Education of people of the “third age” is based on the fact that the ability to self-development and understanding of the surrounding world is reduced to the application of previously acquired knowledge in a certain period of time. At the same time, it is believed that a decrease in cognitive abilities and an increase in inaccuracies in motor skills leads to the fact that it is almost impossible to master new knowledge. Determining the extent to which this statement corresponds to psychological and educational attitudes shapes the relevance of the study. The novelty of the research is determined by the fact that, for the first time, it is proposed to approach the topic of education for people of “third age” not only as a problem, which is determined solely for increasing the employment of the population and raising the retirement age. The authors offer to consider the topic of the research as a factor in improving the standard of living and social adaptability of "third age" citizens. Models of university and distance education are considered in the article. The practical significance of the research is determined by the need to develop the issue outlined in the face of crisis and the desire of public administration to identify priorities for the formation of a qualitatively new social model. A model of comparative analysis with foreign models is used in the research as well as and the experience of implementation is offered to be implemented.

This collective monograph results from the research conducted political scientists, economists, historians and international relations scholars from the Institute of Europe RAS, Institute of Oriental Studies RAS, IMEMO RAS, MGIMO University, National State University Higher School of Economics. The chapters of the monograph share the same goal – to reveal the extent China is already present in the Mediterranean, to explore which role PRC plays in the socio-economic and political development of the states of the region, what are the future prospects of its presence and influence. The Mediterranean is highly heterogeneous in political, historical, cultural, and civilizational sense. The region consists of the members of the European Union, politically unstable states of the Middle East and North Africa, the states of the Balkans, which are still in the process of self-determination and nation-building, and ambitious regional power Turkey. The study reveals the unique state experiences of relations with the PRC in order to identify common features and national specifics. For Russia, which has its own agenda of cooperation with the Mediterranean states, understanding of the Chinese factor in the development of the region also seems necessary and significant.

The electoral system is the means by which the process of the exercise of power by the people takes place, the content of which is extremely important for the nature of the representative mandate and the special functioning of the institution of constitutional responsibility in the system of representative bodies. The article disclosures the features of local elections by open party lists and emphasizes the problematic issues of the electoral legislation that do not contribute to full and ‘incorruptible’ expression of will of citizens and to the effective formation of local authorities. The main approach to studying this problem is descriptive method that reveals the peculiarities of providing gender equality, distribution of authorities at the local level and rights of citizens to participate in local elections not only through political parties. Materials of the article have practical value for lecturers of universities of economic and legal specialties.

The topic of the study is especially relevant because of the non-standard form of employment (NFE) ‘volunteering’ has acquired across the global. Similarly, NFE ‘voluntourism’ has recently been acquiring the form of a social movement and the development of mechanisms for public administration of these activities is far from complete. The aim of the article is to summarise the world experience of the project approach of public authorities to youth policy and the introduction of NFE of youth ‘volunteering’, as well as to analyse the experience of the micro-project approach of public authorities in Mariupol, Ukraine. The study is based on a comprehensive and systematic approach to public management of youth employment and uses methods to describe, summarise, analyse and synthesise the results of observations and experiments. The generalisation of the world experience of the project approach of public authorities to the introduction of non-standard forms of youth employment ‘volunteering’ and ‘voluntourism’ and the modern experience of its use is supported by UNESCO, which allows expanding its scope. It established that experience of the project approach of public authorities on creation of NFE ‘volunteering’ in the city of Mariupol, Ukraine, can be considered as innovative technology of information education. Thus, the project approach of public authorities with the use of NFE ‘volunteering’ and ‘voluntourism’ plays a specific useful role in professional and life situations of young people and allows them to perform social functions of professional, community and personal goals and competencies.