FRAGMENTS OF EMPIRES: SIGNS AND CAUSES OF THE POST-IMPERIAL COUNTRIES PARTIAL STATEHOOD

Part I

Abstract

The article is devoted to the substantiation of the allegation that the state of post-imperial countries is partial. The phenomenon of empire is considered in the framework of the geopolitical paradigm. There are two basic types of empires: universal and partial, and among the universal one - liberal-corporative and state-ideocratic. The author believes that there are four major geopolitical spaces: geographic, economic, ideological, and cybernetics. Based on the concept of the four geopolitical spaces, the author argues that the Empire exists in two main forms: 1) universal (which includes the totality of those spaces), and its creative and controlling actor is the state, 2) partial (existing in only one of those geopolitical spaces: economic Empire, ideological Empire, cyber Empire), and their actors are global or transnational private corporations. Universal Empire, under the circumstances, decays geographically but translates its Imperial predicates into economic and ideological spaces. Universal Empire, which institutional framework consists of economic corporations, belongs to the liberal-corporate type. Universal Empire which institutional framework consists both of ideology and of state power belongs to state-ideological type. Discusses the British and Soviet empires differences in the processes of their formation and disintegration in order to distinguish those types of the universal empire. Examines the actual characteristics of the post-Imperial countries’ statehood. The conclusion of the article: different types of universal empires have different degrees of stability and disintegration, their post-Imperial space also has its specific features in accordance with the type of the exact universal Empire.

Keywords:

empire, imperial structure, post-imperial space, post-imperial state, statehood attributes, the causes of the state destruction