The article analyzes how mutually compatible approaches of social constructivism and post-structuralism can be used for study of a relationship between the state and expert communities. The author examines the arguments of two power-knowledge models (sovereignty- and governmentality-based) in relation to Russia, and dwell upon on the internal functions of their various modes, contexts and functions, both domestic and external, including those related to soft power.

The article considers the state of political science at the institutes of RAS in terms of institutional organization and scientometric indicators. The author reveals the role of scholars from the Russian Academy of Sciences in institutionalization of domestic political science. The article provides information on the organization of political science in the structural divisions of the Institute, compares them scientometric indicators, pointed out the problems. It is shown that in many respects the institutionalization of science (publication of professional journals, monographic studies, the presence of leading scientists) RAS institutes are the core of the consolidation of political science in Russia.

The paper analyzes different conceptions of the role of science knowledge in policy process. As result of this analysis five functions of expert communities are formulated. The examples of realization of these functions in Russia and other countries are presented.

The article tries to give an assessment of public intellectuals’ opportunities to participate in the national agenda setting for Russia under the regime of electoral authoritarianism, formed in 2000-ies. It also examines the attitude of the authorities to intellectuals and their position in society.

The article is devoted to the analysis the role of expert communities in the public debates on Russian foreign policy and international security issues. It is focused at the ties between prominent think tanks, political institutions, interest groups and civil society. Ideological and communicative aspects of the activity of Russian think tanks are considered.

The article discusses the main features of appearance and methodology for expert ratings dedicated evaluation of heads of subjects of the regions in Russia. Author analyses a development evaluation system of governors and the related public activity of the expert community. The author concludes that the expert centers began to conductors of authorities’ decisions.

The paper analyzes the features of the formation of political science communities in the Soviet era. Disclosed organizational conditions of their creation during the development of the Soviet Association of Political Sciences (SAPS) after the 9 th World Congress of the IPSA in Moscow in 1979, some of the characteristics of ideological transformation in the sphere of political research in the Soviet Union are considered; it describes some of the communities and their leaders. The conclusion is that without active work of community development of political science in the post-Soviet Russia would be difficult.

Globalization and its effects in education and science are serious challenges for modern universities that are forced to define ourselves in global academic and educational space. At the same time, universities are moving to local urban communities. This movement has different names («social role», «social mission» or «third role») and different interpretations and meanings. The interconnection of these trends is discussed for cases of the Catholic university of Leuven (Belgium), the university of Göttingen (Germany) and Perm state university (Russia).

The article is about university as the actor of regional public poli- cy - the current or prospective. Public policy is understood by the authors in the broad sense of the word - as the inclusion of different social groups, state and non-state actors in the political and administrative process through a variety of mechanisms to coordinate the interests and culture of consensus. The authors point to the complexity of cross-national and cross-regional analysis of selected universities and as a justification for the choice of such an important event as the preparation and celebration of the 100 th anniversary of the university. They offer a scorecard of Russian universities to demonstrate their potential as actors of regional public policy.

The article provides an overview of the main areas of research and the most important results in the field of political philosophy, political science and law of the Institute of Philosophy and Law, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) since its foundation. The scientific strategy of the Institute is focused on complex theoretical and methodological sophistication and applied research of political, philosophical and legal transformation of modern society in the context of a global world.

The article focuses on the interaction between the expert-analytical communities and municipal administration in the Petrozavodsk urban district. Such communities are viewed as actors participating in the public decision making process. It was mentioned that the interaction of «regional / municipal government - expert-analytical communities» is mainly initiated from «above» and has a formalized character. There is no system of communication or conventional agreements between the government and analysts. The article infers that there are analytical networks in the Republic of Karelia that are located in academic or university settings and adhere to the insider strategy. Following the governmental order, the representatives of the expert-analytical communities conduct expert evaluations of single governmental decisions at the stage of their preparation, but not during their realization or the assessment of the results.

The paper aims to discuss the current public image of political science in a country with a strong tradition in political discourse has been, where the empirical study of politics has been present since the end of XIX century if not longer, when the Italian elitist school paved the way for a new direction political science. Over the past two decades, political scientists have had the chance to reverse their scarse visibility, and have clearly attempted to take advantage of the new demand for change from within Italian society, by trying to achieve greater visibility outside the academic community and to play a stronger role in public debate. What our analysis reveals is that, notwithstanding the institutionalization of the subject within university curricula, and the relatively promising level of internationalisation of research, the «political» and «social» roles of Italian political science continue to be of a substantially limited entity.

This article is considering the dynamics of the impact of think tanks on the background of changes in the political polarization in the United States since 1991. Possible channels of influence of think tanks were shortly described and classified, as well as methods for their quantitative operationalization. Article also gives an explanation to the parameter of political polarization. In result of comparison of the data was detected significant correlation between the increase in political polarization and increased activity of think tanks, which was explained in the conclusion part of text.

The article analyses quantitative and qualitative characteristics of media representations of «politilogists», «economists» and «historians» in 10 Russian newspapers over a year. On the basis of the Russian Scientific Quotation Index the author compares publication profiles of the persons who are ascribed the respective identity in mass media and professional journals.

The paper attempts to assess the level and the potential development of political science in Ukraine, considering the institutionalized practice of Political Studies. On the basis of extensive data from public sources, such as official websites of research institutions, the data of the State Statistics Service of Ukraine and on the basis of previously published work on the development of political science in Ukraine, it offers a vision of the author on this issue.

Article is devoted to the analysis of involving of the expert society in the political decision making in human rights sphere through the achieving the boundary organization functions by the ombudsman institution on the example of 2 Russian regions. In article presented various systemized practices of involving of experts in political decision making process in Human Rights sphere and discussed advantages and disadvantages of use of the ombudsman institution as an instrument for experts’ integration in political process.