Introduction. The central role in the formation of a global health governance system is assigned to the World Health Organization (WHO), which is part of the United Nations Family of Organizations. Amid increasing globalization, the challenges to human security have become more acute, including those related to the spread of dangerous infections, which grow to epidemics and pandemics. Faced with the COVID-2019 pandemic, WHO appears to have a number of structural problems that prevent it from successfully fulfilling its regulatory and coordinating functions.

Materials and methods. Methodologically, the study is based on a critical analysis of relevant official and unofficial sources, as well as functional and chronological methods.

Results. The article examines how WHO has been responding to the pandemic, what objective and subjective problems it is facing, what “failures" it has experienced and how they can be overcome through further reforms. It is concluded that despite the presence of, albeit limited, experience in combating mass infections, over the last decades WHO has failed to carry out the necessary structural reforms aimed at improving the effectiveness of the organization. The authors study how these “failures" affect the Organization's reputation, as well as what consequences that might lead to.

Discussion and conclusion. WHO remains the key institution entrusted with the function to develop a global health governance system. At the same time, the Organization's relations with national states, its “disconnection" of national healthcare complexes, financing and accountability problems, as well as the ineffectiveness of the coordinating function result in its deteriorating role. Amid globalization, this factor contributes to the weakening international security, since the lack of effective pandemic management exacerbates the problems of national stability and human security.

Introduction. In many countries, including EU members and their close neighbours, we can observe the so called democratic backsliding in the current decade. Political scientists have been discussing intensively the reasons behind this process. The proposed paper focuses on the rising phenomenon of majoritarianism which seems to contribute to the problems of democratic governance - particularly in the polarised and diverse societies in terms of the world outlook, beliefs and political sympathies -because of the dominance of a particular political and social group or groups in a political system. The aim of the article is to analyse different paths of development of majoritarianism in the 1990s and the 2000s and its impact on the political regime in the current decade. The case of Turkey as one of the “hardest" cases to indicate the phenomenon is compared to some selected states from Central Europe to verify the main hypothesis that the structural factors emerging within the historical process are behind the development of majoritarianism, which has been even strengthened in the current decade, including the pandemic period in 2020.

Methods and materials. The author takes the qualitative approach. He uses the process-tracing method to investigate the development of majoritarianism in selected states and conducts the comparative analysis to identify the similarities and differences between Turkey and two Central European states - Hungary and Poland with reference to the analysed phenomenon.

Results. At the turn of the 1990s and the 2000s a concentration of the party system, producing a decrease in the number of parties in the parliament and a rising party system polarization that strengthened the two largest parties and developed two ideological blocks resulted in the development of majoritarianism in the 2000s - mainly in Turkey and Hungary. It did not lead to the democracy decline at this time. In the second decade of the 21st century single-party governments (or coalition governments with one dominating party) sharing the majoritarian understanding of democracy have consolidated their power at the cost of the weakening of the opposition as well as have strengthened the executive - in relation to the legislature and judiciary. These processes have led to limitations in working of checks and balances system but also political and social pluralism due to increasing dominance of incumbents in political and social life of analyzed countries, particularly during the pandemic period.

Discussion and conclusions. In Hungary and Poland the phenomenon of ma-joritarianism contributes so far to lowering the quality of democracy - in comparison with the Turkish situation reflecting rather the gradual change of the political regime to less democratic (i.e. a new type of authoritarianism).

Introduction. The article is devoted to the institution of the President of the Republic of Armenia and changes in its constitutional status over the past 30 years. To form the regulatory framework of the rule-of-law state, the adoption of the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia by referendum of 1995, amended by referenda of 2005 and 2015, was of key importance.

At first, the institution of the President of the Republic of Armenia was strong enough: he was the head of the executive branch, he single-handedly appointed the Prime Minister, ministers, could unconditionally dissolve the legislative branch - the National Assembly, and make appointments in the judiciary system. That is, the principle of separation of powers was formal. The constitutional amendments of2005 limited the powers of the President of the Republic of Armenia. He had the right to appoint the Prime Minister only after agreement with the Parliament, he could dissolve the National Assembly in the cases and manner provided for in Art. 74.1. of the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia. For ten years, there was a form of semi-presidentalism in the Republic of Armenia, as in the Russian Federation. As a result of the constitutional amendments of 2015, in the context of the transition to parliamentary rule, the powers and functions of the President of the Republic of Armenia became strictly limited. He is elected by the Parliament, he cannot influence the decisions of the Parliament and the Government, he does not participate in the formation of the Government, which is not accountable to him. As a result, the office of the President of the Republic of Armenia is currently of ceremonial and representative nature.

