The article focuses on the topic of regional inequality in Russia. It considers two types of inequality – economic and social – and analyzes the impact of government policy on their dynamics. The results of the study show that, according to theoretical assumptions characterizing developing countries, economic growth in Russia does not lead to a reduction in regional economic inequality, and governmental policy in this area is of limited effectiveness. One can speak about regional polarization as a consequence of certain types of state policy (investment policy, distribution of nondiscretionary transfers), while the equalization policy (equalizing transfers) has low impact on reducing inequality. Thus, in the economic sphere, the achievement of the state policy can be recognized as the containment of the growth of regional inequality, which, however, is not constantly manifested. In terms of social policy, contradictory trends have been recorded in recent years. On the one hand, in some spheres the government policy does have a more obvious impact on the reduction of regional inequality, but on the other in many cases this equalization occurs against the background of stagnation or deterioration of the indicators themselves. In particular, the reduction of inequality between regions is characteristic of infrastructure and human resources indicators in the spheres of education and health care. In several examples, in contrast, there is an increase in inequality, which is characteristic of wages policy. In some cases, the growth of inequality becomes the reverse side of the improvement of the overall level of indicators, as demonstrated by the indicator of doctors’ salaries.

The article is devoted to center-regional relations in the UK in the context of interaction between the national and Scottish political elite. The author makes the hypothesis that the causes of tension between the two elite groups are not limited to the governmental and economic crises that erupted in 2022 but are also caused by political-ideological factors and differences in habitus. Amid the aggravation of relations between the center and regions in the UK, it is important to analyze what leverages the regional elite of Scotland has on Westminster to promote both the region’s interests and to form a national policy. The aim of the paper is to identify the features of the Scottish political elite habitus in order to understand the region's aspirations for secession, and to identify the mechanisms that the Scottish elite represented by the Scottish National Party uses to implement its own agenda. It was revealed that the significant strengthening of the positions of regional political forces in the United Kingdom, due to the process of devolution, as well as the institutional presence of the SNP in the UK Parliament, provide the Scottish elite with the opportunity to effectively influence Westminster.

The special position of capital cities in the regional space is also reflected in the electoral sphere. As a rule, in the administrative centers of the subjects of the Russian Federation, the ruling party and its candidates receive less support than in the rest of the region («periphery»). At the same time, the degree of specificity of regional capitals in the electoral landscape of the regions turns out to be very different. In this paper, an attempt is made to explain this variability from the view of the concept of «center – periphery». The empirical data for the study was the federal elections of 2016–2018, namely the difference in voting for «United Russia» party and the incumbent between the capital cities and the periphery in the cross-regional dimension. To identify the structure of the centers in the region, the author used various socioeconomic indicators characterizing the ratio of the capital and the periphery. The analysis employed the method of linear regression and showed that the degree of ruralization of the periphery and the status of the capital city as such exert a key influence on the specifics of voting in the capitals. The presence of large cities on the periphery turned out to be insignificant. The regional regime has a more significant influence on the degree of specificity of regional capitals in the electoral landscape of the regions. Voting in the presidential elections in Russia is much more even than in the parliamentary ones, and not only in the cross-regional dimension, but also within the same region, even between the capital and the periphery. As a result, the trends revealed are much weaker in the presidential elections than in the parliamentary ones.

The article is dedicated to electoral cleavages in Germany. Following S. Rokkan’s tradition, the author focused on center-periphery and urban-rural cleavages. With the use of longue durée concept, the center-periphery relations in Germany are described, as well as the ossi-wessi formation and the differences between the two. Spatial analysis indicated the cluster of support for the German parties during the last three electoral cycles (2013, 2017 and 2021). Multivariate explanatory data analysis showed the correlation between voting, economic and demographic indicators. The non-spatial model depicted the clusters of party support in dynamics which was useful for comparison of the three electoral cycles. Based on Moran's index calculations, the spatial autocorrelation of the election results in the German lands was shown. Its values were significant for 2013, 2017 and 2021 SPD voting, as well as for 2013 and 2017 Die Linke voting and 2017 AfD voting. Local indicators of spatial autocorrelation also indicated clusters of support for SPD, Die Linke and AfD. Historical, economic and demographic factors help to indicate the electoral cleavages in Germany which run across the line between ossi and wessi. As for the transformation of electoral preferences in German lands, SPD 2021 victory can be explained among other with CoVID-19 pandemic, energy crisis and decrease in the economic indicators.

