historical types: Egyptian, Chinese, Assyrian-Babylonian-Phoenician, Jewish, Greek and Roman. He paid primary attention to the German-Roman and Slavic types of civilizations. Danilevsky notes the following features of Russian foreign policy since the era of Peter the Great. When Russian interests are at the center of politics, the country achieves the greatest successes in the international arena, but when it begins to defend “pan-European interests,” then successes turn against it. The scientist believed that all types of “Europeanism” are only “symptoms of a disease that can be called the weakness and infirmity of the national spirit in the highest educated strata of Russian society.”

Landscape(German) - 1) general view of the area; 2) a painting depicting nature, the same as scenery; 3) a section of the geographical envelope of the Earth with natural boundaries, within which natural components form an interconnected and interdependent unity. In the multidimensional communication space - geopolitical landscape, economic landscape, sacred landscape, landscapes of the human soul.
Landscapes of crystallized passionarity- communicative areas, saturated with historical time (events), energy fields of passionate nostalgia. Landscape and park culture (for example, noble estates) is a spiritual passion crystallized in nature, a form of unification of man and nature, filled with historical memories and poetic associations.
Trade liberalization- one of the most pressing problems of the world economy. There is a constant struggle to remove protectionist barriers and ways to open national markets to free access for foreign goods, services and labor. The most consistent supporters of liberalization are TNCs and developed countries. While demanding open markets, they often maintain prohibitive barriers to competitive foreign goods.
Economic liberalization- transition from a closed to an open economy and free enterprise.
Arab League- a political and economic organization created in 1945. It includes 21 states and the Palestine Liberation Organization. Headquarters - in Cairo.
Limitrophe(from Latin, border and Greek, feeding) - 1) border areas containing troops on the border (historical interpretation); 2) the anti-Soviet “cordon sanitaire” on the western outskirts of the former Russian Empire after the October Revolution.
Sheet Friedrich (1789 - 1846) - German economist, one of the founders geoeconomics. In 1833-34. In Germany, the idea of ​​a Customs Union put forward by him was implemented. In his work “The National System of Political Economy” (1841), he developed a theory of productive forces, the main component of which he considered “mental capital,” defined as the main source of the nation’s wealth. List developed the idea of ​​“educational protectionism,” which requires active government intervention in economic life. Along with the world economy, List formulated the idea of ​​“autarky large spaces” - economically independent and mostly self-sufficient territories, where internal connections and exchange impart a certain organic unity. List's paternalistic approach was also embedded in the post-war model of the “German miracle”.

Marginal subcultures or culturally marginal clans (communities)- a kind of “spark plug” for intercivilizational dialogue. Confessional (Baptists, Mormons, Old Believers, etc.) and ethno-economic (ethnic entrepreneurship) subcultures are distinguished. Geoethnics include Pomors, Highlanders, Siberians, Marcomanni, Border Guards, Conquistadors and Cossacks). Sociocultural (diaspora, biculturals), class (merchants - outcasts of the Middle Ages) subcultures and family or tribal clans are widespread. Cossacks are the border guards of Orthodoxy. The United States has now moved from the national idea of ​​a “one hundred percent” American to the idea of ​​a “mosaic” of marginal subcultures, united by a common idea of ​​quality of life.
Marginal(from lat., edge) - means opposite to the central, edge, boundary, boundary. Marginal does not mean peripheral (provincial, backward), peripherality is a special case of marginality. Borderline energy-information exchange (interpersonal, class, ethnic, civilizational) can be creative and destructive. Therefore, the term “marginal” can be used in a positive and negative sense.
International division of labor (MRI)- a global system of division of labor between national economies. Modern MRI is being transformed into an intercorporate one, carried out by transnational economic entities.
International economic relations. The basis of the modern IEO system is made up of three international institutions designed to carry out the redistribution of resources from the rest of the world in the interests of the West. This trio includes transnational corporations(TNCs), transnational financial institutions ( International Monetary Fund, World Bank) and World Trade Organization(WTO). The modern system of global financial and trade institutions was created primarily by the West and takes into account, first of all, its business interests. Therefore, for world economic integration, non-Western states are forced to use the existing system.
International conflict- the basis of international relations in traditional geopolitics. There are military-political, economic, national, civilizational, confessional and other conflicts. In the modern world, the threat of potential conflicts is increasing due to the increase in the number and diversity of participants in international relations.
Mentality- specificity of thinking historically conditioned by the cultural-genetic civilizational code.
Mercantilism(from Italian - merchant, merchant) - the doctrine of the sources of society's wealth in the active balance of foreign trade, ensuring the influx of gold and silver into the country. The economic policy of early capitalism was characterized by active state intervention in economic life.
MERCOSUR- Latin American economic association, established in 1991. The main task of integration is to overcome the decline in the share of Latin America in world trade and foreign direct investment, accelerating the free movement of goods and services. In 1995 it was transformed into the Customs Union.
Local government- one of the forms of governance in a civil democratic society. In criminally corrupt states, a well-organized (on the principles of local self-government) group, usually engaged in “ business" on government resources. In contrast to the central government, it specializes primarily in “supporting” small and medium-sized businesses.
Place development concept- one of the key Eurasianism teaching of P.N. Savitsky, close to German geopolitical thought from Ratzel to Haushofer. Place development (or homeland) is a unique combination of landscapes where a given people developed as an ethnocultural community and adapted to the environment. In “Geopolitical Notes on Russian History,” Savitsky formulates the geoethnic unity of Russia-Eurasia.
International migration- movement of population and labor between countries. Due to globalization, inequality in living standards between poor and rich countries. There are 13 million Muslims living in Western Europe. In Russia - according to estimates, 2 million Azerbaijanis, more than a million Armenians and 700 thousand Georgians permanently live in Russia. People migrate in search of a better life and work from many former Soviet republics, where local authorities distance themselves from Russia to varying degrees.
World hegemony- geopolitical dominance of one of the states in international relations, including the military-political and economic sphere. Hegemony is based on the achievement of economic superiority by a great power, when the production, trade and financial activities of one state become more efficient than those of others.
World order concepts - doctrines about the geopolitical structure of the world. In traditional geopolitics, the formula “who owns” Eurasia “owns the world” is especially popular. In civilizational geopolitics, the concept of a new world order is becoming popular, based on the formula: “Whoever owns information and biological technologies owns the world.”
World order- geopolitical structure of the world (international relations), reflecting the existing balance of power. It is based primarily on three classical models - bipolar, multipolar and unipolar. The bipolarity of superpowers determined the world order after World War II. The most radical concepts predict a century of triumph for the American social model and transnational corporations. The multipolar world order is based on the coexistence of several (more than two) geopolitical poles(centers of military-political or economic power). The unipolar world order is formed on the basis of the military-political and economic power of the United States.
World cities- poles of boundary communicativeness of multidimensional space (interpoles); international metropolitan centers, acting as their own carriers of the “global” economy and society and at the same time increasingly different from the domestic periphery (New York, Hong Kong, Singapore, Istanbul, Moscow, etc.).
World diasporas. In terms of population, the Chinese diaspora (200 million), Russian (25 million), Jewish (12 million) are distinguished, followed by Ukrainian, Armenian, Irish and others. The largest diasporas are characterized by a high degree of motivation for active work. The role of Jewish communities in the formation of usurious and banking capital in Europe is well known. In the context of globalization, the Jewish and Chinese diasporas are becoming major players in international economic relations.
World communications- transcontinental trade and other routes. The largest land communication in history was the Great Silk Road.
Multidimensional communication space- one of the main concepts of the theory Large multidimensional spaces and concepts boundary communication skills. The result of the stratification of different-scale processes in nature and society, forming a boundary excess energy tension (creative or destructive). The dynamic contact (stratification) of different-scale processes leads to the formation of many boundaries in the multidimensional communication space, including those now buried under the “layer” of modernity.
Modernization theory- the doctrine of the transition from traditional to modern society, which means exclusively Western civilization.
Moiseev Nikita Nikitovich (1917 - 2000), Russian academician-mathematician, author of scientific and journalistic books “Man and the Noosphere” (1990), “How Far to Tomorrow” (1994), “Parting with Simplicity” (1998), etc. In the last years of his life, being a keen witness of the post-Soviet transformation, he described what was happening as systemic crisis states. Proposed a geopolitical project for Russia (“northern hoop”) and possible ways to integrate the Heartland (project Eastern European Commonwealth or the Common Market).
MOREMARE- geopolitical and geoeconomic concept of theory Large multidimensional spaces and concepts boundary communication skills. Coastal zone or contact (marginal, in the sense of marginal) land-sea (ocean) zone, historical springboard for the colonization of the Earth and the creation of geopolitical and geo-economic outposts, the basis of eccentric oceanic natural systems, the main ecological “engine” of the World Ocean. The coastal zone of the seas and oceans plays an extremely important role in the formation of the geopolitical and geo-economic power of the state. If a country develops “facing the sea,” then its power increases due to its openness to the world. When a country takes the path of isolationism, there is a threat of its collapse due to the loss of communication functions.
Sea power- a set of natural and geographical characteristics, the power of military, commercial and other fleets; developed coastal infrastructure. Ensures control of the Continent and openness of the state's economy to world markets and resources of the seas and oceans. The presence of a modern nuclear missile surface and submarine fleets ensures the protection of the economic interests of the state in the World Ocean. The loss of sea power can lead to the destruction of a power's communications framework.
State power- the totality of the military-political, economic, demographic, natural resource and innovative power of the state. Includes the size of the armed forces, the presence and quantity of nuclear and other weapons. Economic power is reflected in the gross national product, human development index, number

