Political Science Departments Research Articles

Chains of Persuasion: A Framework for Religion in Democracy

Chains of Persuasion: A Framework for Religion in Democracy

WHAT HAS CHANGED WITH DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA’S NIGER DELTA REGION? THE CHALLENGING TRAJECTORIES OF A CURRENT DAY INTERVENTIONIST INSTITUTION

The Niger Delta regional development question predates Nigeria’s political independence and the complexities that characterise it explains why the myriad of state responses to answering it has persisted. The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) as one such response has over the years made attempts to provide viable and sustainable answers. However, given the current global uncertainties, the changing narratives with development in relation to how the NDDC has administered the needed socio-economic and infrastructural transformation in the region needs proper documentation. This is with the aim of underscoring current day institutional relational dynamics within the NDDC and how it affects development outcomes for people who are daily roped with multidimensional problems despite the avalanche of human and natural resources. The study employs an exploratory research design, using semi-structured Key Informant Interviews drawn from urban and rural based community leaders, women groups, youth groups, and Nongovernmental Organisations whose activities relate to development in Bayelsa, Delta and Rivers States. Other Key Informant Interviewees were two academic staff of the Department of Political Science, Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Port Harcourt, and two staff of the NDDC. David Easton’s Systems Theory is adopted to explain the input-output nexus between beneficiaries of interventions and the NDDC and how that affects development outcomes in the region. The study reveals the current administrative imbroglio between the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs and the NDDC as a new challenge and threat to achieving sustainable development in the region. This challenge as revealed by the study has aggravated issues of poor institutional planning, poor community interface mechanisms, poor monitoring and evaluation, and the aggressive nature of interventions. The study concludes that although these challenges do not subvert the relative transformation achieved so far by the NDDC, however, such relativity suggests that the desired change in development is not substantial enough to alleviate the excruciating socio-economic and infrastructural conditions of the people

Doctoral Mentorship Practices in Canadian Political Science

AbstractSupervisors shape the PhD student experience and play a critical role in students’ development. To what extent and in what ways are faculty engaged in mentorship? Are faculty mentoring more or differently now than in the past? This study of political science faculty from political science departments offering PhD programs in the English language finds that graduate supervision is changing over time, with mentorship practices becoming both more common and more varied. Supervisors do not appear to be simply replicating their own limited experience of mentorship as a PhD student. Instead, supervisors are becoming more actively and directly involved in their students’ research careers in ways that increase their students’ career opportunities. There is opportunity for institutions, at both the university and department level, to further invest in building the capacity and ability of supervisors to be effective mentors.

Политическая наука сегодня: междисциплинарные подходы

The Chair of Political Science and Political Administration of the School of Political Studies of the Institute of Social Sciences RANEPA organized the First Moscow Political Science Forum with the assistance of the Russian Association of Political Science (RAPN) and the Academy of Political Science (APN) with the participation of the Presidential Grants Fund. It took place at the Presidential Academy (RANEPA) on 15–16 April 2022. The forum was dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the chair, one of the first political science departments in the country. Its theme was «Political Science Today: Interdisciplinary Approaches». The relevance of the Forum topic is defined by two necessities. Firstly, it is the development of shared understanding of modern phenomena in Russian and world politics; secondly, it is searching for a common language in the expression of political processes.

