Methodological aspects of studying the systematicity of political reforms

Abstract

This article examines the effectiveness of using discourse analysis and content analysis for studying the political reform in Russia, as well as assesses the heuristic potential of both methods. Attention is turned to methodological difficulties that emerge in the context of sociological study of the systemic social processes. On the example of content analysis of the messages of the President of the Russian Federation, the author demonstrated the correlation between the discourse around the reform and the real course of reforms. The conclusion is made that proliferation of the interpretation of social reality as a text in sociology increases the relevance of both discourse analysis and content analysis, which is confirmed by their wide application in the course of sociological research of the political sphere. The author considers feasibility of the use of discourse analysis and content analysis for studying the political reform in Russia, and assesses the heuristic potential of both methods. The author draws attention to the methodological difficulties that arise in the sociological study of systemic social processes. It is established that the topic of reforms in the various spheres of social life is present in all messages of the President in one way or another. However, the connotation of the very concept of reform has gradually changed from solely positive in the first years of post-Soviet history, when the need for the early transition to new types of economic, political and social relations was justified, to neutral or rather negative, when the reforms are localized in particular spheres of society or are interpreted as disadvantageous.