№1 Regionalism as an interdisciplinary branch of scientific knowledge. Object, subject, goals and objectives of regional studies.

Regional Studies – a set of disciplines and areas (regional economics, regional studies, regional studies, regional studies, etc.), methodological approaches, methodological techniques, the object of study of which is a region or region.

Regional studies designed to analyze and predict territorial interactions in the “nature-population-economy” system.

Object of research in terms of regional studies – this is the economy of the region (internal structure and external economic relations)

The basic concept of regionalism – region.

Region - this is a certain territory that differs from other territories in a number of ways and has some integrity and interconnectedness of its constituent elements.

District - an integral territory (water area), characterized, as a rule, by a common genesis and interconnectedness of components, which is a unit in any system of territorial division.

Considering the synonymous relationship of concepts "district" And "region" and a wider range of interpretation of the latter, we believe it is legitimate to use the category "region" as the main object of research in this discipline.

Regional studies – synthesis of approaches of various sciences to regional studies.

Regional studies studies the patterns of systemic ecological-geographical, socio-political and economic functioning of territorial societies, forms and methods of regulating these processes.

Central link of regional studies - regional economics, which studies the patterns of territorial (spatial) organization of farms.

Subject of study of the discipline "Regional Studies" - knowledge of the laws of the processes of formation and functioning (including management) of the socio-economic system of the region, taking into account historical, demographic, national, religious, environmental, political, legal, natural resource features, place and role in the all-Russian and international division of labor.

Goals of regional studies:

Study of the entire set of region-forming factors that make it possible to draw up short-, medium-, and long-term forecast scenarios for the development of the region.

Studying the alignment of the main political forces operating in the region for leadership consulting.

Systematic study of the political and economic structures of the region in all its complexity for making expert and management decisions.

Objectives of regional studies:

Studying the features of interregional cooperation.

Comparing regions with each other.

Study inside and outside regional institutions and bodies, including international ones, including political parties and regional figures.

Selection of tools, scales and methods for assessing regional processes and phenomena.

A substantive study of regional contradictions and conflicts with the issuance of recommendations for their resolution and settlement.

Conclusions of an academic and applied nature enriching regional studies and related sciences.

Studying specific components of regional processes in order to prepare recommendations for government agencies and managers in their implementation of regional policy.

Identification of the possibilities and limits in borrowing foreign experience in the development of Russian regionalism, taking into account Russian society.

№2. Regional studies and their diversity. Basic research methods (economic-mathematical modeling, historical-comparative method, system analysis, program-target methods).

Method – a way of cognition, research of natural phenomena and social life.

Historical-comparative method:

The historical-comparative method is a method that involves studying the location of productive forces in the spatio-temporal aspect.

