Abstract
The article deals with the search for new directions of theoretical understanding and practical justification of modern political processes at the national and international level. Based on a comparison of the Russian and American approaches to assessing the development of political science, a line is drawn to study the prospects for their conjunction and adaptation to new conditions. The article considers the need to apply time-defying approaches to the development of theoretical directions of modern political science, with the definition of criteria for the depth of transformation of structural conditions, as well as factors of divergence of these conditions that affect the change in the nature and form of political power in the modern world. The relevance of this approach is confirmed by a comparative analysis of existing assessments by researchers of the development of political processes at the national level under the influence of new challenges to political stability as a key factor in global security. The prospects for developing new approaches correlate with the crisis phenomena in the development of international relations and the formation of contradictions in the dichotomy-confrontation - cooperation. This state determines the content of the considered points of view about the role and place of democracy in the development of political processes in the world, taking into account new socio - and ethno-cultural challenges and prospects for elaboration of new thinking principles of political science at the present stage.