Modern megatrends of world politics

Abstract

The article substantiates the allocation of three megatrends of world politics. It is shown that these megatrends are: globalization, integration and democratization. Globalization is understood as transnationalization (transparency of national borders). Unlike globalization, integration implies inter-state agreements as well as a territorial dimension. In turn, democratization is defined as: 1) an increase in the number of democratic states in the world (the criterion proposed by S. Huntington); 2) an increase in the total number of states and non-state actors operating in the international arena; 3) an increase in the number of negotiating forums in the world. Based on S. Huntington’s idea of the wave-like nature of political developments in the example of democratization, the author proposes its application in two other selected megatrends – integration and democratization. It is argued that an alternative trend of globalization is isolationism, integration/disintegration, democratization/de-democratization. At the same time, the vector of global political developments is directed towards globalization, integration and democratization. Megatrends are compared with the political organization of the world, in which three levels are distinguished: 1) the Westphalian system, 2) the system of interstate relations (change in the world order), 3) the political systems of states, many of which were transformed at the turn of the 20th-21st centuries. In addition, cycles in world politics are revealed, similar to the cycles of N. Kondrat’ev in the economy. It is shown that, since the modern world is in a state of change at all three levels of political organization, also regarding the intensification of the revolutionary phase of world politics, trends such as isolationism, disintegration and de-democratization are becoming significant now.