Articles

For almost two centuries, the ancient Patriarchate of Antioch, domestic Church for orthodox population of Syria and Lebanon, was under the control of the Greek patriarchs. At the beginning of the 20th century it regained its independence. Though it was not only a benefit, but also a real challenge, including internal crises. One of the first was the crisis of 1913. At the beginning of the year, Patriarch Gregory IV of Antioch visited Russia, and soon after his return, a sharp conflict broke out inside the patriarchate. On the basis of Russian diplomatic documents, the article analyzes the causes and development of the crisis in the Patriarchate of Antioch, clarifies the role of Russian diplomacy in resolving the conflict between the patriarch and the synodal opposition, and determines the impact that the patriarch’s trip to Russia had on the progress of the crisis.

This article focused on the development of the management system and organization structure of the soviet oil industry in 1920s-1930s. In the article were analized changes in the structure of government bodies since abolition NEP to the moment of creation of People’s Commissariat of the Oil Industry (Narkomneft). Affected reforms resulted in increased centralization and the growth of bureaucracy. But thanks to these changes, the overall performance of the industry has increased, expressed in an increase in oil production, oil refining and a significant expansion of prospecting geological works. Creation of the Narkomneft became the last stage of the pre-war reforms in the management of the soviet oil industry. The People’s Commissariat of the Oil Industry retained leading government structure over the oil industry until 1946, when it was divided into two People’s Commissars (later ministries) of the oil industry.

The article is devoted to the interpretation of conceptual approaches (market and resource) to the formation of competitive advantages of companies. The key features of the classic business environment and the prerequisites on which the market and resource approaches are based are formulated. The differences were revealed between two opposite approaches to competition (according to Porter) — “to be the best” or “to be unique”. The limitedness of the “being the best” approach is shown, and it is proved that strategy is responsible for the uniqueness (of a product or method), and uniqueness is achieved through innovation. Attention is drawn to the fact that companies make strategic choices simultaneously in the space of results and in the space of risks, so this can lead to both success and failure (this is the essence of the strategic paradox). And the conclusion was made that the more extreme (extreme) strategies the company adheres to, the greater the strategic risk it takes upon itself, and this can lead to both obtaining large profits and ending in bankruptcy. Michael Raynor’s rationale is given that companies seeking to avoid risk (implementing hybrid strategies) make a choice in favor of lower profits (in favor of mediocrity), but this statement in some cases does not find confirmation in reality. It has been proven in practice that if a company manages to quickly move from one wave of competitive advantage to another, then it can maintain a sustainable competitive advantage for a long time; an algorithm for such a transition is presented.

The article reveals the current state of participatory governance practices on the example of the implementation of urban development projects in terms of improvement, key barriers and boundaries of civic participation in addressing the development of urban environment. The problems are considered through the concepts of political governance, trust within the existing regulatory framework and actual participatory practices in the regional context of 85 subjects of the Russian Federation, as well as taking into account the specifics of the current political landscape. The necessity of modifying the existing paradigm of interaction between the authorities and society in terms of improving the quality and intensity of such interaction is elaborated and substantiated, and successful cases from the regions of the Russian Federation with positive results and confirming the effectiveness of the active inclusion of society in the dialogue with the state are presented.

The article analyzes the concept and elements of the innovation infrastructure created in the subjects of the Russian Federation over the past thirty years. The author evaluates the evolution of the use of such innovative infrastructure facilities as business incubators, techno parks, clusters, SEZs in the regions of our country, and comes to the conclusion that the results of their use in recent years are quite modest and do not lead to a significant increase in the production of innovative products. At the same time, the author uses the example of a number of subjects of the Siberian Federal District (Krasnoyarsk Krai, Novosibirsk and Tomsk Regions, the Republic of Yakutia) to determine the advantages of using such innovative development institutions as research support funds, venture and guarantee funds, as well as regional development corporations by the subjects of the Russian Federation. The article suggests linking federal priorities for the development of science and innovation support with regional priorities, defining subjects and criteria for providing assistance at the expense of regional budgets in the relevant regional law on innovation, as well as building a clear system for providing types of subsidies in regional state programs for the development of innovation. In addition, the article proposes to legislatively regulate the activities of existing regional institutions of regional innovative development (science support funds, development corporations, innovation support funds).