In Conversation With Dr. Hisham Altalib

In Conversation With Dr. Hisham Altalib about the Legacy of Professor AbdulHamid A. AbuSulayman Alyaa Ebbiary and Dr. Hisham Altalib introduction This interview article is a slight departure in form from those in previous issues of JEMS. Thus far we have used this section as a space to explore the thought and work of academic educationalists who work on research about, or in, the Muslim world, with a view to broadening intellectual debates on matters of interest to our readership. In this issue we interview Dr. Hisham Altalib, a cofounder of IIIT—the organization that inspired this journal—and a mentee-friend of the late Prof. AbdulHamid AbuSulayman, who is memorialized in this issue. Both these personalities were pivotal in the institutionalization of new Islamic research and education initiatives over the last 50 years, and the interview gives us an insight into the influence of the late AbdulHamid AbuSulayman, in particular. Dr. Hisham Altalib (b. 1940) is the current president of the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT). He graduated in 1962 with a B.Sc. in electrical engineering from Liverpool University, UK, and after serving in Iraq in the petroleum industry, he pursued graduate studies in electrical engineering at Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana, where he obtained his M.A. (1972) and Ph.D. (1974). Throughout his student career, he was active in Islamic work, first in the UK and then in North America. He has continued his advocacy for Islam and Muslims as an activist and author to this day. He established the Leadership Training Department of the Muslim Students Association of the United States and Canada (MSA) and became its first full-time director, serving from 1975 to 1977. He held several leadership positions in Islamic organizations, such as Secretary-General of the International Islamic Federation of Student Organizations [End Page 132] (IIFSO), in 1976. He was a founding member and a director of the SAAR Foundation, from 1983 to 1995, and he was also a founding member of the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) in 1981. Dr. Altalib has conducted many leadership training camps and seminars in the United States and abroad. His published works include Training Guide for Islamic Workers; Inviting to Islam: Ethics of Engagement; and Parent-Child Relations: A Guide for Raising Children (coauthored with AbdulHamid AbuSulayman and Omar Altalib; 2013). He is a father and grandfather. Dr. AbdulHamid AbuSulayman (1936–2021) was a scholar, activist, educationalist, and institution builder. His varied career spanned 60 years, and he will be remembered as a leading intellectual and creative thinker in the Muslim world. He obtained a B.A. in Commerce from the University of Cairo (1959), an M.A. in Political Science from the University of Cairo (1963), and a Ph.D. in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania (1973). He held various positions throughout his career, including founding member and President of the Association of Muslim Social Scientists (AMSS) in the United States and Canada (1972); Secretary-General, World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (1973–1982); Chairperson, Department of Political Science at King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (1982–1984); and Rector, International Islamic University (IIU), Malaysia (1988–1999). He was instrumental in organizing many international academic conferences and seminars. He was concerned with the alarming condition of Muslims in the modern world and heavily invested in reform on a number of levels. His many books include The Islamic Theory of International Relations: New Directions for Islamic Methodology and Thought; Crisis in the Muslim Mind; Revitalizing Higher Education in the Muslim World; The Qur'anic Worldview: A Springboard for Cultural Reform; and Parent-Child Relations: A Guide for Raising Children (coauthored with Hisham Altalib and Omar Altalib). He is survived by his wife, five children, and many grandchildren. Alyaa Ebbiary: You have had a varied career and worked in very different fields. How would you describe yourself and what you do? As an academic, scholar, writer, activist, educationalist, trainer, or otherwise? Hisham Altalib: I am an electrical engineer who also became an activist, trainer, writer, businessman, and educationalist. I became active in "Islamic work" (faith-inspired activism and community organizing) when I was growing up in Iraq. This...

Donald Edward Moggridge (1943–2021)

Donald Edward Moggridge (1943–2021)

Bootstrap Liberalism: Texas Political Culture in the Age of FDR by Sean P. Cunningham

