2.3. Political theories of the XIX-XX centuries.

At the end of the XVIII - the first half of the XIX century. there is an approval and development of a capitalist civilization with its foundations - private property, free competition and private initiative. In accordance with this, the creation of a new political and legal system began. The leading direction of the political thought of this period is liberalism (from the Latin liberalis - "free" ). Liberals (Benjamin Constant, Jeremiah Bentham, and others) substantiated various rights and freedoms of citizens, above all, personal integrity, freedom of private property and industrial competition, and also advocated the idea of ​​non-interference of the state in the economy. Political freedom, according to Konstan, serves only as a means to ensure civil liberty. Power that violates civil liberty turns into tyranny. Hence the conclusion that political power should not be absolute . The border for it is the rights of the individual and the system of separation and balance of power. An important point in the theory of liberalism was the separation of civil society and the state as independent spheres of life .

The development of political thought in the first half of the nineteenth century. was accompanied not only by the shift of its ideological orientation, but also by transformations in the cognitive and methodological aspect. There is a positivism , the origins of which stood Auguste Comte . This trend contributed to the development of empirical research policy. The objective of positivist sociology. Conte considered the systematization of social life and the theoretical substantiation of a new socio-political system — sociocracy, whose main goal he saw was to establish a durable order and ensure progress, that is, the evolutionary development of the bourgeois system . In kontovskoy sociocracy, classes of capitalists and workers are preserved, strict hierarchy reigns and solidarity of classes prevails. Political power should belong to bankers, and spiritual - to scientists. Workers in the sociocracy have a place of simple performers. In essence, the Kontov "political association" merges with society and absorbs it. Individual freedom is sacrificed by political power. Anti-liberal project of Comte in the future did not receive development. However, his ideas about a positivist approach to the study of political phenomena had a significant impact on the development of political sociology.

In the 40s. XIX century. Marxism is emerging, which later becomes one of the most influential ideologies. Karl Marx in his political doctrine put forward the idea of ​​the determining influence of the mode of production on the state and politics, absolutized the class nature of political relations. The state was regarded as a product of the alienation of labor, as a result of the domination of private property . Marxism was characterized by a destructive view of the problems of political power and bureaucracy. It was based on the idea of ​​the temporal bureaucracy , which is subject to immediate elimination after the proletariat won political power in the socialist revolution. In place of bourgeois democracy, according to Marxism, proletarian democracy must come, meaning the total participation of the people in government. Full democracy and the development of self-government should have led to the gradual demise of the state and politics .

The rapid social development and exacerbation of political problems in the twentieth century. led to the expansion of research by social scientists. Depending on the orientation to certain forces, interests and trends of political development, such directions of political thought as neoliberalism, neo-conservatism, reformism , etc. have developed. The heterogeneity is characteristic of political theories not only ideologically, but also philosophically and methodologically. At the turn of the XIX - XX centuries. there is a formation of an independent political science, separated from the jurisprudence.

One of the most significant representatives of political sociology of the early twentieth century. was Marx Weber . In his sociological doctrine an important place was occupied by the problem of bureaucracy, which is closely connected with the issue of political power. The bureaucracy was considered by him as a "tool of power", which ensures the orderly existence of society . Investigating the phenomenon of bureaucracy, Weber came to the conclusion about the universal nature of this phenomenon. Bureaucratization developed in various societies and rooted in not only politics, but also economics and other areas of social life. Considering the existence of professional bureaucracy necessary, Weber at the same time noted the danger of the total bureaucratization of society . He proposed to create a mechanism for controlling the bureaucratic apparatus . He saw the "counterbalances" of bureaucratization, on the one hand, in democracy, and on the other, in the charisma of political leaders, who possessed an extraordinary personal gift, an outstanding fortitude. The main methodological ideas of Weber in the field of research of political power largely determine the direction of modern political sociology.

A prominent place in the political science of modernity is the elitist theory . One of its founders was the Italian economist and sociologist Vilfredo Pareto , who owns the term "elite". Pareto tried to identify the characteristics of the dominant groups in society and sought to determine the process by which changes occur in the class structure. He viewed political life as a struggle and change of elites . Pareto developed elite membership criteria by proposing a points system. The group that received the highest marks was determined by him as the chosen class, or elite. Society as a whole, according to Pareto, consists of an elite (ruling and non-ruling) and a lower, non-elected class. He explained the emergence and existence of the ruling elite mainly by the psychological properties of people. Pareto emphasized the instability of the ruling elite, the constant struggle of its constituent groups, the process of continuous change of the ruling class. In the hands of Pareto, important problems of the structure of political power and the group nature of its implementation were raised.

A variant of the elitist theory was the concept of "oligarchy" , developed by Robert Michels . The main objective of this concept was to prove the impossibility of implementing the principles of democracy in political life . According to Michels, the "ruling class" is faced with the need to organize the masses to participate in the political process. The greatest effectiveness is achieved by those political organizations that are able to provide support for their goals by the organized masses. However, the “principle of organization” itself leads to the bureaucratization of mass political structures. As they develop, democracy declines, becoming an oligarchy. According to the concept of Michels, this occurs in the process of interaction of three factors: the technical properties of political organization, the mental properties of organized masses and the mental characteristics of political leaders. Michels called the whole complex of tendencies leading to the emergence of an oligarchic structure of power "the iron law of oligarchy."

