Article
Faking performance together: systems of performance evaluation in Russian enforcement agencies and production of bias and privilege
The author considers the hypothesis that under certain circumstances mistrust acts as the driving force for political development whereas trust, especially in its essential paternalistic forms, preserves the unsatisfactory status quo. The problem analyses as a part of general trend in the contemporary world towards declining prestige of public institutions and taking into account the Russian specifics.
The notion of globalization is relatively imprecise, and can be used loosely to embrace a large variety of different modern phenomena. Theorists abuse the G-words (a term of William Twining to demonstrate radical changes, or at least the changes which seem to be radical to some philosophers. Generalized references to new (quasi-)realities allow theorists to escape a long and laborious examination and comparison of legal phenomena in the past and in the present. This new kind of reductionism does not seek to describe complex systems through one or several prevailing elements as the classical scientific paradigm does. On the contrary, it is claimed that the growing complexity of the world requires a multidimensional approach which tries to embrace every aspect of reality.
The article analyzes the artificial and protected by the law component of the national wealth including social infrastructure, industrial, intellectual and ideological potential, as well as the mass of goods and personal property of the citizens. It pays the main attention to the issues of criminal law protection of social infrastructure, including the constitutional order, political and economic systems, health and education. It also provides us with the proposals on the improvement of the criminal law and their application.
The article concerns the problem of the Russian absolutist monarchy of the XVIII - the beginning of XX-th centuries in a comparative perspective. The social function of absolutism consisted in national integration, cultural unification and social transformation of traditional society by using of legal and coercive measures. The crucial problem is the changing role of the bureaucracy which could be the main protagonist of reforms or, just the opposite – its main opponent. From this point of view the author summarizes positive and negative aspects of absolutist reforms making outlook on the comparative experience of other absolutist empires of Europe and Asia.
The article examines various theories of punishment, their relationship and criticism. Punishment is an object of study for different disciplines. Interdisciplinary barriers should be overcome. In this article we are to formulate the main principles of convergence of jurisprudence and sociology in the study of punishment.
т
The Encyclopedia of Law and Society is the largest comprehensive and international treatment of the law and society field. With an Advisory Board of 62 members from 20 countries and six continents, the three volumes of this state-of-the-art resource represent interdisciplinary perspectives on law from sociology, criminology, cultural anthropology, political science, social psychology, and economics. By globalizing the Encyclopedia's coverage, American and international law and society will be better understood within its historical and comparative context.
This book reflects the latest trends in the contemporary legal science. The author consequently develops his idea that interhuman communicatation and interaction play an important role in creation and in ligitimation of law, involving the social groups in a communicative process.
The paper examines the structure, governance, and balance sheets of state-controlled banks in Russia, which accounted for over 55 percent of the total assets in the country's banking system in early 2012. The author offers a credible estimate of the size of the country's state banking sector by including banks that are indirectly owned by public organizations. Contrary to some predictions based on the theoretical literature on economic transition, he explains the relatively high profitability and efficiency of Russian state-controlled banks by pointing to their competitive position in such functions as acquisition and disposal of assets on behalf of the government. Also suggested in the paper is a different way of looking at market concentration in Russia (by consolidating the market shares of core state-controlled banks), which produces a picture of a more concentrated market than officially reported. Lastly, one of the author's interesting conclusions is that China provides a better benchmark than the formerly centrally planned economies of Central and Eastern Europe by which to assess the viability of state ownership of banks in Russia and to evaluate the country's banking sector.
The results of cross-cultural research of implicit theories of innovativeness among students and teachers, representatives of three ethnocultural groups: Russians, the people of the North Caucasus (Chechens and Ingushs) and Tuvinians (N=804) are presented. Intergroup differences in implicit theories of innovativeness are revealed: the ‘individual’ theories of innovativeness prevail among Russians and among the students, the ‘social’ theories of innovativeness are more expressed among respondents from the North Caucasus, Tuva and among the teachers. Using the structural equations modeling the universal model of values impact on implicit theories of innovativeness and attitudes towards innovations is constructed. Values of the Openness to changes and individual theories of innovativeness promote the positive relation to innovations. Results of research have shown that implicit theories of innovativeness differ in different cultures, and values make different impact on the attitudes towards innovations and innovative experience in different cultures.