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Much has been written about leadership in the system of government; however, not enough attention has been paid to the unique role of the head of the municipal administration (HMA). This article argues that the complexity of the HMA’s position stems from the fact that the incumbent must operate in three different directions simultaneously: downward (by issuing orders to subordinates), outward (working with citizen groups, the media and other governments), and upward (working with mayor and council). Leadership in each of these areas requires a different set of skills, so an effective HMA must be able to play in different registers. 1. The difficulty with the HMA situation is that there is not the same training ground for developing those skills that exists for running an organization. Chief executive officers typically find that they need to acquire and develop these skills once they become chief executive. 2. The position of the HMA is unique because it is located in the neck, located at the center and narrowest point of the hourglass of the municipal government organization. Often, the HMA, as a technical specialist, is forced to take responsibility and play a leadership role in relation to the political leadership on any issue. As a result, this person is both a leader and a manager, bearing, akin to the biblical Job, the burden of responsibility for the state of affairs in the municipality entrusted to him. However, to whom much is given, much is asked, and not for words, but for deeds, since responsibility for their implementation is the price that the HMA pays for power.

Various reasons — political or non-political — lead people to participation in terrorism and similar forms of violent extremism. Those involved in terrorism come from different social backgrounds and have often been subjected to processes of violent radicalization. Terrorist profiles do not work as a tool to identify real or potential terrorists because such profiles do not reflect diversity and how people change when they become involved in violent extremism. Which suggests a more dynamic typology of militant group members based on dimensions that represent dynamic continuums rather than static positions. Disillusionment with what originally attracted them to the movement — whether it was political goals, the search for friendship or a sense of belonging — is one of the main factors leading to the process of leaving a militant movement or group. However, disengagement is far from simply reversing or mirroring the original process of engaging in violent extremism. In the course of their extremist career, individual activists tend to change values and motives, as well as positions and roles in the militant group. Hence, a better understanding of the factors that cause frustration for different types of violent activists allows us to suggest opportunities for strengthening these processes, contributing to a higher level of individual exit from an extremist group.

The article is based on a comparative analysis of the most effective institutionally established models of modern lobbying practices for pursuing interests in the field of maritime activities in the developed countries of Europe and the United States. The study is carried out on several grounds: the Full Time Equivalent (FTE) of a lobbyist, the expected financial investments of organizations in lobbying activities, an assessment of the transparency of the activities of lobbying organizations. Based on the revealed correlation of FTE and expected investments, the analysis of the model’s efficiency is simplified to an estimate of the value of its total FTE of the described models. Particular emphasis is placed on the analysis of lobbying in cooperation with the European Commission. It has been determined that environmental organizations and groups of influence that are not directly related to maritime activities are particularly active in lobbying for maritime activities. When comparing the lobbying infrastructure of Western countries in the context of its effectiveness in defending national interests, there is a significant advantage of the United States over the European Union. Regarding the adoption of Western models of lobbying practices and the spread of institutionalization of lobbying on the territory of the Russian Federation, it is recognized that for Russia, its maritime policy, the most effective American model would be, based on a single legal basis, allowing taxed lobbying agents to act in concert on the domestic and global market in the interests of private companies and the nation state.

The formation of a harmonious environment that promotes personal development is a necessary component for each person and for the functioning of the community, regardless of the form of its political structure. Creating a harmonious environment includes, among other things, working to maintain a positive inter-ethnic environment. To do this, it is necessary to conduct constant monitoring and work to support a harmonious inter-ethnic background. The article deals with the peculiarities of the influence of immersion in the interethnic environment and self-determination in the community on the individual, the influence of the communicative connection between representatives of different ethnic groups on the functioning of the community.

The article addresses human rights from the perspectives of defining their conceptual foundations, considering them as an element of geopolitics and a context-oriented approach to ensuring them. The recognition of the dignity of the human person — the main thing, on what is based the concept of human rights. The idea of human dignity manifests itself in the equal status of each person and is expressed in the fact that at birth each person becomes a member of the corporate body of humanity. From this point of view, any attempt to deprive a person of his “innate” corporate identity as a member of humanity is precisely what constitutes a violation of human rights. At the same time, practice should be separated from rhetoric. At the level of political practice, the history of human rights, as in the time of Locke, retains all the signs of social inequality, remains the history of drawing the boundaries of the rights of some social groups, strata and peoples at the expense of limiting others. Identifying the essence of human rights with Western culture denies the possibility for other cultures to have the same rights. Affirming that those who are not part of Western culture are excluded from the human rights radar. Accordingly, the most productive approach in the theory and practice of ensuring human rights is the context-oriented approach, which involves representatives of different cultures in the dialogue, who do not necessarily share the same understanding of human rights ethics, acting as a context-dependent universality.

