Theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of the political system of modern society

Abstract

The main theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of the phenomenon of political system in socio-humanitarian knowledge are considered, in particular, the theories proposed by T. Parsons, D. Easton, F. M. Burlatskii, G. Almond, P. Bourdieu, V. A. Tregub and other authors. It is concluded that the culturally oriented approach has a high heuristic potential for research, including when studying the Belarusian political system. The author’s conceptual model for studying the political system of modern society is presented based on the following methodological foundations: the cultural sociological approach and the social analysis of P. Bourdieu. It is noted that study of the sociocultural field is possible at the symbolic level, where legitimised ideas, values, and perceptions are exist in a coded form, and at the behavioural level, where they are assimilated and then implemented in behavioural models. The political field is understood as a place where, in the competitive struggle between agents, political programmes, comments, concepts, events are born, from which ordinary citizens must choose. The political field has a sociocultural conditionality and is manifested in the specific behavioural models of its participants. It is notes that the study of the political system of modern society can be carried out through behavioural models of social groups in the political field. It is these behavior patterns that are indicators of the forms in which the values, ideals and norms of a particular society are reproduced in real everyday activities. In conjunction with the sociocultural component, these behavioural strategies will be the marker of the political system of modern society.