Method of historical approach There is a comparative geographical method

Subject of the historical approach method – genesis of the system, i.e. its emergence, formation, cognition, development. Based on literary, stock, and museum sources of information.

Comparative geographical method – a method for comparing countries, regions, cities, economic results, development parameters, demographic characteristics. It is the basis for forecasting, by analogy, the development of socio-economic processes.

System analysis:

System Analysis – a comprehensive study of the structure of the economy, internal relationships and interaction of elements.

Systematization techniques:

Classification – grouping of the objects under study into groups that differ from each other mainly in quantitative characteristics, and the qualitative difference reflects the dynamics of the development of objects or their hierarchical order.

Typology – grouping of studied objects into groups that consistently differ from each other in terms of qualitative characteristics.

Concentration – a methodological technique in the study of complex geographical objects, in which the number of elements additional to the main object, related to it and to varying degrees affecting the completeness of the study, is either increased or decreased.

Taxoning – the process of dividing a territory into comparable or hierarchical subordinate taxa.

Zoning – a taxonization process in which the taxa to be identified must meet two criteria:specifics Andunity .

Economic and mathematical modeling:

Economic and mathematical modeling used in the research process in connection with the problems of distribution of productive forces and economic development of regions, which are becoming more complex, and sectoral and territorial connections are becoming more difficult to manage.

There are such areas of economic and mathematical modeling of territorial economic processes as:

Modeling of territorial proportions of development of the country's economic complex;

Modeling the development of regional production sub-. systems according to sectors of the national economic complex, that is, specialization;

Modeling the formation of the economy of the economic regions of the country or a set of regions.

By compiling mathematical models, it is possible to work out tens and hundreds of variants of territorial combinations of productive forces, which provides an optimal solution to their territorial organization.

Program-target method:

Program-target method in modern conditions of the formation of market economic relations, it is important for the comprehensive implementation of urgent and generally significant regional social tasks, providing for maximum efficiency in the use of the funds involved and characterized by specific final indicators, the achievement of which is sufficient to solve the problem posed by the program.

This method is aimed at solving complex problems and is associated with the development of long-term forecasts of the socio-economic development of the country and its regions. It is based on the formation of goals for socio-economic development, their division into subgoals of an increasingly detailed nature and the identification of resources necessary for their coordinated implementation.

The logic of the program-target method is arranged in the following sequence: problem – goal – resources – organization – solution (implementation). Taken together, the elements of the above sequence represent a targeted comprehensive program. In accordance with this logic, the direction of development of the methodology for program-targeted regional solutions can be presented in the form of the following sequence.

The methodology for the development and implementation of regional programs as a result implies the formation of goal-implementing systems (complexes). To achieve the goal, it is necessary to perform a number of actions in two directions.

Targeted, including:

study of goal setting in the area;

justification of the concept of “goal” as a scientific category;

formation of a system of goals for socio-economic development in the region.

Problematic, including:

research of complex regional problems;

justification of the concept of “problem” as a scientific category;

development of targeted comprehensive programs for the region.

The most important and difficult stage – development of the target part of the program. To formulate goals, the apparatus of graph theory is used, namely: constructing goal tree graphs. This name arose because the process of goal formation resembles an upside-down tree. The trunk is the main (general) goal. Each branch extending from the trunk is a second-order goal. A branch branching off from the main branch is a third-order target, etc. The more difficult the path to achieving the goal, the more spreading the crown. At the final levels of the “goal tree”, comprehensive answers are given to the questions of who, what and in what time frame must do so that the problem is solved.

At the next stage, all types of resources necessary to achieve the goals are determined. This stage of program development is called the resource stage. It is devoted to determining the need for research and development, investment and labor.

A necessary stage in the development of targeted comprehensive programs – organizational. At first, the customer acts as the leader. He selects (coordinates) the lead developer, who, in turn, can attract co-executors. As a result of their joint activities, a draft program is formed, and after all approvals and examinations, it, the project, becomes a program.

№ 3. Regional studies and their diversity. Basic principles of regional studies (principle of differentiation and localization).

Any study can be considered regional if it uses one of two principles (or both principles at once):

Principle of differentiation - involves the study of regional differences in the same region.

The principle of localization - involves the study of specific localized (i.e., clearly defined and limited on the ground) complexes of various phenomena in their interrelation.

Following these principles allows you to study the spatial dimension of any phenomena. The spatial dimension of phenomena of any origin is the subjectregional studies .

Following these principles allows you to study the spatial dimension of any phenomena. It must be emphasized that the concept"space" is used here in its classical understanding, known both from philosophy and geography.

№4. The concept of “region”: variety of definitions and various classifications of the concept.

The main concept in regional studies is “region”. Various definitions of region are given.

1. Territory;

2. Economic specialization;

3. Availability of economic ties.

Region - this is a certain territory that differs from other territories in a number of ways and has some integrity and interconnectedness of its constituent elements.

In modern Russia there are several main types of regions:

Federal districts

Economic regions

Subjects of the Federation

Administrative districts of constituent entities of the Russian Federation and other territories.

In modern political science there is no single approach to understanding the region. Most researchers agree on this. Each of them tries to contribute to its definition.

Regionalist geographers have not come to a consensus on what a region is.

Geographical region - what a regional geographer studies. On the basis of this, various areas of regional research began to develop: economic, social, political geography.

The first typologies appeared:

Regions were divided into:

Physical (related to human activity, led to an awareness of the influence of regional characteristics on the development of society);

Natural (natural habitat areas of special species of flora and fauna).

Exploring the chain"place-work-people" leads to an understanding of the uniqueness of each region.

The concept of a region can have many directions and be viewed from different points of view. Political practice has shown that the region can be considered as a statistical unit in the process of economic planning and political management. The first steps showed that he cannot be an object of politics, but is at the same time a political (economic, social) subject.

Region – forming a single whole space, homogeneous according to certain criteria and different from adjacent spaces or regions according to these criteria.

Economic geography and regional studies are a complex of scientific disciplines that study economic processes and phenomena in the territorial and geographical aspect.

Economic geography studies the location and development of productive forces in close connection with natural and ecological conditions (productive forces include two factors: labor and means of production - objects and tools).

