This article scrutinizes the Brexit party through the lens of the poststructuralist concept of populism proposed by Ernesto Laclau. The author has put forward a hypothesis whereby the Brexit party represents a new phenomenon in the political conjuncture of Europe — the ad hoc party, whereas its activity embodies the concept of disintegrational populism. The author formulates the distinctive features of the ad hoc party and disintegrational populism, which can be subsequently used in studies of European party systems. The paper argues that, unlike traditional parties, ad hoc parties which execute the logic of equivalence in their endeavors possess greater flexibility and capability to accomplish their party-constituting goals. In addition, the author suggests that disintegrational populism, alongside the logic of equivalence as the modus operandi of the party, is the most advantageous model of activity for ad hoc parties due to the peculiarities of the European political conjuncture. The research may become a theoretical contribution to the classification and taxonomization of European political parties provided the features of the European political conjuncture elucidated in the paper persist. In this regard, further research into ad hoc parties might prove extremely relevant in terms of understanding the features of modern socio-political processes in Europe.

Over the centuries the Vatican has used a variety of diplomatic mechanisms to promote its political interests. In modern times, the Vatican has made extensive use of the tools of public diplomacy, their employment under Francis I having reached a qualitatively new level. After the enthronement of Francis I, a process of reformation of the institutions of the Holy See started addressing numerous problems the Roman Catholic Church had faced by the end of Benedict XVI’s pontificate. The transformation had a significant impact on the field of public diplomacy, resulting in the expansion of the instruments, and the improvement in old methods. The author examines the adaptation of Vatican public diplomacy to the current realities in the context of the contemporary theological framework designed by Francis I, and outlines the characteristics and the institutions of the Vatican’s public diplomacy activities.

The United States is a secular state, although religious traditions and practices have actually been deeply integrated into the American society. Moreover, the United States has been the home to numerous faiths, Christianity being the largest one. Despite this, the number of atheists has recently dramatically increased. Religion has had a great impact on the US policy in decision-making, as well as in presenting the decisions to the population in the course of elections, when the candidates compete for the votes of the adherents of various faiths. Their political programs often include the issues on which they most align with the views of their denomination’s adherents to gain their trust and support. Abortion was one such issues during the 2020 Presidential campaign. Biden’s announcement to stop supporting the Hyde Amendment stumped most Catholics and enabled Trump to compete for their votes, which was reflected in the candidates’ fierce opposition concerning religious issues. However, the Republican had a tough time with the Democrat’s known Catholic past and present widely promoted by both his campaign and the Catholic organizations supporting him. Nevertheless, this did not ensure the support of absolutely all the Catholics, as for many the abortion issue proved to be the key one, a strong reason to vote for anyone, except for Biden.

The article considers the issue of the introduction, the employment as well as the impact of breakthrough technologies in the oil and gas industry. Digitalization, as an integral part of the fourth industrial revolution, has been increasingly penetrating the oil and gas industry. This paper considers and analyzes the breakthrough technologies in oil and gas companies being mostly favored by the investors and employees, while the oil and gas market is currently the most volatile and unstable one. The author identifies the potential opportunities for utilizing these technologies in the oil and gas sector.

Ensuring high-tech security conditions for Russia’s economic growth requires the simultaneous accelerated development of a national digital ecosystem. Currently, of specific relevance is the issue of creating a trusted digital environment, which can be presented by the technology of smart contracts based on a distributed registry — blockchain. Public administration, medicine, and the financial sector are the top-priority and most promising sectors for introducing such technologies. However, smart contracts also face a number of problems related to their implementation and dissemination: legal, organizational and technical ones. The paper provides a detailed academic analysis of solving the problems of implementing smart contracts as well as their impact under the digital economics.

The article presents the outline of the methodology employed by the St. Petersburg Government to assess the efficiency of state programs. The author analyses these techniques and substantiates the need to improve and specify them. The paper suggests the innovative approach to evaluating the effectiveness of St. Petersburg state programs. On the example of the state program “Social Support of Citizens in St. Petersburg” the paper provides the comparative analysis of the accuracy of the improved techniques and the currently employed methods for evaluating state programs.

This article examines the development of the capitalist system through the prism of the cyberpunk genre. For every year humanity is approaching the world order it used to criticize in the twentieth century. Trans-corporations are currently making considerable impact on both domestic and foreign policy of a state. At the same time, the sphere of high technologies as the basis for the development of society remains in the hands of a small group of individuals and states that have contributed to the development of technology in our computer era. And the things conceived and implemented in cyberpunk are being reflected in the real world.

The relevance of the topic stems from the conflicting attitudes towards gender equality in Chinese society. On the one hand, China positions itself as an egalitarian state, but on the other hand, gender discrimination persists in the country. The article analyses discrimination against Chinese women in the labor market, which not only hinders women’s participation in public life, but also acts as a factor hindering China’s economic development. In addition, the reasons for gender gap in PRC’s economic development are examined, including unequal wages based on gender, gender segregation of the labor market, unequal age of retirement for women and men in China, etc. This study is based on a review of contemporary Russian and foreign research, as well as the analysis of annual reports of the UN and the International Labor Organization (2017 - 2021) reflecting the level of gender equality in China’s economic development.

The article investigates the issue of Taiwan’s growing political identity. For this purpose the discourse analysis of the political rhetoric of island China’s presidents from 1988 to 2022 has been conducted. The authors consider such historical factors in Taiwan-PRC relations as ideological confrontation, Taiwanese nationalism, inter-party struggle within Taiwan, pragmatism of trade and economic cooperation of island and mainland China, as well as the priorities of safe coexistence in relations between them. Factors influencing the dynamics of the political position of Taiwan’s official authorities on the “One China Policy” and relations with the PRC. The issue of how Taiwan’s approaches to mainland China, as well as the prospects of its own political development, have changed has become the research focus.