Political innovations: obvious meanings and the nonobviousness of reality

A.I. Solovyov

doi:10.17976/jpps/2023.05.08

Political innovations:
obvious meanings and the nonobviousness of reality

Solovyov A.I.,

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia, solovyev@spa.msu.ru

elibrary_id: 75920 |

Article received: 2023.05.24. Accepted: 2023.06.08

DOI: 10.17976/jpps/2023.05.08
EDN: HMFLAW

Rubric: Theme of the issue: concepts “the innovation” and “the tradition” in political discourse

For citation:

Solovyov A.I. Political innovations: obvious meanings and the nonobviousness of reality. – Polis. Political Studies. 2023. No. 5. P. 120-140. (In Russ.). https://doi.org/10.17976/jpps/2023.05.08. EDN: HMFLAW

Abstract

Changes and the renewal of social orders and institutions always lead us to question the essence and nature of political innovations. However, the traditional interpretation of these changes as breakthrough transformations related to technological innovation and improvement of the human life environment does not always properly reflect their significance as tools for changing the basic parameters of the political system and the balance of political forces. These projects, being an exclusive product of political elites, contain all the advantages and costs of intra-elite competition, which is a trigger for significant changes in the field of politics and a tool for positioning each segment of the ruling stratum in the system of power. The weight and influence of political innovations supported by the status and informal segments of the ruling elite is most visible in the zone of state decision-making, the goals of which determine the nature of the distribution and redistribution of public goods and values. At the same time undeclared attitudes of elite groups and their information protection, combined with the active use of latent mechanisms of political design, do not allow society to adequately assess public actions, nor to realize the true intentions of those in power. The interinstitutional tensions and conflicts arising in the decision-making zone not only predetermine the clash of different approaches and ideas within elite groups, but are also reflected in contradictory signals sent to society, provoking in the mass consciousness disparate and sometimes unrealistic assessments and ideas about the processes underway in society. This type of promotion of innovative projects, causing cognitive shifts and crises of mass consciousness, ultimately affects the content of identification models of the population. First of all, this is reflected in the formation of a generalized image of the Fatherland among citizens, which is a single platform for society’s attitude to the proposed ideas and plans. The formation of a reliable system of general civil identification in accordance with public interests presupposes a special style of state activity, the maintenance by the authorities of an atmosphere of free search by citizens for their political solidarities, the promotion of intercultural communication and the maintenance of dialogical communications between the authorities and the population.

Keywords

state, ruling elites, within elite groups, political innovations, political decision-making, models of political identification.

Full Text

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Content No. 5, 2023