Based on the laws of social development and the laws of natural development, economic geography is engaged in the analysis and forecast of territorial interactions in the “nature - population - economy” system. The ultimate object of her research is the anthropogenic (technogenic) sphere of the geographical shell of the Earth (geographical environment) with certain structures caused by the interaction of society and nature (V.I. Vernadsky’s noosphere). A more specific object is the spatial structures of the population, environmental management and economy, developing under the influence of the geographical (territorial) division of labor at various hierarchical levels - from local and regional to global.

The term “regional studies” is usually understood as a synthesis of the approaches of various sciences to regional studies (the terms regional studies, regional science, and regional science are also used to denote a body of knowledge about regions).

In domestic science, another term was more often used - regional economics. Regional economics is a geographical (regional) direction in economics, a scientific discipline that studies the spatial aspects of the development of the national economy and its industries, with the aim of improving the management of factors for the location of productive forces and territorial development. Regionalism is a synthetic scientific field that fully includes regional economics, studying regions as integral systems, giving priority to interdisciplinary research.

The main concept in regional studies is “region”. The economic literature provides various definitions of a region. However, many authors identify the following three distinctive features of a region: territory, specialization and the presence of economic ties.

A region is a specific territory that differs from other territories in a number of ways and has a certain integrity and interconnectedness of its constituent elements (comes from the Latin word and means country, region, region, i.e. some locality).

From the perspective of a systems approach, a region can be considered a special social economic system, the important element of which is the population. The population simultaneously produces and consumes material and intangible goods. The purpose of the functioning of this socio-economic system is to meet the needs of the population, to create conditions for the comprehensive and harmonious development of man (according to Article 7 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation).

In the modern Russian Federation, there are several types of regions - constituent entities of the Federation, federal districts, economic regions, administrative districts of constituent entities of the Federation and other territories.

According to the All-Russian Classifier of Economic Regions (OKER), an economic region is understood as a set of objects of the administrative-territorial division of the country that have a number of common natural and economic characteristics.

In this systematized list of regional economic groupings of objects of the administrative-territorial division of Russia, economic regions are distinguished by the following classification criteria:

the relative commonality of objective economic conditions within a given territory;

commonality of goals and objectives for the joint development and implementation of regional programs for economic and social development by voluntary associations of constituent entities of the Russian Federation:

conditions for studying and monitoring the natural, climatic, ecological and geological parameters of the area, including in the territories of state natural reserves and national parks;

conditions for technical supervision of the construction and use of fixed assets, including at facilities requiring seismic and radiation safety;

conditions for ensuring state customs control over foreign trade operations;

the nature and degree of discomfort in the living conditions of the population, including in areas inhabited by small peoples of Russia.

Based on these characteristics, federal districts, interregional associations of economic interaction (MAEI), economic regions, economic zones (macrozones), specially protected natural areas, regions of compact residence of small-numbered peoples of Russia, etc. are identified.

The totality of Russian regions forms the basis of the territorial structure of the economy, which is the subject of the following sections of the manual.

When placing productive forces, four main questions are examined: WHO, WHAT, WHEN AND HOW the productive forces are located in society.

WHO are business entities. They mean legal entities and individuals. Legal entities are government bodies, various organizations, associations, firms, enterprises vested with special powers and rights, in accordance with the charter of their activities. Individuals are citizens engaged in a special type of activity, but not registered by the state as legal entities, i.e. not having a registered charter, seal and bank account.

WHAT are the productive forces of society. They include at least two factors, two substances: labor and means of production.

Labor force- these are people employed in one of two spheres of social production: material and intangible (spiritual).

Means of production- These are tools and objects of labor. Tools can be interpreted narrowly and broadly. In the first case, they most often mean machines, mechanisms, tools, as well as buildings and structures necessary for conducting the production process. With a broad interpretation, this includes energy resources used to power machines and mechanisms (electricity, water, steam, special fuels from petroleum products), as well as information, including information generated in the scientific process.

Objects of labor- this is what the production process focuses on. During the production process, objects of labor are transformed into mechanisms, but this is a narrow interpretation of this category. In a broad sense, the subject of labor is everything. that a person purposefully changes.

In general, “to place” usually means to build a new production or social facility or to make previously inactive production facilities function. There is a specific connection between production and social objects. The means of production can only function in close connection with labor power. The workforce is people. He must reproduce his working capabilities. For such reproduction, a special infrastructure is needed - social (housing, hospitals, schools, children's institutions, catering and trade facilities). In this regard, when placing productive forces, it is certainly necessary to place social infrastructure facilities.

WHEN - both factors of production are combined in the production process in a special way, i.e. according to technology. Therefore, a certain order of commissioning of production elements is required. To create normal conditions for the reproduction of the labor force, social objects are introduced into the number of operating ones in a certain sequence.

HOW - the country's productive forces during the Soviet period were put into operation according to a certain scheme under state leadership. In the conditions of the domestic market economy, a mechanism for indicative planning and state regulation of the deployment of productive forces is being developed.

The discipline “Economic Geography and Regional Studies” has a complex differentiated structure.

According to homogeneous levels of space in economic geography and regional studies, we can distinguish:

localism (local level);

regional studies (regional level);

regional studies (national level, geography of foreign countries);

global studies (global level, geography of the world economy).

Based on homogeneous objects of study (industry structure), the following are distinguished:

geography of natural resources and environmental management;

population geography;

geography of the economy:

geography of management and infrastructure;

commercial geography;

human geography:

socio-political geography.

In economic geography and regional studies highlight separate areas related to solving applied problems:

territorial planning;

location of enterprises;

regional development;

geopolitics and geoeconomics;

diffusion of innovations, etc.

According to time criteria, geography can be divided into three branches: historical geography, modern geography, predictive geography.

It is obvious that the proposed options for the internal structure of economic geography and regional studies reveal only its main directions. Many of them will be discussed in the sections of the manual.

The formation of the professional worldview of future highly qualified economists should begin with the study of economic geography and regional studies - the only scientific discipline in the system of economic knowledge that deals with a specific territory. The relevance of studying the discipline for higher economic education lies in the fact that all economic activities, including financial, banking and settlement and analytical, take place in a specific territory, the features of which, resource potential, economic structure and level of development, the economist must know thoroughly. In the process of obtaining a higher economic education, the geographical competence of an economist must be developed.

