The major theoretical approaches to comprehension of innovations and innovative policy in modern science

The progress observed at the present stage in the field of high technologies in various areas raises the issue of rethinking the role of innovation in social development and innovation policy as a driving force of change. This article discusses the main theoretical approaches to understanding innovation and innovation policy in the works of foreign and Russian authors. The author aims to provide her own definition of the basic concepts used in scientific discourse on innovation policy, to identify and to describe briefly the main theoretical approaches, to identify similarities and differences in various fields of scientific knowledge and to draw conclusions about the applicability of existing concepts to the content of her own dissertation research. The above analysis shows that innovation theory is at the preparadigmatic stage and can be applied to research in terms of international relations. Within the framework of political science, the question of the ideological justification of innovation policy and the role of ideological concepts in practice of government agencies, as well as the relationship between scientific approaches to innovation policy with political ideological approaches require further study. The study of academic literature has shown that there is no fundamental research to fully reveal the complexity of the evolutionary process of developing innovation policy.