Electoral problematics in the Russian partiology of the early 20th century

Abstract

The article deals with issues related to the prehistory of electoral sociology which have not been studied thoroughly in our country. An analysis is given of the pre-revolutionary partiologists' attempts at the emergence of an issue of a necessity of a special sociological discipline, dealing with an analysis the phenomenon of the voter's behaviour. The article also considers a view-point of Marxist P. Berlin on the object, subject and methods of the new science. A conclusion is drawn that the early 20-th century was a period of awareness of a psephological direction of political research in the domestic and foreign social science