Indexing or Insinuation: Ranking States as a Manipulation Tool for Political and (Post)Сultural Influence

The article critically examines the criteria, norms and procedures of indexing that have become popular in recent years and are being increasingly implemented in all spheres of life. The research focuses on the assessment of criteria for determining the capacity of states based on quantitative data processing. It is argued that indexing often implies tools for influence which lead to deepening inequality, unhealthy competition and disagreements between countries. According to the author's hypothesis, the hidden purpose of such classifications is stigmatization and favoritism, the desire to exert political influence, deliberately underestimating the status of some states and elevating others. On the one hand ranking is used to emphasize the inequality of countries, to define friends and foes, or inner and outer circles, and on the other hand — to reduce everything to the same criteria, standards, without proper analysis and understanding of the context, historical background, national, cultural, religious characteristics. The materials for the study were documents submitted by various organizations, including non-governmental organizations, as well as analytical and research works devoted to the analysis of the ranking phenomenon. The purpose of the study is to analyze the tools for manipulation carried out through the assessment of the capacity of states. The research tasks include: critical understanding of ranking mechanisms, disclosure of the manipulative potential of game strategies with indexing, as well as the analysis of individual cases indicating the dubiousness of the procedure for evaluating the capacity of states based on the analysis of statistical data, without taking into account the entire complex of components that determine state effectiveness. The study shows that under the guise of indexing, manipulative practices and soft influence on the states political regimes are used, thus entire regions become the object of evaluative and subjective judgments of the so-called experts.