POLYSTATE AS TERRITORIAL DIVISION OF INFORMATION SOCIETY

Abstract

The modern world is in transition from industrial to information (post-industrial) society. This process is the fastest in the countries of the Western world (Western civilization). It includes the States of Western Europe, North America (Canada, the United States), as well as on other continents that assimilated Western culture, including a political one (eg. Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand). Establishment and further development of information society changes not only people’s way life, but also their political organization – the State. Changes of the information society in the functioning of the State are the following. The State has ceased to be a monopoly in the field of information – storage, creation, and dissemination of information, including that of a political nature. Its competitors in this field are numerous non-State structures – from international organizations and transnational corporations to municipalities and individuals. Crisis of democracy is a system of citizen participation in governance. Having emerged in its modern form more than two hundred years ago, it was not designed for a large number of participants of the political process and modern mass communications. The State has largely lost control over political processes both on its territory and around itself. This, in its turn, has led to separatism intensification, which rarely happened before – chivalry attempts. All this requires the State as a political Institute to meet the challenges of the post- industrial era. First of all, an information policy should be implemented that is targeting society, shaping public opinion by using the latest information technologies. The main directions of this policy are the following: a) recognition of policy actors values for regions; b) recognition (by the State in its Constitution and legislation) of the right to self- determination in the regions through regional referendum; c) interests of the population in different regions belonging to the State are counted through the combination of unity, federalism and confederation elements in its territorial structure, depending on changes in the political situation and the choice of citizens at regional referendum. Such a State can be called a polystate – a state whose territorial system reflects realities of information society; d) even in the case of territorial losses the State has a chance to keep the impact on "separatist" territory, which can become, for example, a new State, trying to establish confederative relations in the form of a personal or real Union, associated State, economic Union, etc.; e), the State is not a passive Viewer, but an active participant in the political process, guiding it to its benefit and for the benefit of citizens. It is the way that States in the Western world follow. Therefore in our stormy time they have a chance not only to become victims of separatism, but also draw its destructive energy in their favor. For example, in the countries of European Union such as Italy, Spain, Portugal, Finland, France, Denmark since the end of the 20th century the asymmetry in their territorial unit has spread. These States are unitary, but within their borders there are regions with broader self-government than others. For example, Bolzano in Italy, Catalonia in Spain, Corsica in France etc. Besides, unitarity in these countries carries the telltale signs of federalism. So, in Italy, even regions with the usual status that is formally without autonomy have their own statutes (Constitution), and the head of the region is elected by direct elections by the region citizens. Thus, the distinction between unitarity and federalism in these countries is erased and their divisions can be described both as regional and decentralized. To sum up, the right to self-determination of the regions is becoming increasingly common in the countries of the Western world and has a chance to be enshrined in the constitutional law and the policies of those States. Besides, States themselves have a tendency to be turned into polystates. Thus, we can witness a new territorial division of information (postindustrial) society.