Moscow: Klyuch-S Publ., 2011.352 p. Recently, in the field of social sciences, the attention of both scientists and the general public is increasingly attracted to political science - the science of the laws of the formation and functioning of political systems and their institutions. And this is not surprising, because political science studies are designed to systematize various processes and phenomena in the world of politics, contribute to a deeper understanding and forecasting of them. The main body of political science research, both in our country and abroad, is based on materials drawn from the development experience of Western countries. As a result, when trying to apply the concepts and conclusions of Western political science to the analysis of Eastern socio-state structures, it often turns out that these concepts and conclusions lose their explanatory and predictive ability, unable to identify patterns and specifics of the evolution of Eastern societies. Thus, domestic and foreign orientalists face an urgent task to develop the political science of the East as an integral part of world political science. The reviewed work is an important contribution to the solution of this problem. This collection of scientific articles, the seventh in a row published by the Center for the Study of Contemporary Problems of Southeast Asia and the Asia-Pacific Region of the ISAA of Moscow State University, is practically the first attempt to study the elites of Eastern countries. The geography of the collection's articles varies widely from the countries of the Middle East, South and North-East Asia to South-East Asia and even Russia. We used government and other documents that are often introduced into scientific circulation for the first time, materials of the modern press, world political science and regional literature. The collection's articles are written by qualified specialists-employees of the leading research institutions - IV RAS and Moscow's leading universiti ... Read more