According to R.-J. Schwargenberg, political science today resembles Penelope, who destroys everything created in a day. Many political scientists are trying to create the latest theories by first rejecting or destroying everything created before them.
Modern political theories that arose in the twentieth century can be divided into the following:
• Postbehavioralism. It is based on T. Parson's functionalism. This theory considers the political sphere as a dynamic, sustainable process, and does not take into account its conflict.
• Postpositivism considers scientific only theories confirmed by practice, and recognizes the remaining provisions as valueless and rejects them.
• Neoliberalism calls for strengthening the role of the state, using its social capabilities to prevent all possible conflicts. Key points: the creation of social security, the development of the market, competition, government activities in all sectors of the economy.
• Neoconservatism. Speaking for market freedom, creating competition adheres to Darwinian theory. According to this teaching, the weak should go broke, the strong - get rich.
• Social Democracy has split into a modernist and traditional trend.
• Neo-Marxism.
• Humanism, which preaches the theory of non-violence.
In addition to these theories, there are others that have become somewhat less widespread. This is the theory of the apocalypse, the doctrine of totalitarianism and its essence, etc.
All theories differ in their approach to the consideration of political issues, but are similar in that in each of them there is the concept of “political regime”, ie features of the functioning of state power. It is characterized by the degree of freedom, methods, measure of participation of individuals in management, different statuses.
The concept of political regime is one of the components of the term “typology of political systems”.
Typology is a specialized method for finding consistent matches when comparing similar objects or phenomena. It is necessary to organize everything that is known about a particular subject.
Typology of political systems:
• Distinguishes between the main (necessary) and secondary (irregular) signs of all political devices studied in the process of research .
• Describes the studied set of systems, creates a complete and orderly theory about their structure.
• It is the most important means of scientific forecasting the further development of political systems of various types.
The typology of political systems can be theoretical, i.e. built by a specific researcher on the basis of the ideal model invented by him. Such a theory is a priori in nature, and its confirmation, refutation comes in the process of analysis.
The empirical typology of political systems takes as a basis the material accumulated in the process of studying specific, well-known properties of an object. Its leading difference from the theoretical one is a clear concretization of all the properties of the studied political systems, the creation of a classification, the division of objects into typical groups.
Both typologies should act as a single whole, because from theoretical calculations it will be necessary to move on to concrete results, certain concepts.
A typology of political systems that is:
• Comprehensively covers the systems under study.
• Uses essential criteria that reveal typical features of systems.
• Evenly groups the studied systems.
• It is holistic, expresses not only the basic characteristics of the system, but also gives an idea of their relationships.
Typically recognized today is the typology of the political systems of Almond.
He compares the systems, taking as their starting point their political culture and the roles played by the authorities, the media, parties, etc. Based on these signs, he identifies the political systems of the Anglo-American, totalitarian, pre-industrial and European continental types. Almond gives a characteristic of all the distinguished types, shows their differences and similarities.