The study of states as systems of power using Sovietological methods: analyzing how states maintain legitimacy, manage internal dissent, project force, and reproduce their governing elites. Statology treats states not as neutral arbiters but as organizations with their own interests, internal factions, and ritualized procedures. It examines the security apparatus, the bureaucracy, the legal system, and the
educational system as
interlocking mechanisms of control. Unlike traditional
political science, statology assumes opacity and deception as normal features of state behavior, requiring the interpretive skills of the Kremlinologist.