Obŝestvennye nauki i sovremennostʹ

The views of modern representatives of Ibero-American social thought are studied regarding the interaction between government and society in Latin America from its historical origins to the present time, taking into account the increasing complexity of political and social life. The influence of social reformism of the first decades of the 21st century on the growth of public expectations and protest sentiments, youth behavior, and increased political polarization are analyzed. The effect of “democratic fatigue” in the context of growing disappointment and radicalism, and the emergence of populist leaders are noted. This trend poses a significant threat to the political and social stability of Latin American countries. A characteristic feature of Ibero-American studies is the identification of general, fundamental trends based on the study of specific national situations. The methodological basis of the article is a comprehensive systems approach, methods of historical and civilizational analysis.

The unsatisfactory state of the modern Russia-Japan relations is aggravated by the propaganda of Russophobia, information manipulation, the fight against alternative opinion and other means of waging an information war against Russia. This paper aims to analyse them in their evolution from 2022 to 2025 in the context of the international political crisis related to the events in Ukraine. The consolidation of the Japanese mainstream discourse in promoting Russophobia and information manipulation is proved and then the similarities and specifics in comparison with other countries of the anti-Russian coalition are discussed. Examples of repression against leaders of non-mainstream political discourse who insist that Japan should be guided by its own security and national interests, and for this reason abandon the radical course of condemning Russia’s actions, are provided. Some interim results of the ongoing information war are summarized and conclusions are drawn about their inconsistency. The Japanese information war, on the one hand, exacerbates the crisis of Russian-Japanese relations, continuing to turn public opinion against Russia. On the other hand, due to the prolonged use of a limited set of discourses, it has an unexpected effect, forcing a part of society to doubt the quality of the information offered by official sources and turn to the non-mainstream ones.

The focus of the study is on the experience of Germany’s participation in negotiations on the settlement and prevention of armed conflicts in the Near and Middle East, in Africa north of the equator. Comparative analysis, provisions of theories of conflict resolution and securitization are used. The dynamics of the Bonn process on Afghanistan are traced, as well as the evolution of the approach of official Berlin to the use of the «European trio» in the negotiations on the Agreement on a comprehensive plan of action with Iran. The contribution of Germany to the work of the Friends of Syria Group and the Small Group on Syria is shown in conjunction with attempts to advance the interests of the moderate opposition. The launch and difficulties of the Berlin Conference on Libya are considered. The reasons of the failures of German diplomacy, first of all FRG`s attempts to combine the goal of resolution of conflicts with the tasks of “containing” system opponents.

The problems of self-identification of the Russian civilization in socio-political discourse in the context of external challenges are studied. The views of foreign and domestic philosophers on the concept of «Russian civilization» are analyzed. Based on the methodology of critical discourse analysis by T.A. van Dijk, the connections between the concepts of «Russian civilization», «Russian idea», «Russian world», their polysemy, contexts of use and intention (goal, intentions) in the political process are revealed. The study showed that the main motive for using the concept of «Russian civilization» is associated with the isolation of the latter from Europe, while the concepts of «Russian idea» and «Russian world» sometimes act as synonyms, although contextually and intentionally they are not identical. A content analysis of the Russian Federation foreign policy concepts of 2013, 2016 and 2023 was conducted, and the evolution of ideas about the civilizational approach and priorities of Russia in strategic planning documents was traced. The phrase «state-civilization» included in the Russian Foreign Policy Concept of 2023 is identified with the «Russian world» and acquires a strategic significance that goes beyond the civilizational approach.

‘The Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) represented a unique phenomenon in Bulgarian politics. Possessing a stable electorate, based on the Turkish ethnic minority vote, for three and a half decades the MRF maintained roughly the same level of presence in the National Assembly. This stability made it a welcome ally for various non-political players interested in establishing long-term contacts with the political elite. During the entire existence of the MRF, its representatives have never headed a government. By remaining in the political ”shadow”, the Movement kept open the possibility of compromise and negotiation with representatives of different views, which in turn gave it easier access to state resources. In 2023–2024, the younger generation of DPS politicians attempted to change the party’s behavioural model towards a more typical Bulgarian populist project. The clash of different visions of the future of the Movement led to the split of its parliamentary faction in July 2024 into roughly equal parts advocating different strategies of political struggle.

Some results are presented of the semiotic analysis of the formation and genesis of the capitalist world-system considered as a global social order. Since the emergence and development of social systems occurs as a result of the complex interaction of various conditions and factors – economic, political, cultural and communicative, the need to develop an interdisciplinary theoretical platform that attaches key importance to semiotic processes is substantiated. The latter are inextricably intertwined with the practical and communicative actions of people, generating meanings, values and motivations – the driving forces of life of people and society. The possibilities of the communicative-semiotic approach as an interdisciplinary methodology are demonstrated by using the example of the synthesis of such achievements in the study of the capitalist world economic system as the theory of money and capital by K. Marx, the concepts of historical capitalism by I. Wallerstein and the capitalist world-economy by F. Braudel. All these theories and concepts do not oppose, but develop and complement each other, linking the process of formation and development of the capitalist world order with the formation of a special privileged class of capitalists, purposefully creating and expanding, over a long historical period, a special communicative and semantic space in the world. In this context, the problem of choosing and creating the future of Russia is considered. It is concluded that a decent and prosperous future for the country is impossible without the restoration of full political, economic and technological sovereignty with simultaneous systemic transformations of the country’s internal life and its external relations within the framework of a common semantic perspective that consolidates Russian society for the creation of a just, solidary, humanely structured, harmoniously and sustainably developing state and economy.

The concept of marketing in politics is a philosophy according to which electoral success can be achieved by directing coordinated actions of a political party (candidate) to meet the needs of an audience representing a certain market segment. Political marketing in Italy is perceived within two approaches: reductionist (interprets political marketing as technologies used in an electoral campaign) and holistic (considers political marketing comprehensively, presenting it as a system to analyze the relationship between a political organization as a “product” and the “demand” for it in the “market”). Despite the fact that the study and use of political marketing has recently begun to develop in Italy, some political marketing trends can be identified in the country’s political system: Americanization; the desire of political parties to move to the political center; mediatization; personification. However, along with the trends, it is worth noting the obstacles to the development of the political marketing system in Italy: the lack of a stable system of permanent operation of market-oriented parties; the lack of political marketing as an industry; the psychology of the political elite; emerging obstacles at the legislative level.