‘To understand the West does not mean to understand the whole world; but one cannot understand the world without understanding the West’ – following this premise, the author turned to the prematurely, in his opinion, forgotten methodology of structural functionalism (primarily to the legacy of E. Shils), modernised it and applied it to the analysis of the long evolutionary trends of the Western political form. ‘The centre’ as a metaphor and simultaneously a political reality is a formula that has allowed him to take a fresh look at the origin and nature of the modern state, the political refractions of Christian religiosity (including secularised ones), the phenomena of empire, separation of powers, partisanship, federalism, etc. The book concludes with an analysis of the current condition of the Western political form and speculations about its future fate.