Political Power in A.S. Yashchenko’s Synthetic Theory of Law and State: ethical aspects

The article analyzes the concept of political power developed by the Russian historian, legal scholar, and philosopher of the early 20th century A. S. Yashchenko (1877–1934). The subject of the article is the ethical aspects of political power in the context of A. S. Yashchenko's synthetic theory of law and the state. The author examines in detail aspects of the topic such as the connection between A. S. Yashchenko's original concept of political power and the preceding tradition of studying this category within the framework of dominant theoretical schools (various institutional interpretations, psychological interpretation, political realism), the specifics of ethical interpretations of political power within political philosophy, the relationship between the concept of political power and the general provisions of A. S. Yashchenko's synthetic theory of law and the state in the context of the application of coercion tools and the necessity for its ethical justification. The methodology underlying the research in this article is represented by a combination of general theoretical methods and an analysis of A. S. Yashchenko's historical and philosophical heritage aimed at revealing the ethical aspects of his understanding of political power. As a result of the work, key directions for the study of power relations are considered, the main approaches to political power present in contemporary social sciences are outlined, and based on their analysis, political power is conceptualized in the historical and philosophical heritage of A. S. Yashchenko, along with its ethical aspects. At the same time, the category of political power is problematized in the light of historical, philosophical, and ethical research directions, which determines the philosophical specificity of the presented article. The scientific novelty of the research underlying the article consists in revealing the role of political power in A. S. Yashchenko's heteronomous-synthetic ethics. Moreover, based on the analysis of sources, a conclusion is made regarding the researcher’s ideas about political power belonging to the psychological spectrum of existing approaches, and promising research directions are proposed for further study of A. S. Yashchenko's heritage from a historical-philosophical and ethical perspective.