NETOCRACY AS A SUBJECT OF THE MODERN INFORMATION SOCIETY

Objective: This article examines the study of issues related to the formation of the information society, with a primary focus on the emerging new ruling class – the netocracy. It reveals some features and characteristics of this developing global upper class. The article discusses approaches to analyzing the information society, its network structure, and the place of netocracy within the post-industrial society, which possesses knowledge and technologies for managing people's behavior and their organizations. Results and Discussion: The netocracy is set to gain dominance in the future information society due to its mastery of information and ability to handle it. Owing to its central position in information networks, the monopoly on knowledge of network organizations, and the ability to use this knowledge to manage people, the netocracy becomes a class dominating the information society. Conclusion: An overabundance of information leads to the netocracy, which can manage information and use it to generate exclusive knowledge, becoming the meritocracy of a post-industrial society. The exclusive position of the netocracy within the meta-information space, as well as its ability and competence to systematically shape the meta-information sphere, makes it a driving force in the development of a post-industrial information society. However, despite the crisis-stricken state of modern capitalist society and the bourgeoisie's inability to find a solution to the system-wide crisis, the netocracy has not yet acquired the necessary resource base to emerge as a dominant and ruling force