Justification of the rational territorial organization of productive forces is possible only with the joint participation of many sciences. Territoriality and complexity are important distinctive features that organically connect economic and social geography with a number of economic, natural and technical sciences.

Economic geography and regional studies occupy a special place in the system of economic knowledge. It is directly interconnected with economic history, statistics, sectoral economics, environmental economics, economics and sociology of labor, economic forecasting, history of public administration, development of management decisions, regional indicative planning, etc.

Economic geography is related to physical geography and other natural sciences, including hydrology, geology, biology, and climatology. Among the technical sciences, mathematics and demography can be distinguished.

Currently, the role of the subjects of the Federation and federal districts in the formation, development and deployment of productive forces is increasing, special (free) economic zones are emerging, new horizontal connections are being formed, and the political and administrative map of the country is changing. Taking into account the above, future specialists need theoretical knowledge and practical skills that allow them to study and analyze economic processes in a specific territory.

EGP and PGP of Russia

Economic-geographical location (EGP) is the position of objects in economic and social space relative to each other, as well as relative to borders (state, administrative or other). At the same time, the EGP category also includes the position of relative natural objects (non-freezing seas, navigable rivers, mineral deposits, forests) that have had, are having or may in the future have an impact on the functioning and development of the socio-geographical objects being studied. The particular importance of the position relative to political (state) borders in the system of interstate relations emerging in a certain historical period necessitates the use of the category of political-geographical (geopolitical) position.

The economic and geographical location is a complex system, which includes a number of interrelated components. The main components of the EGP are:

transport and geographical location, i.e. position in relation to the transport network;

industrial-geographical - position regarding energy sources, manufacturing centers and scientific and technical bases;

agrogeographical - position relative to food supplies and main centers of consumption of agricultural products;

market (or sales-geographical) - position regarding product markets;

demographic (or demogeographic) - the situation regarding the concentration of the population, labor resources and scientific and technical personnel;

recreational-geographical - position relative to places of recreation and tourism.

1. 
   The economic and geographical position of Russia is the relationship of a place, region or city to the external environment, which has one or another economic significance. Components of the economic-geographical position - transport-geographical, industrial-geographical, agro-industrial, market, etc. The transport-geographical position of the country, that is, the position relative to the most important international transport routes, in the Russian Empire and the USSR was characterized by the fact that there were four fairly extensive outlets into the World Ocean: the Baltic, formed mainly in the 18th century, the Black Sea (from the second half of the 18th century .), Northern (in the European part in the 16th century, in the Asian part - in the 18th-20th centuries), Pacific (XVIII-XX centuries). After the collapse of the USSR, the transport and geographical position of Russia, as well as its economic and geographical position as a whole, deteriorated significantly. Access to the ocean from the Baltic and Black Seas was sharply limited, and the European part of the country moved 250-1250 km to the east from developed countries. Russia has actually returned to the borders of the 17th - early 18th centuries.

The length of Russia from west to east is 9 thousand km. The extreme western tip is located near the city of Kaliningrad (19o38’E), and the easternmost point on the mainland is Cape Dezhnev (169o40’W). But the easternmost point of the territory of the Russian Federation is located in the Bering Sea on Ratmanov Island (maritime border with the United States).

Thus, almost the entire territory of Russia is located in the eastern hemisphere, only the Wrangel Islands and the Chukotka Peninsula belong to the western hemisphere.

The length of the country from north to south is about 4 thousand km. The northern mainland tip of Russia (Cape Chelyuskin) is located on the Taimyr Peninsula (77o43'N and 108o14'E). The northernmost point of the Russian Federation (81°49’N) is located on Rudolf Island in the Franz Josef Land archipelago. The extreme southern point of Russia is located on the crest of the Main Caucasus Range (41°12’N). Here, in the Caucasus, is the highest point of the Russian Federation - Elbrus (5642 m.)

The length of the territory of Russia also determined the diversity of the relief: the European part of the country has a completely different appearance than the Asian part, and the differences by region are also great. 70% of Russia is occupied by plains, among which the East European Plain (within which there are small, up to 250-400 m, hills) in the western part of Russia, and the West Siberian Plain - east of the Urals - are especially notable. They are separated by the Ural ridge, most of which are mountains 800-1200 meters high. Between the Yenisei and Lena lies the Central Siberian Plateau, dissected by a dense network of river valleys. Mountain areas with highly rugged terrain predominate in the east (Aldan Highlands, Verkhoyansk Range, Stanovoye Highlands) and in the south of the republic (North Caucasus, Altai, Sayan Mountains, etc.), as well as along the Pacific coast.

The relief is directly related to the geological structure of the earth's crust, which is also very heterogeneous. Thus, the Russian Platform approximately corresponds to the East European Plain, and the Siberian Platform corresponds to the West Siberian Plain. Between them is the younger Ural-Altai platform, formed in the Paleozoic. Adjacent to the Russian Platform from the south is the younger region of the North Caucasus, which is characterized by very significant seismic activity. To the east of the Siberian Platform is the Primorye-Chukchi region, which has a Mesozoic folded base. This is a young region in geological time with a predominance of hills.

The mountainous regions of Kamchatka and the Pacific coast correspond to belts of recent folding and volcanism, which determined the seismic and volcanic activity of the region and left a significant imprint on the entire life of Kamchatka and the Far East. It is worth noting that geothermal sources directly related to volcanism represent a significant reserve of cheap energy.

The total length of Russia's borders is 58.6 thousand km, while the sea borders are almost twice as large as the land ones (about 40 thousand km). The maritime borders in the north and east of the country are 12 nautical miles (22.7 km) from the coast. The border of the maritime economic zone of the Russian Federation is located 200 nautical miles (about 370 km) from the shores of the mainland and islands.

The northern borders of the country completely pass through the waters of the seas of the Arctic Ocean: Barents, Kara, Laptev, East Siberian and Chukotka. Except for the western part of the Barents Sea, where the warm North Atlantic Current penetrates, ice is present all year round in all Arctic seas, so navigation here is difficult.

