The History of the Development of Statehood: Theoretical and Methodological Understanding of the Most Important Conceptual Approaches

Abstract

The article provides a heuristic analysis of the most important conceptual approaches to the study of the history of the development of statehood, determining the possibilities of their methodological integration within the framework of scientific research. The advantages and disadvantages of the formational and civilizational approaches to understanding the general trends and specifics of the genesis and evolution of statehood are established. As the authors note, there is a certain connection between the state and civilization, due to the mutual determination within society, the corresponding functions of the state and culture. The conclusion is substantiated that the civilizational analysis of the history of statehood includes three main principles: 1) clarification of the civilizational qualitative certainty of a given state; 2) disclosure of the status of its civilizational attribution, that is, understanding to what extent civilizational specificity is reflected in a specific form of statehood; 3) methodological correlation of the formational and existential conceptual approach (in the formational approach, this may involve clarifying the socio-cultural conditionality of the features of the economic development of the state, in the existential one — in highlighting the axiological determinants of the teleological perspective of state development. The heuristic potential of the formational, civilizational and existential conceptual approaches is revealed, which allows: to determine the place of the state in the system of social formations, to reveal the economic determinants of its features (the formational approach); to determine the socio-cultural conditionality of the specifics of specific states (the civilizational approach); to theoretically model the teleological sense-forming orientation of the development of forms of statehood. The conclusion is made about the possibility of methodological integration of certain heuristic principles of civilizational, formational and existential research approaches to understanding the history of statehood, based on the fact that they are focused on solving various cognitive tasks at different levels of the research process.