Issue № 82. October 2020

Network Society, “New Geometry of the Authority” and State Modernization in Current Legal Studies

DSc (Juridical sciences), Kutafin Moscow State Law University (MSAL), Moscow, Russian Federation.
E-mail: svlipen@msal.ru
ORCID ID: 0000-0002-3478-956X

The concepts of network society that have gained much favour in the Humanities and in the social science involve the construction of “new geometry of the authority”, as well as new approaches to the characterization of the state and political authority. Modification of the political governance in the networked society is aimed at changing the perception of the state and its place among other political actors, political participation and relationship between the state and civil society. It is usually argued that the old vertical hierarchies are incapable of adequate political management and effective management decisions, represented by the traditionally formed bureaucratic state machine. Legal science does not recognize the idea of the systemic crisis based on traditional approaches of the political and legal systems in the modern context of globalization, digitalization, and networking of social relations. At the same time, lawyers generally quite adequately perceive the idea of the network society; researchers are ready, including within the framework of network terminology, to analyze the processes of formation of “new geometries of the authority”. In such traditions, in the context of social communications development, many macro-processes of state modernization that have developed over the past centuries (democracy, separation of powers, federalism, etc.) can be considered. Aspects of modernizing the state in a modern network society with a developed structure of communication media systems involve improving activities of the government mechanism (legislative, executive, judicial powers) based on the widespread use of computer technologies. The Humanities and the social science consider various options for network modernization of public governance that is relevant to parameters of a network society. The lawyers should be definitely involved in the researchers conducted in this area, as far as many of the proposed solutions and actions need to be translated into an adequate legal language.

Keywords

Network, network paradigm, network society, network state, state sovereignty, network management.

DOI: 10.24411/2070-1381-2020-10102