The Russian sector of the Arctic is located within the Arctic Ocean from the coast of Russia to the North Pole. All islands in this sector, with the exception of several islands of the Spitsbergen archipelago, belong to Russia.

The eastern borders of Russia pass through the waters of the Pacific Ocean: Bering, Okhotsk, and Japanese. The closest maritime neighbors here are Japan and the USA. The border with Japan lies in the La Perouse Strait, and with the United States in the Bering Strait between the islands of Ratmanov (Russia) and Kruzenshtern (USA).

In the west, Russia's maritime borders pass through the waters of the Baltic Sea, which connect our country with many European countries.

In the southwest, the maritime borders pass through the waters of the Azov and Black Seas, where Ukraine and Georgia border on Russia. Ships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet are stationed in Sevastopol (Ukraine) (the question of dividing the Black Sea Fleet between Russia and Ukraine remains open).

The border with some neighboring countries runs in the south along the waters of the internal Caspian Sea.

The length of Russia's land borders is about 20 thousand km. After the collapse of the USSR, Russia's number of neighbors did not formally change. There are fourteen of them (and also maritime borders with the USA and Japan). Within the USSR, the country bordered only eight foreign countries. The remaining borders were internal - 11 thousand km (with Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Azerbaijan, etc.) Now these are borders with foreign countries.

In the north-west, Russia borders on land with Norway and Finland.

Officially, the borders of the Russian Federation with the Baltic states - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - received state status. Along the western and southwestern borders of Russia are Belarus and Ukraine.

In the south, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan border Russia. The Republics of Altai, Tuva, Buryatia, as well as the Chita region, which are part of the Russian Federation, border on Mongolia. Almost everywhere the border runs along the ridges of Altai, Eastern Sayan and other mountains. Even further east, Russia borders China along the Argun, Amur and Ussuri rivers. In the extreme southeast, the Primorsky Territory of the Russian Federation borders on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Thus, most of Russia’s borders run along natural boundaries: seas, mountains, rivers. Some of them make international contacts difficult (ice-covered seas, high mountains, etc.). Others - river valleys, including border rivers, lowland territories - favor contacts with neighbors and allow the construction of international land and river routes for economic ties.

The Russian Federation is the largest sovereign republic in the Commonwealth of Independent States, not only in terms of area and population. It has enormous natural, economic and scientific potential. Russia played a leading role in the economy of the former USSR. And at present its role in the integration of the CIS countries is decisive. Russia's foreign trade turnover with the CIS countries in 2003 amounted to 25.3 billion dollars, and increased by 2 times compared to 1992. At the same time, the share of the Commonwealth states in the total volume of trade turnover between Russia and foreign countries was only 19%. At the same time, exports of products and services increased by 22.3% - from 11.2 to 13.7 billion dollars. The volume of imports almost doubled during this period and amounted to 11.6 against 6 billion dollars in 1992. In trade and economic relations between Russia and the CIS countries, the main partners remain Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Belarus. These states account for 83.4% of foreign trade turnover with the CIS countries, while fuel and energy resources account for the largest share in the commodity structure of exports. The structure of imported goods coming to Russia from the CIS countries is dominated by food, raw materials for the food industry, ore raw materials, metal products and petroleum products.

The current situation in Russia is conducive to strengthening Russia’s foreign economic relations with the countries of the Asia-Pacific region, which will strengthen the country’s position in Europe.

Of particular importance for Russia are trade and economic relations with China, which, despite existing difficulties, are developing most dynamically. The volume of trade in 2003 amounted to $5.7 billion. Cross-border and interregional trade has become important, through which about 80% of trade turnover is realized. There are great opportunities for developing investment cooperation with China, which is showing significant interest in the supply from Russia of complete equipment for the construction of facilities in the field of energy, coal industry, metallurgy, etc. Russian exports to China include aircraft, cars, agricultural machinery, mining and oil refining equipment, equipment for the textile industry, chemical products, rolled steel, wood, etc. The main items of Russian exports to China remain fertilizers and ferrous metals (50% of the total volume of Russian supplies). Russian exports to China in 2003 amounted to about $3.5 billion. One area of ​​cooperation where Russia has significant advantages compared to other developed countries is the export of energy and energy resources. In June 1997, Russia and China signed an agreement on cooperation and construction of oil and gas pipelines from Siberia to the Pacific coast through Mongolia.

An important object of cooperation is the construction of a large nuclear power plant in the northeast of China. A great effect can be expected from the development of industrial cooperation between China and Russia, especially in the regions of Siberia and the Far East. China supplies Russia mainly with consumer goods and food products.

Foreign economic relations with Japan are complicated by difficult interstate political relations related to Japan’s claim to a number of Russian islands of the Kuril chain. Russia's share in foreign trade with Japan does not exceed 1%, which indicates the weak development of mutual ties. In Russian exports, the share of raw materials exceeds 50%, low-process products - about 40%, while machinery and equipment account for less than 1%. In Russian imports from Japan, the share of modern industrial equipment and other means of production remains low. Regional ties occupy a prominent place in Russian-Japanese relations. Enterprises of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Primorsky and Khabarovsk territories, Sakhalin, Amur, Irkutsk and Kamchatka regions take a particularly active part in them.

Thus, Russia faces the need for deep transformations, structural restructuring of the economy and adaptation to the modern global market economic system.

The geopolitical position of Russia changed in the early 90s, after the collapse of the USSR, which had powerful economic potential, a single economic organism, its own territorial division of labor and a large scope of long-distance connections, the rupture of which was painful for everyone. In the new conditions of the transition to new economic relations, the nature of intersectoral and interdistrict ties, including between the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, has changed significantly.

The USSR existed in a biopolar world (USA - NATO, USSR - Warsaw Pact), but the collapse of the USSR changed the geopolitical position of Russia. The world has gradually become multipolar. Russia in its geopolitics should focus on no single grouping of countries. Today, economic ties are important for us not only with the CIS countries, but also with all countries in whose markets we can profitably sell products and purchase goods needed for our country. Russia is forced to focus on those countries that make it possible to obtain the greatest effect from foreign economic relations. Different priorities were related to political sympathies, potential allies for the supply of military equipment and only partly to economic benefits. The geopolitical situation and priorities in Russia’s foreign economic trade have changed, among which the following countries have taken a strong place:

1. Countries of Western and Southern Europe, that is, the EU. The leader of the new geopolitical pole is Germany, with which strong ties have been established. The EU's share in Russia's foreign trade is 50%.