Materials and methods. The theoretical framework of this article consists of scientific works devoted to the institutions of the President of the Republic of Armenia and the Russian Federation. The authors also used the results of the analysis of law enforcement practice of the Republic of Armenia.

The legal and regulatory framework of study was formed by the Constitutions and legislative acts of the Republic of Armenia, the Russian Federation and other states. Using both general research methods (historical, analytical) and special legal methods (system-structural, comparative-legal), the constitutional law of the Republic of Armenia and 30 years of experience in constitutional building were analyzed, as a result of which the existing theoretical and practical problems were identified, certain conclusions and proposals were made.

Study results. The President, being the head of state, monitors compliance with the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia /Art. 123/, therefore, he should have separate functions and certain instruments. To exclude the dependence of the President on the parliamentary majority, the article proposes to change the mechanism of his election: to amend Article 125 of the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia and grant the right to elect the President of the Republic of Armenia to all those extraparliamentary paries that took part in the parliamentary elections, but were not elected to the Parliament, receiving between three and five percent of the total votes. It is considered optimal to assign them 30% of the total number of mandates of deputies of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia. The governing body of each party elects delegates to participate in presidential elections. In the event of such elections, considering also that, according to the Electoral Code of the Republic of Armenia, 30% of seats in the Parliament belong to the opposition, the President's dependence on the parliamentary majority will be excluded, and, in conditions of limited authority, he, at least, can easily put forward the topics of social and political discourse and influence public opinion, express his opinion on the appointment of the Prime Minister, and at least once a year, without fail, address the Parliament and the people.

Discussion and conclusions. Strengthening the institution of the President in the parliamentary form of government can contribute to enhancing the role of the head of state as an arbitrator, effective activity of the Parliament and the Government of the Republic of Armenia and understanding the whole institution supported by the state budget.

Introduction. Rapid development of corporate relations in Russia results in necessity for legislative recognition and theoretical conceptualization of the most significant management devices in this sphere. For example, corporate regulatory act is a simple and convenient tool for internal regulation of corporate operations. Besides, Russian legislation gives no definition of corporate regulatory act. This fact causes difficulties for entrepreneurs to perceive this source of law. The article reveals the essence of corporate regulatory act and discloses the content of this legal phenomenon.

Materials and methods. In the course of the research the authors used the following general scientific and special juridical methods: analysis, synthesis, formal logical method, comparative legal method, structural and functional method. The special feature of the research is the concept of series method used to trace the development of the definition of corporate regulatory act from the general to the special without losing the generic and specific aspects of this legal phenomenon. The authors used for research such materials as corporate regulatory acts of companies that operate under the UK's and the USA's common law and Japan's jurisdictions as well as the legislative acts governing adoption and execution of such acts.

Results of the research. The main result consists in revealing the essence of corporate regulatory act that is embodied in the definition of this concept. The authors also reveal special features of this legal phenomenon in the legal systems of Russia, Japan and some other common law legal systems. The authors substantiate that corporate regulatory act is an ultimately flexible regulator and this fact allows it to individualize rules for every company. Besides, the totality of such acts creates an holistic system of regulation. These features determine advantages of corporate regulatory act over other sources of corporate law.

Discussion and conclusions. Proceeding from good development prospects for the internal corporate regulation within Russian companies, corporate regulatory act as a basic element of this type of regulation needs further theoretic development and legislative recognition.

Introduction. The article examines the important and acute issues of international business activity and management in the context of cross-cultural communication. Impressive and irreversible changes in all aspects of international cooperation are reflected in the growing number of contacts between representatives of various nations and cultures.

The success of intercultural communication depends on the extent of its participants' awareness of cultural diversity in many areas of human activity: economy and commerce, science and education, culture and customs.

Cross-cultural communication is the type of communication which involves an understanding how individuals and groups of people from different cultures communicate. The notion “culture" is regarded as a multicomponent phenomenon related to both material and social issues as well as to the diversity of organized activity and individual behaviour.

Materials and methods. The methodical approach of the research refers to the specified and known methods applied in the theory of cross-cultural communication. The method of linguistic analysis of international business communication is extensively used in the article. Other general and specific research methods - dialectical, comparative, modelling, etc. - have also been applied in this study.

Results. The results of the research show that the success of thoroughly prepared international business contacts implies understanding and analysis of the cultural diversity of business partners. This approach has been gaining importance for the emerging and fast growing business in Russia, which tends to acquire experience in dealing with foreign partners.

Discussion and conclusion. From the research that has been carried out in the article it is possible to conclude that successful international business activity is subject to analysis and knowledge of the peculiarities of cross-cultural communication between people of different cultures.