Concrete-sociological studies of political life have been actively developed in American political science. The new approach to the analysis of public administration is most clearly manifested in the works of Arthur Bentley , one of the pioneers of the theory of "interest groups" . At the heart of the theory of Bentley and his approach to the study of the political process is the concept of human activity. From the point of view of Bentley, the activities of people, which is based on their interests, are carried out not individually, but through groups. Therefore, the group was considered by him as a massive human activity. The interest of the group is not determined by the programs and statements about its goals, but by the actually observed activity and behavior of its members. Bentley opposed the consideration of ideas and ideals as the root cause of group behavior, thus he underestimated the role of political consciousness and political culture in general. Political relations were interpreted by Bentley as a process of struggle of interest groups, during which pressure is put on the government . Congress, the president, the courts, according to Bentley, are only “official” interest groups. The use of empirical and quantitative methods in political science research, a sociological analysis of group activities has earned the scientist a reputation as one of the founders of a concrete sociological approach to US government.

The further development of American political science was accelerated by a significant increase in the state apparatus and executive power after the First World War. The development of practical recommendations for reform activities in the field of public administration required a new methodology for political research. American political scientists and state scholars increasingly began to turn to scientific disciplines, studying real social structures and processes, and above all to sociology.

In the 1920s and 30s A new methodological orientation was associated with the work of Charles Merriam . On his initiative, the concept of Thurstone was borrowed from social psychology, according to which the study of human behavior should be based on an analysis of his attitudes. It was believed that such an analysis could be carried out by creating a scale of opinions obtained from surveys. In political research, a movement known as “behaviorism” is born.

Merriam and his followers proclaimed the relevance of studying human behavior in groups, in government institutions and in the political process in general. In this case, the main object of political and behavioral research becomes political power.

After the Second World War, behaviorism is widely distributed in the political science of the United States. The Chicago School (after the name of the university) played a decisive role in this, where leading political scientists of the 1950s and 1960s received an education. Behaviorism in political science is a methodological orientation, the purpose of which is to analyze all the phenomena of public administration in terms of observed human behavior . According to behaviorists, the study of actual behavior can establish the underlying intentions and motivations for both individuals and entire groups. The fundamental principles of behaviorist political science proclaim the requirements of scientific neutrality, reliance on empirical survey data, their strict systematization and mathematical processing. Modern behavioral methodology and theory develops on the basis of sociological analysis in various areas: voter behavior and public opinion (Roger Kay), political leadership (Henry Laswell), political socialization (David Easton, Leini Denis), political culture (Godman Almond, Perel Verba) and etc.

In the first half of the twentieth century. in connection with the development of state-monopoly capitalism, the role of state structures in European countries and the USA is increasing. This process led to a crisis of ideas of classical liberalism and caused the emergence of the doctrine of "state regulation" . Proponents of active government intervention in the economy ( John Keynes and others) believed that the restriction of liberty within the framework of the central planning system is a sacrifice necessary to achieve a more important goal - to ensure a more dignified life for the majority of the population . The creation of a mixed economy, the active regulatory role of the state and the policy of social services were seen as a path to a "welfare state" in which advocates of this concept saw an alternative not only to pre-monolithic capitalism, but also to socialism.

In defense of the principles and ideas of liberalism in the 40s. Twentieth century. The Austrian economist and political scientist Friedrich Hayek spoke. In his works, he explored the background and consequences of two alternative ways of organizing social life - liberalism and totalitarianism (he identified the latter with socialism). By totalitarianism, he understood the inevitable practical results of the implementation of collectivist projects. Its source is the organization of the life of society according to a single plan. Its practical implementation, according to Hayek, begins with the replacement of the spontaneous market order by planned leadership, followed by the collapse of the values ​​and pillars of a free society — democracy, law, personal independence, free-thinking, etc., firm legal rules are replaced by prescriptions and instructions, the rule of law replaced by the rule of political power, and a limited form of government - unlimited. The process of absorption of society by the state ends with the establishment of a totalitarian system. The concept of Hayek distinguishes two fundamental positions. The first is that economic freedom is the foundation of all human rights and freedoms, with the destruction of which the structure of a liberal society collapses . The second is that the approval of totalitarianism is the inevitable result of the transfer to modern society of the principles by which autonomous organizations, such as factories or armies, live. Hayek’s philosophy of freedom, restoring the values ​​of classical liberalism, is gaining increasing acceptance, especially in connection with the crisis in the 1970s. Keynesian model of state regulation and the collapse of the doctrine of "real socialism".

In recent decades, technocratic theories have gained worldwide acceptance. A notable milestone in the history of technocratic doctrines was the concept of Joseph Barnham . From his point of view, as a result of turbulent technological processes, there was a "revolution" in political power and public administration, which is associated with the formation of a class of managers. The nationalized economy is the basis of their political domination. Barnham argues that the state is increasingly becoming the property of managers . Due to their position as "controllers" of society, they become a privileged class capable of self-reproduction. In the future, Barnham believes, a single technocratic state will be established on the planet, headed by a committee of technocratic directors.

Technocratic ideas are increasingly developing beyond the framework of a special doctrine and are being fused into other leading theories (convergence, elitism, pluralistic democracy, etc.).