Space Of Power And Universe Of Man

Abstract

The main idea which is raised and discussed in the article is the idea of power as a universal backbone factor of organization (and self-organization) of social life in local communities. This idea is undeservedly disregarded in the process of generating different theoretical constructions of «social state» and «open society», where the predominant ideas are those of self-dominating power and parity relations of a free individual, free entrepreneurship and constitutional and democratic state. Introduction into the context of political and social problems of the component of spatial organization of power, forming various areals of geographically bounded zones of the social space, can in our opinion make the study of these problems more systematic and constructive. This problem is particularly vital because in Russia both the space of power and the universe of man have changed with incredible speed and in different directions; principles and substance of national, regional and local authorities, structure of values, motivations, conditions and life styles of people have become fundamentally different from what they were 15 years ago. In addition all these constructs are in the state of permanent reforming and reconstruction. We intend to discuss the problem of «space of power and universe of man» in two serial publications, the first of which is devoted only to the spatial organization of power on the territory of Russia and above all to the transformations in this sphere. We consider seven interconnected aspects of the problem: (1) conceptual and methodological basis of its comprehension; (2) federalism as a principle and reality of territorial distribution of power; (3) substance and consequences of «militant decentralization» of power in the 1990-es; (4) centralist tendencies of recent years; (5) territorial organization of the country and spatial configuration of authorities; (6) idea of «regions' agglomeration» and the beginning of changes in the space of regional authorities; (7) total redistribution of local power.