A network paradigm involves looking at the society as an open, multilayered, decentralized system of interactions. A social concept of the networked society terminologically corresponds to the idea of the network state; the network state is characterized by decentralization of power, priority of horizontal relations, almost equal position of the State among other political actors. Legal science does not tend to exaggerate the role of networks and relies on the need for sovereign state power, the mandatory existence of hierarchical power relations.

Nevertheless, it is important to see both the new opportunities that network technologies provide for the institution of the State and the corresponding risks. Modern jurisprudence knows both the advantages and disadvantages of network strategies relatively badly, and promising research is being carried out at the intersection of legal science and political science, sociology, and management science. The network methodology can be integrated seamlessly into the jurisprudence methodological toolkit. At the same time, legal science reflects many problems of the theory of the network society and networkization of the state activity in its concepts and categories without the use of “network” terminology.