The article examines the role of state information systems as a regulator of public relations. The author proceeds from the premise that the rules and requirements laid down in the algorithms of such systems, under certain circumstances, have all the signs of a legal norm and actually act in their capacity, and the state information systems themselves de facto become a source of law. Using the method of analysis, the author highlights the existing problems associated with the use of state information systems in such a role: the uncertainty of legal consequences, the heterogeneity of law enforcement practice, the conflict of legality and legitimacy. The principal solution to these problems, according to the author’s conclusion, is the recognition of state and municipal information systems as a form (source) of law de jure, their integration into the legal system and the extension of the principles and stages of the lawmaking process to their creation.

In the article the authors consider the main directions and some controversial aspects of public participation in ensuring law and order in the Russian Federation. The study draws attention to the ambiguity of the term “social formation” used in the doctrine, insufficient material incentives for the participation of certain public formations in ensuring law and order, and modern legal modernization of the foundations of interaction between the state and civil society in ensuring constitutional law and order. Based on the analysis of Russian legislation, the authors identified several forms of participation of public formations in the protection of public order: participation of citizens in the protection of public order, freelance cooperation with internal affairs bodies, participation of citizens in the search for missing persons, public associations (public initiative bodies), public organizations, people’s guards, points of public order protection, Russian Cossacks, local government institutions (municipal bodies, territorial public self-government). Special attention is paid to the analysis of the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of July 2, 2021 No 400 “On the National Security Strategy of the Russian Federation” adopted in July 2021, which forms a consistent model of interaction between civil society and the state in the field of ensuring national security. The authors summarize that today it is important to improve the regulatory framework for establishing legal possibilities for the functioning of public formations to strengthen the constitutional order on the basis of optimal forms of cooperation with the state.

The Constitution of the Russian Federation provides that laws must not be adopted in Russia that abolish or diminish the rights and freedoms of a person and citizen (part 2 of article 55). However, the national legal system cannot be in a state of permanent homeostasis and changes in the legal regulation of legislative models for the realization of certain rights are inevitable. At the same time, the principle of maintaining the confidence of citizens in the law and the actions of state power performs the function of verifying the legal (including legislative) policy to constitutional maxima.

The difficulty is associated with the search for criteria for the permissibility of legislative transformations of conditions and the procedure for the implementation of constitutional rights, “boundary conditions,” under which such changes in legal regulation can be recognized as permissible. The article examines the various methods used by the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation to limit the discretion of the legislator in accordance with the principle of maintaining confidence in the law and the actions of state authorities.

The article analyzes the current state of foreign historiography of the color revolutions that took place in 2000–2014 in Eastern Europe and the post-Soviet space. The main concepts and approaches of leading American and European specialists are considered, problematic positions in the study of the phenomenon of color revolutions and ways to solve them are indicated. The main emphasis is placed on the study of the historiography of the color revolutions in each of the countries in which regime change during this periodtook place. The author comes to the conclusion that there are still many scientific gaps in the framework of the foreign discourse on color revolutions. This is especially true of the problem of country studies, since many issues related to the regime changein Serbia, Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan still remain unsolved.

During the last years in Russia, the significance of public service ethics has grown. The article contains some examples of higher-profile cases of violation of ethics by public servants. To author opinion, the measures of ethical regulation in our country are fragmentary. Preventing illegal, unethical, or undesirable behavior in the public service is a complex task and requires an integrated approach, development of an integrity system for maintaining ethics. By the beginning of the XXI century, western countries had formed an idea about a set of measures to improve public service ethics, reflected in the concept of “ethical infrastructure”. It’s concluded that the comprehensive development of the ethical infrastructure of the public service will contribute to the understanding among public servants of what is permissible and unacceptable in behavior, words, and professional activities. Also, it will lead to an increase in the efficiency of the work of state authorities and strengthens public confidence in the state authorities.