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Cultural and Historical Foundations of American Political Science:A Russian Perspective.
The article is devoted to the study of historical, socio-cultural and national peculiarities conditioning the priorities and methods of American political science, its investigation paradigms. The major focus in the article is on characteristic features of American political culture the most significant being the two-party system, the thesis of the exclusiveness of the American way that the nation lives by, the consensus political orientation in domestic life, which rests on the idea of self-reliance, a firm belief of the Americans in their mission of proliferating American values and the ensuing priorities in the international policy of the country. The questions of Russian political science and prospects for its development are also discussed. The research is based on methodological principles of new institutionalism, political comparative study, historical analysis. No other science is so closely linked to actual politics, business and education as American political science, this fact securing its special place in western science. The most characteristic feature of this science is its pragmatism used to serve the tasks of political problem-solving and the ensuing bonds between the science and government organizations and funds of business structures. The singularity of American political science comes from specific geopolitical, historical and cultural conditions. It is this science that has given rise to original theories and paradigms widely used in Europe. They could be useful for the Russian political science as well.