In this article the author identifies the features of the implementation of regional policy on the example of the Russian Far East. The author highlights the functionality of federal and regional components of the ‘vertical of power’ existing in Russia. The managerial model, approximately corresponding to the theory of growth poles by François Perroux, assumed the creation of preferential regimes for doing business (territories of advanced development, the free port of Vladivostok, the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation) to support technological innovation, stimulate employment, and increase export potential. In practice, there has been a shift in the vector of preferential territories from innovation-technological to rent-oriented activities. Projects in preferential regimes more often correspond to the existing specialization of the regional economy («rut effect») than form new industries, although there are reverse examples. We also considered the influence of the federal center on the development priorities achievement in the Far East by a special institution called the Corporation for the Far East and Arctic Development (KRDV). Investment projects are more successfully implemented in the Far Eastern regions with a higher growth and with more influential governors, which confirms the participation of regional elites in the extractive federal policy of spatial development formation and implementation.

The article deals with the question of how the images were formed in Russian regions reorganized in the early 1990s, when some «national» autonomous regions received the status of subjects of the federation. The authors investigate these processes on the example of the Altai Krai and the Republic of Altai, using data from surveys of experts from the two regions conducted in May 2023. Not only scientists, but also civil servants, deputies, cultural figures, journalists, museum workers, public figures, representatives of travel agencies, etc. were involved as respondents. More than a half of the experts have PhD degrees. The materials presented allow us to see the similarities and differences in the image strategies of the regions, in their use of various historical and cultural symbols. Differences are manifested, for example, relating to official symbols, in assessments of historical periods, in the «ethnic» accents of the image. At the same time, a certain «kinship» has been preserved in the «cultural code» of the population of the regions: for example, soulfulness and sincerity, closeness to nature, to natural life. It is characteristic that among the iconic figures of the regions, V.M. Shukshin and G.I. Choros-Gurkin. According to the authors, both regions have fully taken place as subjects of the federation, although, of course, this does not remove the remaining problems of «subsidization», poor development of industry and services, relatively low living standards, etc. «Two Altai» can successfully complement each other and develop cooperation. The remaining unified image of «Altai» as a unique «good place» in the south of Western Siberia could contribute to the successful development of these regions.

Turkey’s political development witnessed the alternation of democratization and autocratization phases rooted in definite stable trends, the interpretation of which from different angles has been the subject of various research. The theoretical framework of center-periphery cleavages of E. Shills, S. Mardin, S.M. Lipset and S. Rokkan is applied to the analysis of the Turkish party system. The article examines the evolution of the Turkish party system in the context of the manifestation of the cleavages at each stage (urban-rural, center-periphery, secularismreligion), and identifies periods of dominance of the center-periphery (territorial) or ideological (functional) conflicts. Then the factors sustaining the center-periphercleavage are studied, including high levels of religiosity, socio-economic disproportions between regions, territorialization (as opposed to nationalization) of the party system, and ethnic conflict. The article reveals that the successes of the Justice and Development Party and R. Erdogan are the result of the rational choice answer of the political elite of the center to the needs of the periphery, including through the instrumentalization of religion, populism and charisma.

The analysis of the 2023 elections identifies three geographic clusters (center, periphery, deep periphery based on social and geographic distance from the center) and confirms the persistence of the center-periphery cleavage in Turkey while the analysis of variance of voting for the three main parties demonstrates the significance of the geographical factor. The article comes to the conclusion that despite the centripetal orientations of the ruling party and the president, center-periphery cleavage continues to determine the configuration of the Turkish party system, and the centre-periphery framework is still valid for explaining the electoral behavior.

Mobilized linguicism is a tool for constructing national identity by giving the language of the titular nation the character of a fundamental integrating unit. In practice, the implementation of such a policy implies the exclusion of other languages and erects institutional barriers to the political participation of national minorities. On the territory of Belarus, the policy of mobilized linguicism was not recognized by the citizens of the republic, so the government of President Lukashenko took a course to abandon this practice. The phenomenon of mobilized linguicism revealed by M.N. Guboglo has a great importance for the development of national selfconsciousness on the territory of the post-Soviet republics. In this article, the authors substantiate the refusal of the government of Belarus from the policy of mobilized linguistics and the contradictions of the Belarusian nation-building. Such a contradiction is ensured by the existence of two opposite directions of Belarusian nationalism, differing in terms of cultural continuity. The governmental discourse of nation-building insists on the Soviet continuity of the Republic of Belarus, its rejection of the policy of ethnic restrictions and suppression of the cultural development of other nations. The discourse used by the Belarusian opposition perceives the Belarusian nation as the heir to the European tradition based on the historical continuity of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In this regard, the desire to use mobilized linguistics is often found among supporters of oppositional discourse as an instrument of cultural homogenization. The article analyzes the features of the language policy in the territory of post-Soviet Belarus and draws conclusions regarding the effectiveness of the policy pursued in the field of constructing the Belarusian national identity.