Reviewed by: Bootstrap Liberalism: Texas Political Culture in the Age of FDR by Sean P. Cunningham Boris Heersink (bio) Bootstrap Liberalism: Texas Political Culture in the Age of FDR. By Sean P. Cunningham. (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2022. Pp. ix, 312. $37.95 cloth; $28.49 ebook) In Bootstrap Liberalism: Texas Political Culture in the Age of FDR, historian Sean P. Cunningham engages with the puzzle of the massive popularity Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the New Deal enjoyed in Texas in the context of the long-standing perception of this state as the center of individualism and conservatism. How did voters with [End Page 205] a seemingly genuine belief in “conservative, rugged individualism, self-help, and limited government” end up supporting FDR in landslide numbers in each election between 1932 and 1944 (p. 2)? Conservatism was a major force in the Texas Democratic Party before, during, and after the New Deal. In 1928, Republican nominee Herbert Hoover won Texas by a small margin, as Democratic nominee Al Smith’s Catholicism and opposition to Prohibition resulted in a good number of Democratic politicians in the state bolting the ticket and openly supporting Hoover. But with the economic crash of 1929 and Hoover’s dramatic drop in popularity, these “Hoovercrats” quickly rejoined the Democratic side and fully backed Roosevelt in 1932. Importantly, Cunningham shows that these conservative Democrats generally were enthusiastic supporters of FDR throughout his first term and reelection effort. With the early New Deal benefitting local farmers and steering clear of racial and civil rights issues, conservatives—like Rep. Marvin Jones—were happy to tie themselves to FDR and celebrate the New Deal as “a new day and a new economic order for the American people” (p. 63). After 1936, however, unity dissolved, and the Texas Democratic Party split into roughly two factions. One consisted of true believers in the New Deal (such as Representatives Maury Maverick and Lyndon B. Johnson), who remained supportive of FDR until his death in 1945. The other faction united conservatives of different kinds, who became increasingly (and vocally) critical of the size and role of the federal government and FDR’s role as president and party leader. Cunningham carefully charts how these two camps battled each other in primaries and at state party conventions. In these clashes, both sides saw defeats and victories. Yet, after the conclusion of a nomination fight, Texas voters consistently voted the Democratic nominee—regardless of faction—into office in landslide victories. While much of this may have been the simple consequence of Texas (and the South in general) representing a de-facto single party system, Bootstrap Liberalism argues convincingly that it was also the product of the similar ways in which both conservatives and liberals presented [End Page 206] their politics to voters. Both sides claimed to represent the forgotten workingman in Texas and argued their policies would help voters achieve their goals. This approach may have allowed self-identified conservative voters to embrace the New Deal and incorporate it into their existing individualistic worldview. At the same time, Cunningham’s account also shows how such similar marketing likely confused voters. For example, Cunningham presents reports that some of rural voters in the 1942 senate primary race supported populist conservative W. Lee “Pappy” O’Daniel—who was increasingly anti-FDR, anti-New Deal, and anti-union—because they believed he would be a pro-labor ally to the president. Bootstrap Liberalism presents a fascinating insight into the workings of Texas politics in the FDR era—charting the clashes between leading Texas politicians of this period such as Maury Maverick, LBJ, “Pappy” O’Daniel, and James “Pa” and Miriam “Ma” Ferguson and spotlighting the importance of how an “individualist” presentation of the New Deal may have played a role in its popularity in Texas and—possibly—other traditionally conservative states as well. Boris Heersink BORIS HEERSINK is an assistant professor in the department of political science at Fordham University. He is the co-author of Republican Party Politics and the American South, 1865–1968 and the author of National Party Organizations and Party Brands in American Politics: The Democratic and Republican National Committees, 1912–2016. Copyright © 2022 Kentucky Historical...

Ask a Political Scientist: A Conversation with Cynthia Enloe about Gender and Global Politics

Ask a Political Scientist: A Conversation with Cynthia Enloe about Gender and Global Politics

Are Intuitions Treated as Evidence? Cases from Political Philosophy*

Journal of Political PhilosophyEarly View Original Article Are Intuitions Treated as Evidence? Cases from Political Philosophy* Sebastian J. Conte, Sebastian J. Conte Political Science, University of OsloSearch for more papers by this author Sebastian J. Conte, Sebastian J. Conte Political Science, University of OsloSearch for more papers by this author First published: 15 February 2022 https://doi.org/10.1111/jopp.12277 * Earlier versions of this article were presented at the Department of Political Science, University of Oslo, the Nordic Network of Political Theory’s workshop (Roskilde 2018), the Norwegian national conference in political science (Trondheim 2019), and the ECPR general conference (Wrocław 2019). The article benefitted greatly from discussions at these events and I am grateful to the participants for their comments. The article also benefitted from a stay at CAS as a GOODPOL fellow. In particular, I would like to thank Kim Angell, Herman Cappelen, Andreas Christiansen, Keith Dowding, Göran Duus-Otterstrom, Jakob Elster, Fredrik Dybfest Hjorthen, Robert Huseby, Klemens Kappel, Sune Lægaard, Erlend Langørgen, Sigurd Lindstad, Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen, Jonathon Moses, Tor Otterholt, and Dag Einar Thorsen, as well as Christian Barry and two anonymous referees for this journal, for valuable comments. ‡ Copyright notice: © 2022 The Author. Journal compilation © 2022 Wiley Publishing Ltd., 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA. Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Early ViewOnline Version of Record before inclusion in an issue RelatedInformation

Civil Society: The Worthy Soul of Democracy

This is a public lecture delivered in a symposium jointly organized by Surya Ratna Shakya Foundation, Pokhara and Department of Political Science, Prithvi Narayan Campus, Pokhara on December 12, 2021.