2. Countries of Eastern Europe, with which Russia should renew and improve ties. Their share in Russia's foreign trade fell to 20%.

3. Asia-Pacific countries (Japan, China, SWA, India).

4. A special role is assigned to the strengthening and development of multilateral ties between Russia and the United States (interaction in the areas of space, scientific and technical ties, disarmament, development of economic ties).

In the geopolitical situation of Russia in the 90s of the twentieth century. the following changes have occurred:

new sovereign states were formed along the perimeter of Russia, including five CIS member states and three Baltic states directly on the border;

in relation to Russia, near and far abroad arose;

partially “transparent” borders with neighboring countries were formed, 25 more were added to the 18 subjects of the Federation that were border areas within the USSR;

Russia's military presence in a number of European countries was eliminated;

the NATO bloc expanded eastward, to the borders of Russia;

An enclave was formed - the Kaliningrad region.

The length of Russia's land borders is great, and Russia's geopolitical position relative to its neighboring countries has also become different from what it had as part of the USSR. After the collapse of the USSR, Russia's number of neighbors did not formally change. There are fourteen of them (and with two more neighboring states the Russian Federation has only maritime borders - with Japan and the USA). The actual borders with border posts and customs offices stretch for 1605 km (990 km with the Baltic countries, 615 km with Azerbaijan and Georgia). The border with the Baltic countries is demarcated. The border with Norway, Finland, Mongolia and the DPRK (17 km) has not changed. The border with Poland (which now borders only the Kaliningrad region) and with China has been sharply reduced by more than half.

In modern science you can find many concepts that denote areas of knowledge that study the spatial aspects of heterogeneous phenomena. Among them: regional studies, geography, regional science, regional studies, local history, regional science, geographical state studies, geopolitics, regional political science. In order to understand what political regionalism is and what scientific problems it solves, it is necessary to understand all this variety of concepts.

Regional studies and their diversity

The very first, basic concept, which does not yet denote a specific science, but outlines a vast subject area, is the concept "regional studies". Any study can be considered regional if it uses one of two principles (or both principles at once):

principle of differentiation, which involves studying regional differences in the same phenomenon.

principle of localization, which involves the study of specific localized (i.e., clearly defined and limited on the ground) complexes of various phenomena in their interrelation.

Following these principles allows you to study the spatial dimension of any phenomena. The spatial dimension of phenomena of any origin is the subject of regional studies.

It must be emphasized that the concept of “space” is used here in its classical understanding, known both from philosophy and geography. Space is understood as a set of objects (objects and phenomena), which are considered using attributes such as position relative to each other, extent, shape, distance and orientation.

1 In political science one can come across the concept of “political space”, which often goes without explanation, representing not even a concept, but rather a meta-

All the above-mentioned areas of knowledge are in one way or another involved in regional studies. Let’s try to determine what explains and what the differences are in order to ultimately understand what political regionalism is.

Such a large and fairly confusing variety of concepts has its own explanations.

Firstly, historically, geography was the first to engage in regional studies - a science whose name, as you know, has a translation: “land description”. However, significant problems arose in the progressive development of geography. The main one is the limited development of theoretical geography with an abundance of heterogeneous “land-descriptive” studies. The insufficient maturity of theoretical geography is expressed in a large number of different concepts, none of which has yet become an integrating and widely recognized scientific paradigm of a general geographical nature. The weakness of theoretical geography is combined with the practical absence of dissemination and popularization of its concepts outside the geographical community.

In addition, geography historically emerged as a natural science, based on the study of nature. Social and humanitarian aspects were introduced into it later. Moreover, geography for a long period, right up to the first half of the 20th century, was characterized by nature-centrism, trying to consider social phenomena as a function of natural conditions 2 .

In such a situation, humanities scholars who are not geographers by training, when studying regions, often strive to search for new concepts that make it possible to define regional studies without using the concept of “geography.”

Secondly, the peculiarity of regional studies is the inevitable and even obligatory duplication of the object of research with other sciences. In this regard, it is useful to recall the well-known classification of sciences proposed by the German philosopher I. Kant and used by the famous theorist of geography A. Getter [Getter, 1930]. In accordance with the approach of I. Kant and A. Höttner, sciences are divided into three groups:

Essential, subject, systematizing, classifying sciences;

Sciences are temporal, chronological, historical, periodizing;

Spatial, chorological, topographical, zoning sciences.

a handicap denoting the configuration presented by the author, the relationship between political institutions and phenomena, or the political environment in which certain social processes occur. In our case, the concept of “space” is used in a strict, “original” sense.

2 The paradigm of geographical determinism considers social phenomena in their dependence on natural, physical and geographical characteristics.

Regional studies simultaneously belong to the first and third groups. This means that they do not have a specific object of research, or, in other words, their object of research is space itself in its structural diversity. But each element of this diversity is necessarily studied by some specialized science. Moreover, this specialized science inevitably takes into account and to some extent explores regional differences associated with its object.

Thus, regional studies represent a transitional field of knowledge; they are interdisciplinary in their very essence. Specialists with different education come to regional studies, and they inevitably use the theoretical knowledge that was obtained within the framework of their specialized science.

Thirdly, a number of levels of regional research are distinguished. The fact is that space can be scaled; it can be presented in the form of collections of objects of very different sizes, depending on the task of a particular study. Therefore, special regional studies are possible, where the spatial dimension has one or another scale over a wide range from the global to the local level. As a result, these types of regional studies, as they accumulate material and theoretical baggage, tend to isolate themselves and seek their own identity.

In such a situation, a strict distinction between concepts seems unproductive, since all areas of regional research are interconnected and flow into one another. Attempts to strictly define and clearly limit certain particular types of regional studies as separate and independent sciences should be recognized as unproductive scholasticism.