The article considers the main problems of territorial identity formation. The authors analyze the works of recent years that explore economic and political factors, ethnic and revisionary components of identity formation, the role of identity politics in electoral processes. In the context of territorial development, a separate part of the work is devoted, firstly, to conceptual issues, i.e. the assessment of existing terms denoting various territorial entities (city / region / agglomeration / metropolis). Secondly, the problems of economic and social integration, consolidation of residents, and political trust in the new emerging political and governance structures are highlighted. The corpus of relevant methodologies that are used in this field is identified. One of the most widespread methods of studying identity remains mass surveys of residents, which allow us to determine the spatial boundaries of identity in agglomerations. The case study method is applied in the context of studying the relationship between civil society organizations and identity politics. Regression analysis based on mass survey data is utilized to examine different levels of identity (national, agglomeration, regional, local) and the level of their expression. In addition, examples of studies focused on identifying municipal and inter-municipal territorial identity are given. The analysis of media texts and social networks is also used to identify various discursive practices used to actualize certain components of identity. Cross-national comparative studies remain one of the significant modern methods of studying the territorial identity of city residents. Researchers analyze the factors of integration of agglomerations' residents, their ideological attitudes, awareness of urban governance and reforms. Some examples of international relations and conflict situations’ influence on changes in the national discourse of identity politics are given.

The article is devoted to the comparison of public discourses and image models of the governors of St. Petersburg G.S. Poltavchenko and A.D. Beglov. The study is based on the paradigm of the constructionist aProach of M. Spector and J. Kitsuse, as well as the theory and methodology of the linguistic analysis of the political text by A.P. Chudinov and M.V. Gavrilova. The election speeches of governors, their inaugural speeches and reports to the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg constitute the empirical basis of the research. Сognitive discourse analysis of texts and he biographical method elements are used as basic methods of the study. The authors compared the following components of governors’ images: image model, openness indicator, professional background, political franchising, discourse of urban patriotism, key topics of speeches and attitude towards elections. The matrix of genre-by-genre analysis of performances is presented: an increase in the number of new genres against the background of the routinization of old ones is noted; the general pattern in the speeches is the concept of «leader city». The election discourse is characterized by reduction in the mobilization component and the political party franchising. The inaugural speeches move away from the program component and gravitate towards the format of gratitude, conceptual simplification of the text (reduction of rhetorical linguistic means and topics), and emphasis on the continuity of power. The report to the Legislative Assembly is characterized in the change of the dominant time projection – reporting on work already done instead of a program element as a result of changing the format from a message to a report. Based on discourse and biographical analyzes, the authors determined the image model of G.S. Poltavchenko as a «aParatchik» (or «guardian manager»), and A.D. Beglov as a «economic executive». The article emphasizes the significance of personality traits, political career and biography, «framework» political conditions in the country as important factors influencing the public discourse of the governors of St. Petersburg and their model.

In this paper, the author reviews a concept of local party systems. More specifically, the author studies party systems of boroughs as inner-city councils. Here the author focuses on the role of ethnosocial factors in formation of party-system, more specifically, on characteristics of boroughs residents. The hypothesis predicts that ethnosocial factors play the main role in local party system transformation. There is a growing body of researches which demonstrates quantitive characteristics of counties mainly influence a local party system. However, there is little research on effect of social characteristics of electorate on local party system formation and shaping. Based on data analysis of national and local elections results, the transformation of local government was examined. Local elections results were characterized as different from national elections results due to specifics of dynamics and changing geography. In order to classify municipalities based on ethnosocial characteristics, the cluster analysis was used. To investigate the effect of ethosocial factors on voting the author used ecological approach. Results show local party systems can be based on social-economic, ethnoreligious characteristics of the borough population. Boroughs characterized as a mostly white and economically stable tend to pay attention to local issues more than others. Immigrant boroughs tend to the left. An uprise of local political systems was investigated in London basing on change in voter preferences with the shift from main national parties to smaller ones.