Globalisation and The Politics Of Economic And Social Development In Africa

Globalisation, though seen as the catalyst for social and economic development across the globe, its over bearing influence on national economies particularly in Africa and the rest of other developing economies has led to compromising national sovereignty, institutions of governance, moral rectitude and the plunging of the entire global community into sharp divide between the North and the South with the North having superior advantage over the south as a result of its technological strength. In this paper, the authors identified globalisation as a phenomenon used by advanced democracies to hold on to the control of international economies at the expense of developing world through its strong institutions: political, economic, social and cultural. Data for this study was gathered through primary and secondary sources. Primary sources were through structured oral interview and focus group discussion while secondary sources were from documented sources. Data was qualitatively analysed from 30 respondents drawn from 3 Departments in the University of Calabar – Departments of Political Science, Economics and Social Science Education. The major finding of the study revealed that globalisation has great positive and negative impact on social and economic development in Africa.

Learning by Doing: Using an Undergraduate Research Lab to Promote Diversity and Inclusion

ABSTRACTUndergraduate research labs have long been recognized as having educational and professional benefits, but much less attention has been given to how they can promote diversity and inclusion. Without a conscientious effort to promote these goals, labs are likely to replicate and perpetuate existing inequalities. This article discusses our experiences and lessons from launching an undergraduate research lab in a political science department at a research-oriented state university. It concludes with suggestions for other departments interested in starting undergraduate research labs. Promoting diversity and inclusion by working with undergraduates is unlikely if faculty are recruiting students individually outside of a lab, if the burden is on students to approach faculty, or if labs do not take practical steps to make this happen.

School of Hard Knocks: Rebuilding a Program

This research addresses the challenges of rebuilding a political science department from the ground up. By looking at student needs, departmental resources, and assessment of recent graduates and seniors, this research helps faculty by providing tools and information about building and strengthening a department. By describing what is unique to the challenges of political science as a discipline and as a department, I argue that political science is in a particular position to serve both the university goals and the goals of our majors. With our service to the university including courses geared toward educated citizenship, political science often fulfills the mission of universities geared toward being an active participant in society and politics. With the growing challenge of universities to cut back on departments and to become more cost efficient, I argue that political science is a necessity on campus. By acknowledging the need for a campus presence and strategies for recruitment and retention of students, this article looks at political science as a department and its self-evaluation of what can be done to rebuild.

Contributors

Previous article FreeContributorsPDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreSungmin Cho is a professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies in Hawaii. His research focuses on democratization, authoritarian resilience, and Chinese and North Korean politics. Cho’s most recent scholarly articles appear in World Politics (2021) and Security Nexus (2021).Kecheng Fang (方可成) is an assistant professor at the School of Journalism and Communication, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. His research interests include journalism, political communication, and digital media. Before joining academia, he worked as a political journalist at the Chinese newspaper Southern Weekly.Jennie Jin is a special projects and disinterment manager at the scientific analysis directorate at America’s Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. As an anthropologist, her interests include the scientific and diplomatic aspects of the recovery and identification of missing US service members from past conflicts.Adam Y. Liu (刘遥) is assistant professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. His main research interests include Chinese politics and political economy. He is currently working on a book project that explores how central-local politics drove the formation, expansion, and operation of what he calls an “authoritarian market” in China’s banking sector. The project is based on his dissertation, which won the 2020 BRICS Economic Research Award. He received his Ph.D. in political science from Stanford University and was a postdoctoral associate with the Leitner Program in International and Comparative Political Economy at Yale University.Jean C. Oi is the William Haas Professor of Chinese Politics in the Department of Political Science at Stanford University and a Senior Fellow there at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI). Oi has published extensively on political economy and the process of reform in China. Recent books include Fateful Decisions: Choices That Will Shape China’s Future, co-edited with Thomas Fingar (2020); and Zouping Revisited: Adaptive Governance in a Chinese County, co-edited with Steven Goldstein (2018). Her current research continues to explore central-local relations, including local government debt. She is also in the early stages of a project on China’s Belt and Road Initiative.Fengshi Wu (吴逢时) is associate professor in politics and international relations at University of New South Wales, Sydney. Her current research focuses on environmental movements and governance in authoritarian and hybrid polities.Kai Yang (杨凯) is a PhD candidate at the Department of Government and Public Administration, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is currently a visiting researcher at the Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley. His research interests cover contentious politics and authoritarian learning. His research article has appeared in The China Quarterly.Shen Yang (楊燊) is an assistant professor in the School of Graduate Studies and the Department of Political Science at Lingnan University in Hong Kong. His main research interests cover political contentions and Internet politics, with a focus on mainland China and Hong Kong. He has published articles in peer-reviewed journals including Law & Social Inquiry, Social Movement Studies, and Voluntas.Yi Zhang (张一) is chief economist of Zhonghai Shengrong Asset Management Group. He was a visiting scholar at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC), Stanford University. His main research interests are China’s fiscal system and policy studies of Chinese local government. He received his PhD from the Institute of World Economics and Politics (IWEP), the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Previous article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The China Journal Volume 87January 2022 Published on behalf of the Australian Centre on China in the World at the Australian National University Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/719039 Views: 430 © 2021 The Australian National University. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Social media through mobile devices in the service of archival ethnographic research: The roads & places of Greek (Magnesia) migration to the USA

