Abstract: The subject of this research is the sources of formation of a subject domain as well as conceptual and methodological bases of comparative law in ancient philosophical and legal discourse. The authors address to the heritage of Ancient Greek and Ancient Roman philosophy of law, reveal specifics of antique legal thinking, offer sociocultural and mental assessment of its contents and orientation of development of the latter. They emphasize the importance of the Ancient comparative and legal discourse for the formation and development of legislative, law-enforcement and right interpretative practice of the past and the present. In their research the authors have used historical and legal and comparative and legal methods. As the methodological strategy of the research they have used the discourse approach offered by M. Foucault who insisited that the appeal to the research of various sociocultural phenomena including the state and legal phenomena and processes should be realized in terms of of acting social practices that influence the essence of the latter. For these research objectives, the authors have described a number of social practices that predetermined the development of both public, and hidden comparative and legal discourses which defined formations and development of the classical Ancient philosophy and law. In their research the authors have described particular features of the formation and development of a subject domain and methodlogical grounds of of comparative law in Ancient socio-cultural and political and legal scenarios. They have proved that Greek and Roman concepts of the political and legal relaities, their forms and means of constructing legal terms and practical tools became a substantive beginning and course of an original and unique European (and later EuroAmerican) legal universum.

Abstract: The object of this research is the political legal though of the late XIX – early XX centuries; while the subject is the process of formation of the national methodological foundations of the dissertation development of state legal studies over the period of the XIX – early XX centuries in the Russian Empire. Particular attention is given to the mainstream, mental elements and development trends of the national political legal thought, “methodological preferences”, worldview orientations in examination of the political and legal phenomena and processes. The authors considered the master’s and doctoral theses on state law, defended in the law faculties of universities of the Russian Empire, which selected the issues and questions of the methodology of science as the subject of research; using the legal-hermeneutic and comparative-historical methods, were examined the goals, tasks, content, and results of the theses of the indicated timeframe. The work determines the general patterns of genesis and development of the methodological legal studies contained in the pre-revolutionary theses, which were justified by the specificity of evolution of the legal science in Russian in the late XIX – early XX centuries. A conclusion is formulated about the peculiarities of origination of the national methodological grounds of dissertation development of the legal studies in Russia over the indicated timeframe.

Abstract: The subject of this research is the medieval political legal thought, within the framework of which have developed the archetypal (divine) ideas, as well as the antique perceptions about the “arche” (initial foundation, proto-idea, etc.) as a deep foundation of the public authority organization and value-normative system. The article demonstrates that the medieval though has formed two axial lines of evolution of the archetypal research: first one is associated with the highest arche-ideas, initial principles, divine concepts, etc.; second one, on the contrary, is associated with the purely human, material measurement of an archetype – archaic heritage, unconscious structures of mentality, collective ideas, initial outrage and "cultural amnesia" of the sources of sociopolitical and legal cultural integrity, as well as particular political legal institutions. The theoretical methodological basis of this research consists in the experience in world history of state and law, positions of juridical anthropology, and cultural-historical approach applied on legal studies and political science. The scientific novelty of this work lies in the author’s interpretation of the medieval tradition of archetypal research. The article reveals and substantiates a unique tradition that in conceptually framed by the medieval theologians and associated with perceiving an archetype as simultaneously final and initial “point of harmonization” of the volitional, cognitive, and spiritual powers. This aspect depicts the ideative character of interpretation of the archetypal foundations. Archetype “originates” the crucially new dimension, forms the “point of convergence”, or the “way of ascension” to the uniform, universal. The article also substantiate that the idea of archetypal foundations as a descriptive discourse became dominant in the era of Renaissance and Reformation, as well as significantly influences the establishment of the theory of Jungian archetypes. The novelty also implies the characterization of the formed in Medieval Times tradition of examination of the positive law in instrumental aspect, in other words, as a necessary institutionally normative form that ensures manifestation and presence of the highest values and norms within the public authority organization, including forcing the members of community to follow the highest principles and ideals.  

Abstract: The object of this article is the political process in modern Russia, while the subject is the role, place, and qualitative characteristics of the modern Russian federal and regional elites as the driving force of sociopolitical processes. Based on the sociological (field) research, the authors examine the general perception of the Russian elite; systematize the ideas on the dynamics of elite; as well as assessment of its qualitative state within the post-Soviet political processes. Special attention is given to the measures that encourage the development of interaction between the elites, and forms of the quality improvement of political leadership in modern Russia. The work applies the result of the panel expert surveys conducted during the preparation for the First All-Russian Elitological Congress (2013) and Second All-Russian Elitological Congress (2016). The theoretical-methodological vector of this work consists in the following: 1) generalization, systemic examination, and sociopolitical interpretation of the overall comprehension on the Russian elites and its perception by the expert community; 2) generalization of the system of evaluation of the dynamics of qualitative changes within the elites, and determination of the complex of measures that in the experts’ opinion must encourage the development of interaction between the elites, as well as development of the political leadership. The article carries out the political modeling of the general sociopolitical trends, which manifest and develop within the current ruling class. Based on the acquired empirical and analytical data, the author confirms the prevalence of certain stereotypic ideas about the political and business elite. At the same time, it is demonstrated that the public and expert opinion still give low assessment namely to the elite capital of the modern ruling class. The article concludes that within the political process of modern Russia, we can observe the trend towards estrangement of the elite groups, their desire to preserve the ruling positions and commercial preferences, as well as the overall reduction in mental activity of the elite groups and individual leaders, value of the national interests, problems of national security and sociocultural integrity of the Russian society. The authors also discuss the forms, directions, and measures that are called to correct the negative trends in modern elitogenesis.

Abstract: Formation of the tradition of archetypal research of public-authority organization
The subject of this research is the historical-political examination of the process of establishment and ideological-conceptual evolution of the notion of “archetype”, as well as the comprehensive analysis of formation of the archetypal tradition of cognition of the grounds of public-authority organization. The article substantiates the fact that the relevance and demand of the study of archetypal grounds is associated with the reconstruction of adequate to society forms of political-legal organization, as well as sustainable directions on institutional-authority development. In addition to that, the author underlines that within the history of political and legal thought there are various traditions of archetypal research, which are not reduced to just a single theoretical-conceptual format – analytical psychology that discovers the new heuristic opportunities in examination of the sustainable components of sociocultural evolution of the public-authority organization. The methodological and theoretical foundation is mostly based on developments on the area of political science, history of political teachings that belong to the Russian and foreign specialists, as well as separate positions of the theory of archetypes and political anthropology. The scientific novelty of this work consists in systematization and substantial interpretation of the fundamental directions in development of the archetypal traditions that ate based on the diverse worldview, philosophical, mythological, religious, and other grounds. The article proves that the ideas on the unified archetypal tradition, which originates from Plato and continues to the modern socio-humanitarian discourse, are erroneous. In reality, there are different ideological-conceptual vectors of understanding and interpretation of the concept of “arche”, which is associated with the establishment of a special direction in research of the in-depth foundations of social organization and political-legal thinking activity. At the same time, in this multiplicity of archetypal traditions, it is possible to highlight and conceptualize the core ideas, concurrent interpretations, as well as similar forms of cognition of the hidden and meaningful foundations of society, state, authority, and politics.