Comparative analysis of ideas about the advantages and disadvantages of forms of government in the socio-political thought of Russia in the second half of the XVIII century

The article considers the ideas concerning the most significant problems of state and law formulated by representatives of the socio-political thought of Russia in the second half of the 18th century. The works of Russian statesmen and public figures were analyzed, which raised issues related to the origin and meaning of the state, advantages and disadvantages of various forms of government, and legislative improvement. In most cases, absolute monarchy appears as the most acceptable form of government in the socio-political thought of Russia in the second half of the XVIII century, although some researchers in this historical period begin to express ideas about its shortcomings, about the need to create certain mechanisms in the state to prevent the transformation of autocracy into tyranny. Definitions of the essence of the republican form of government, its advantages and disadvantages in this historical period in Russia are just beginning to form and are not widely spread.