This publication is carried out in the context of the research "Archival Ethnography with the Perspective of New Technologies: From the Land of Magnets to the Promised Land - Following Overseas Migration to the USA from the Late 19th Century to the Present" as a Visiting Research Fellow at the Department of Political Science and International Relations of the University of Peloponnese. In particular, the social media and the group entitled "The roads \& places of migration of residents of Greece (Magnesia) to the USA" on Facebook constituted another research tool. The interested members (relatives of immigrants and citizens of Magnesia in Greece) posted documents for investigation (photographs, letters, newspaper clippings, advertising brochures of the time, birth certificates, manuscripts, letters, etc). The group members quickly posted relevant material via mobile devices (smartphones). At the same time, via messenger, some conversations resulted in oral testimonies (interviews in phases). Social media and the corresponding groups that can be created can be used in humanities research (history, folklore, archival ethnography) as digital notebooks using smartphones at any time and from various parts of a country. This article presents social media as internet technologies that can be used in collecting and digitizing evidence that can be useful in the analysis and elaboration of evidence-based research (archival ethnography).

History of Indonesia in the Master's Degree Course of the Department of Foreign History, Political Science and International Relations, Petrozavodsk State University

The article shows the importance of oriental publications Sulalat-us-salatin: Malay Manuscript of Kruzenshtern and its Cultural and Historical Significance and Travel and Latest Observations in China, Manila and the Indo-China Archipelago for studying the colonial policy of the Netherlands in Indonesia as part of the training course "Politics of European Powers in the Countries of the East in the 16th-early 20th century" of Master's program at the Petrozavodsk State University. The organization of the first Dutch expedition to the East Indies in 1595-1597 and the creation of the United East India Company are analyzed. The materials of the article can be useful in preparation for classes in the field of History.

Employee motivation, job satisfaction, live-work balance, material reward and career aspirations

Edward Affainie is experienced security and international relations professional with years of experience in the Ghana Armed Forces and the United Nations in complex political and security situations. Currently, he is the Deputy Security Adviser for the United Nations Department of Safety and Security in Zimbabwe and a Doctoral Researcher at the Political Science and International Studies (POLSIS) Department at the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom. He previously worked at the United Nations Headquarters, where he moderated memorandums of understanding between the United Nations and member states to deploy troops for peacekeeping missions. He deployed and managed complex peacekeeping missions from startup to liquidation and served in various capacities in different peacekeeping missions in countries such as Cambodia, Southern Lebanon, Western Sahara, Liberia, Sudan, and South Sudan. His research interests are in the causes of war and conflict, management, leadership, governance, and security. His extensive length of professional experience as a military officer and an international civil servant contributes to his research interests. He retired from the Ghana Armed Forces at his peak career in 2010 at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and as the Deputy Director of Army Peacekeeping Operations at the Army Headquarters. He is a graduate of the Nigeria Command and Staff College and the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College. Abstract: Companies and Organisations’ existence, stability, and productivity depend mainly on their employees. This essay explores the factors that affect employee motivation, intention, and behaviour. It also examines three of the most recent studies on employee motivation and subsequently analyses these studies’ findings against their chosen theoretical frameworks and assesses their contributions to the framework. The first study by Saraswathi (2011) hypothesises that different professions can influence how employees perceive motivational factors. The second study by Shaikh et al. (2019) hypothesises that motivators and hygiene factors are equally important in improving employee performance. The third study by Kyndt et al. (2012), hypothesises that although intrinsic motivators can contribute to employee’s intention levels, satisfiers may make the inconvenience disappear but do not alter the employees’ intention or behaviours. The paper identifies gaps in knowledge that arise from these studies and further provides future research recommendations to understand employee motivation further. The essay provides gaps in the study of employee motivation for researchers in this field to explore further to contribute to knowledge in the field.