The purpose of the article is to reveal the religious structure inherent in modern mechanisms, which ensure global dominance of capital, legitimacy of political, economic and legal institutions in modern society. The article sets out a religious mechanism, generating ability of people to give an image and washed away their life in modern society. In conditions of fragility of the social structure, religion, drawing its energy, the power of persuasion from own foundations embodied in the concepts of “salvation”, “sin” and “repentance”, relevant redemptive practices, regardless of policy, retain their force, remaining the pillar of the social order, its last resort.

The article refers to the information and digital civilization — its threats and hopes formed by it to the “digital generation”. On the one hand, an identifier is the name of a managed object in a digital society. Each step of the “digitized citizen” can be checked, serve as a test of loyalty to the system, to agree with the worldview and ideological attitudes adopted in it. Civilization atrophies and deforms auditory and visual physiological analyzers, changes mental features of the younger generation. On the other hand, young people, like the Pythagoreans who offered us the digital Universe, perceive the digitalization of social life organically as integration into the natural environment of life. Information and digital civilization gives birth to the world society as an alternative site of politics, differs from the main international society, creates its own logic of communication, mobilization and action. If international diplomacy creates a formal, hierarchical, formal and exclusive atmosphere concerning the events of intergroup relations, transnational digital network (TDCN) are informal, egalitarian, highly inclusive and open to multilingual presentation and alternative forms of political expression. Information and digital civilization creates limitless conditions for the development of human ability to foresee and foresee the future, and not a prophet, not a magician, not a psychic, and the most common, the average person. After all, our mind develops faster than the body, which creates the preconditions for the fact that humanity, which has become a digital community, will be able to abandon the harmful “benefits” of civilization without becoming a victim.

The article, based on the well-known parable of the immortal Dragon — the symbol of the Chinese nation, refers to the Chinese culture, which allows China to preserve its cultural and civilizational core for thousands of years, when falling to revive, gaining new energy and strength at various stages historical development. The essence of the ideology of modern China is in the greatness of the Chinese nation, through the implementation of the long-term strategic project “Chinese dream”, which provides: the creation of decent living conditions for citizens; the development of the creative initiative of the masses in mastering the trends of the modern era (“the Winner is not the one who plays well, but the one who plays better”), the expansion of the “living space” outside the national territory; the exponential growth of influence on the world through the integral power of the country; the extraction of wisdom and power in traditional culture; not adapting to the values of Western civilization in accordance with the principle of “getting along with the environment, not identifying with it”, spreading their own culture and views around the world. Apparently, the Dragon had never possessed such an impressive and awe-inspiring musculature, and the Chinese people had never been so proud of their country.

The main approaches to the formation of the strategy of harmonization of interethnic relations in the North-Western Federal District (hereinafter — NWFD) in the context of existing problems are considered. Formed the basic elements for the formation of a strategy for harmonization of interethnic relations, namely, legal, political, socio-cultural, economic. The statistical data that allow to draw a conclusion on the existence of a number of problems from the area of harmonization of interethnic relations in the Northwestern Federal District, including a low legal culture, gaps in legislation, insufficient communication between government and civil society, established national traditions and a high level of corruption of power. Approaches are proposed for forming a strategy for harmonizing interethnic relations taking into account the characteristics of the North-West Federal District.

It has long been noted that we are formed by power, penetrating into all spheres of life. However, looking at the rings of history, you notice that political and legal institutions were not built in a spontaneous and abstract way, their design was predetermined by religious maxims rooted in social fabric. Accordingly, power is only a tactical mechanism of social life, as a system of higher spiritual and moral imperatives, meanings and meanings that prescribe a certain behavior to a person, thereby exerting a managerial influence on him. Obviously, the existence and development of Russia in the foreseeable future will be linked to the search for the ruling and intellectual elite of such forms of normalization in the political, legal, social and cultural spheres of life that would not only not contradict social justice — the basic ideal of traditional religious faiths — Orthodoxy, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, governance, embodied in the evangelical imperative “If any of you wants to become the chief, let him be the whole servant” (St. Mark’s Gospel, 10:43), but also provided, through the separation of powers, the rule of law, political competition, its achievement.

The instrument of pressure on Russia is not only a sanctions policy, but also a policy aimed at depersonalizing national consciousness, stimulating discrediting and disavowing the notion of patriotism in different segments of society. The article considers the nature and typology of patriotism, its existential, political, historical, mythological and religious grounds. State and civil patriotism, as love for the «great Motherland», is largely a constructed phenomenon — the fruit of the efforts of the elite, social institutions to ensure national unity. Otherwise, the people lost their national consciousness, lost their spiritual and socio-cultural guidelines, adopted a new system of values, transformed into another people, or become a «population», losing their former identity without finding a new one. Went «mad», wanted to come back, and there is already another. Busy tone!