Formation and civilizational synthesis in the study of social dynamics

Victor A. Volkonsky ()

Economics of Contemporary Russia, 2025, vol. 28, issue 1

Abstract: When describing world history, two conceptual approaches or two models are used. The first model is a sequential change of socio-­economic formations “feudalism – ​capitalism – ​socialism†or a cyclical model of changing world economic patterns to describe the development of processes over time. The second model is the model of civilizations (according to N. Danilevsky and A. Toynbee). Civilizational formations are much more stable and long-lived. In the article, the second approach is used mainly to represent the differences, similarities, and interaction of groups of countries “in space†. Two groups of countries: 1) the countries of the West (in the article – ​“the civilization of liberalism†) and 2) the countries of the emerging association of the multipolar world (MPM) (in the article – ​“the civilization of statehood†) are in a long-term multilateral confrontation. In this article, a synthesis of two models is proposed to identify the basic factors of the process of changing formations of “feudalism – ​capitalism – ​socialism†against the background of two civilizations opposing each other. In this article, a synthesis of two models is proposed to identify the basic factors of the process of changing formations of “feudalism – ​capitalism – ​socialism†against the background of two civilizations opposing each other. According to the synthetic model, the capitalist formation was more likely to originate in the countries of liberalism. Its expansion into the countries of statehood provoked a response (according to Toynbee) in the form of the emergence of a formation of socialism there. The model reflects the following facts: the low probability of establishing a socialist social arrangement in the countries of liberalism, as well as the fact that the sequence of formations “feudalism – ​capitalism – ​socialism†is not universal. In countries with the ideology of statehood, it is possible to build socialism without going through the stage of developed capitalism. To identify the role of ideologies, the division of this category into two concepts is introduced – ​intellectually formalized ideology (IFI) and deep ideology (DI). The final section discusses the development of new formations after capitalism and socialism, as well as the influence of the uncertainty factor on historical dynamics. The relevance of developing a synthetic model is related to the relevance of “introducing†historical knowledge into the life of society, studying history, expanding and deepening its teaching, and taking it into account when forming a political strategy.

Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ack:journl:y:2025:id:1033

DOI: 10.33293/1609-1442-2025-28(1)-5-19

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