“Comparative Political Theory” and the Displacement of Politics

Over the course of the past few decades, comparative political theory has acquired a measure of institutional legitimacy and intellectual recognition as part of the ongoing, interdisciplinary challenge to prevailing academic categories, coordinates, and borders. This arrival has been accompanied by a conspicuous focus on methodology both by those who claim the mantle of comparative political theory and those who reject it. The following reflections read this focus symptomatically, as revealing intellectual, institutional, and professional exigencies rather than as distinct to any particular scholar, argument, or publication. Neither a “state of the field” nor a proprietary defense of what comparative political theory is or should be, these observations toggle back and forth between reflections on my own engagement and disengagement with the topic of comparative political theory on the one hand and, on the other, concerns about how this preoccupation with method simultaneously expresses and exacerbates the displacement of politics in the very field that aims to understand it. Among the questions I raise are: What might be driving this disproportionate focus on methodological arguments in and about comparative political theory? What are the stakes of such a focus, particularly for younger scholars in political science departments decreasingly hospitable to political theory? Finally, what does this augur for the future of the study of politics broadly understood within disciplines dedicated to the scientific study of human behavior?

POLITICAL SCIENCE (“POLITOLOGY”) AS AN ACADEMIC DISCIPLINE AND APPLIED SPECIALTY AT THE BELARUSIAN STATE UNIVERSITY

The article explores the formation and development of political science as an academic discipline and applied specialty at Belarusian State University. The development of the specialty “Political Science” (“Politology”) at BSU, and specificities of training specialists as “Political Scientist–Lawyer,” are key themes. We show that this qualification ensured the professionalization of the teaching of political science in Belarus and aimed at solving domestic and foreign policy issues of the Belarusian state and the political system as a whole. The training of specialists in political and legal activities facilitated the formation of skills of analytical support for government bodies to solvepressing issues. The development of the Political Science Department of the Faculty of Law at BSU focused on problems of public policy and administration. The main directions of the political research included comprehension of a number traditional and modern issues, which the Belarusian political science faces, injcluding: the problem of the correlation between the universal and the unique in the development of political science; dialectical comprehension of the political and administrative components in public administration, of domestic and foreign policy processes, "erosion of state sovereignty," "softening of border regimes," versus strengthening the sovereign state, protecting its security, and ideological substantiation of the values of national-state development; internal political processes consideration through the prism of globalization and the digital transformation; identification of mechanisms for the formation of political problems, their setting on the “policy agenda,” of mechanisms for the transformation of the social issues into political, the struggle for the production and control of information; research of the normative value systems formation; rethinking democracy, democratic activity and mechanisms for legitimizing power; identification of “points of inclusion” of ethical and regional issues in politics. The current trend in the Political Science development in Belarus is the transition from disciplinary isolation to interdisciplinary synthesis.

How Russian Youth Consume Information: Case Study of the Political Science Students of the Financial University

This article is devoted to analyzing the results of a study conducted by the Educational and Scientific Laboratory of Internet Projects and Studies of the Department of Political Science and Mass Communications of the Financial University among university students. The work aimed to identify the characteristics and structure of youth information consumption in the digital space during the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors analyzed the intensity and frequency of use of various types of information sources, identified the dominant sources of socio-political information, determining the level of trust in them, identified factors that affect the perception of message content. The article also analyzes the attitude of the respondents to the issue of Internet regulation by the state, defines and structures the subjective assessments of the opposition of the Internet space concerning existing government institutions. The paper concludes that the structure of the information consumption of the respondents shows a steady shift in the emphasis on information and communication activity of young people to digital platforms, sources, and channels. The youth audience spends a significant part of their active time in the digital space, which in its volume is comparable or even in many cases exceeds the amount of time spent in the traditional offline space. The consequence of this is the formation of digital information overload, stimulating the development and consolidation of the effect of clip consciousness. In general, based on the results of the work, the authors conclude that there is a stable structure of youth information consumption that has pronounced differences from the traditional structure of information consumption of older generations. Moreover, the processes of information consumption in the digital space are mostly irrational, and they are mainly based on digital habits that form the models of digital information consumption of modern students.