Regional science and political regionalism

Along with geography and historically - after geography, but not instead of it, a new general definition of the field of knowledge arose, with the help of which in world practice it is customary to combine regional studies of the social and humanitarian profile. This concept is "regional science" (regional science; another translation of this concept is also possible - “science of regions”). Regional science studies the spatial dimension of social, economic, political and behavioral phenomena. It has been developing quite actively since the middle of the 20th century. The International Association of Regional Science, founded in 1954, operates and its headquarters are located in the British city of Leeds.

Concept "regional studies" etymologically very close to the concept of “regional science”. It is the result of word formation that occurred in the Russian language and does not have a direct translation into English and other languages ​​most common in world science. In essence, the only adequate option for translating the concept of “regional studies” into English is precisely “regional science”. At the same time, the principle of distinguishing the levels of regional studies allows us to highlight the subject field of political regional studies, considering it as a separate part of regional science (see below).

Regional studies cannot be carried out “in general”; they still must have a more specific object. We are talking about the fact that regional studies take objects from other sciences and consider their spatial dimensions. But at the same time, each specific regional study must proceed from the presence of its own special object. For example, W. Izard’s work “Methods of Regional Analysis: An Introduction to the Science of Regions,” published in New York in 1960 and translated into Russian in 1966, is devoted to socio-economic issues [Izard, 1966]. This work sets out in detail the methods of collecting and analyzing regional socio-economic information, but the conceptual framework and guidelines for regional science itself remain undefined. At the same time, the author himself notes in conclusion: “the very vast area of ​​this science (i.e., the science of regions, regional science. - Author) cannot be limited to the development of methods of analysis, even if these methods are supplemented by abundant, well-thought-out and organized research geographers and other scientists. The science of regions must invade the field of theory, in which regional and inter-district structures and functions will occupy a central place. Such a theory must reveal and generalize the interdependencies between the system and its subdivisions... It must go beyond the orthodox theories of the social sciences. and to place emphasis on those fundamental interactions of political, social and economic factors which have hitherto generally been neglected" [Izard, 1966, p. 656].

Thus, there is a conditional sectoral structure of regional science associated with specific objects of research. Although it must be understood that the complex connections of phenomena in a specific territory do not allow us to consider the selected object in isolation from others, for example, political phenomena - in isolation from economic or cultural ones. Therefore, having selected one object and identified through it the sectoral direction of regional science, it is possible and often necessary to consider the influence on it of other objects acting as factors. For example, political regional studies can consider economic and cultural factors as factors influencing the territorial characteristics of their object. It is no coincidence that W. Izard in his works emphasizes the interaction of political, social and economic factors. The result of such interaction is the placement of certain phenomena (objects), the analysis of which and the identification of relevant patterns is carried out by regional science.

The object of political regionalism is the object of political science, i.e. political institutions, phenomena and processes. Just as the result of the synthesis of geography and political science is political geography, so the result of the synthesis of regional science and political science is political regionalism.

It should be noted that political regionalism, a political branch in regional science, is not yet such a developed scientific direction in world practice. Western regional science is still focused more on the study of socio-economic, demographic, urban planning, and environmental issues in the context of the placement, spatial structuring and movement of objects and phenomena (later behavioral issues were added to them in the logic of the development of Western science). In this form, regional science is much closer to economic geography and regional economics. In general, regional science in world practice does not yet claim the status of a separate science and is rather an attempt to organize a dialogue between regional trends existing in various sciences and specialists in these fields. Issues close to political regionalism are considered to a greater (but still insufficient) extent in Western political geography, which in recent decades has been moving further and further away from traditional geography and closer to political science.

Political regionalism is still in its infancy; in the West it has not yet developed as a science. Russia, with its unique set of regional problems, may well become one of the centers for the development of political regionalism. Political regionalism itself, in our opinion, can be considered as a special scientific direction with independent prospects, although it has a distinctly interdisciplinary nature and is inextricably linked with other sciences.

Thus, the object of research in political regionalism is in many ways the same as for political science in general. But to define it more clearly, you should use rule of territorial differentiation, which means considering only those political phenomena that are characterized by territorial heterogeneity:

The objects studied in political regionalism assume the presence of internal territorial differentiation. If it is not observed or it is not recognized as significant, then the object cannot be considered in political regionalism.

Political regionalism is focused on the study of politics at the subnational (i.e., intrastate) level, which practically excludes from the study objects that have an international or national format, but are not differentiated at the subnational level.

So, objects of research in political regionalism should assume the possibility of regionalization (division into territorial fragments according to given criteria) or comparison between subnational territorial cells (which means the presence of differences between these cells). In other words, every political scientific object that is interesting for political regionalism must have a territorial projection.

Taking into account this rule, the following can be considered possible objects of research in political regionalism.

1. Political institutions. For example, political institutions include the state and its administrative units. For political regionalism, both national power (in the context of its activities, which has a territorial projection and territorial effect) and
and power at regional and local levels.

Political regionalism also examines institutions such as parties, interest groups and pressure groups. The rule of territorial differentiation again means that we consider only regional projections of parties, i.e. their activities in the regions and in connection with the regions.

2. Political systems and political regimes. The measure of regional differences in the national political system and in the national political regime is considered. If the differences are large enough, we can talk about regional political systems and regional political regimes.

3. Political processes. Here we are talking about the territorial projection of national political processes. An example is the study of regional differences in national election results. Or political processes at a purely regional or local level are considered.

4. Political culture, political behavior and political participation. As in the case of the political system and political regime, the researcher considers the measure of regional differences in political culture, defining regional political cultures.

5. Political elites and political leadership. By analogy with other objects of research, here we can consider the processes of formation of regional political elites and political leadership at the regional level.

6. Political communications. Political regionalism can also take into account the regional characteristics of political communications. In particular, these are political communications between the center and the regions, differences in the characteristics of political communications between regions, political communications in individual regions.

5 It is correct to talk about administrative-territorial units (ATE), into which the territory of the state is divided. The concept of “administrative unit” can be used as a simplified synonym for ATE. In general, the concept of “administrative” (a possible synonym is “managerial”, which corresponds to the translation of the word administratio from Latin) is used in political regionalism in relation to territorial phenomena that have a state legal status (regions, borders, centers, etc.).