This work is devoted to the methodology for identifying structurally close ob-jects of the type "country_year" based on a system of indicators characterizing the state capacity 1996-2015. A comparison of clustering methods (including hierarchical clustering) with methods of analyzing patterns based on a pairwise comparison of indicators, ordinal-fixed and ordinal-invariant pattern clustering, is proposed. The possibility of sharing the methods of clustering and pattern analysis to obtain interpretable results from the point of view of political sci-ence is demonstrated. Groups of countries with similar development paths by reference years on the basis of a dynamic analysis of patterns are identified. The dynamic change in state capacity (from the point of view of the selected indica-tor system) of 166 countries of the world is determined.