Category Archives: POLITICAL SOCIOLOGY

Summary

Vardan P. Gevorgyan

Key words ­- social assistance, social policy, social security, social protection, archaic paradigm of social assistance, Christian paradigm of aid, state paradigm of aid, socio­state paradigm of aid, societal model of aid, social state.

For making effective reforms aimed at the social protection of the population including social assistance/ support it is very important to take into account the experience historically gained by the humanity in this field, the progress in shaping the modern social assistance systems and the underlying ideological and value systems. Otherwise even the kindest motivations for creating modern systems will not make it possible to avoid the old institutes of social assistance/support that did not survive to their goal, had no underlying particular ideological and valuable concepts and pursued just momentary goals. The policies, mechanisms and methods implemented through such institutes may at least bring to unnecessary waste of expensive resources and in most dangerous cases lead to deterioration of the state of certain groups in population by bringing about numerous undesirable consequences for the country and society going as far as undermining the public stability and causing turbulences. To support the current reforms in the social assistance to the population in Armenia the article entitled Historical and Theoretical Issues on Formation of Modern Public Social Assistance Support Systems through description of certain theories shows biosocial prerequisites of the phenomenon of social assistance/support, as well as presented the ideological and theoretical features of the main historically-shaped social assistance models (archaic, Christian, state, public and state paradigms of social assistance and societal assistance model).

The main conclusion following the analysis of the ideological and theoretical systems above is that at the current stage of reforms the Republic of Armenia should be guided by the welfare state doctrine. In this regard the most important scientific and practical task of the public administration system is to specify the state’s most preferable model or models .

Thoughts of a Political Scientiest on the Eve of Parliamentary Elections

Summary

Manuk A. Harutyunyan
The article is devoted to the study of the fundamental institutional and socio-cultural obstacles to Armenia’s modernization. It is shown that the main component of Armenia’s authoritarian political system is the corporate state, whose economic elite and state departments have united to form a coarse managerial heirachy. Presented are the barriers to the country’s road to modernization: political corruption, legal nihilism, clientelism and other negative phenomenon.

In order to overcome these, the author proposes and bases his argument that the content of the national-democratic program of Armenia’s modernization and the fundamental conditions of its realization, is the principle of connecting democracy with patriotism and justice.

Manuk A. Harutyunyan
In the article the manifestations of one of the most crucial notions of modern social sciences, i.e. the phenomenon of alienation, are being examined in Armenia. An ordinary Armenian citizen’s isolation, alienation from those basic institutions, groups and people who supervise the country’s political life is being demonstrated. The Armenian’s flexibility and passive position to the latters bring to the gradual formation of shady stipulated right, shady justice and, actually, “shady law and order” in the country.

The fact that the diffidence and discontentment that exist in Armenia are not crystallized in the massive complaint against the political system testifies to the feeling of social dissatisfaction and the de-centralization and de-unity of the political energy. The reasons are to be sought in the undeveloped nature of the massive political consciousness, as well as the individum-worshiping psychology uniquely typical of the Armenians, through which we traditionally used to be taught to concentrate our attention on persons and the personal factor in the socio-political life. To overcome the phenomenon of alienation in Armenia, the state management ideology should be based on the principle of social cooperation and democratic participation, as without the nation’s massive participation and assistance, democracy cannot exist.