PRESENTATION OF THE RESEARCH “POLITICAL AND IDEOLOGICAL ORIENTATIONS OF THE CITIZENS OF UKRAINE IN THE CONDITIONS OF RUSSIAN AGGRESSION”

On February 2, 2023, the Razumkov Center hosted the presentation of the research “Political and ideological orientations of Ukrainian citizens in the conditions of Russian aggression”, the preparation of which was attended by the Head of the Department of Political Institutions and Processes of our institute, Galyna Zelenko, and leading researcher Nataliia Kononenko.

In her speech, Galyna Zelenko emphasized that the disappearance of some lines of socio-political divisions (foreign policy orientations, language issue, civic self-identification) will not mean the absence of other divisions. Moreover, their depth will depend on how long the war will last and how it will end. The new ones that will arise will rather relate to valuable things – the concept of justice, involvement in state-building processes. Also due to the extreme complexity of the socio-economic situation, colossal losses that Ukraine has never faced before, demographic and economic problems, post-traumatic syndrome, problems of war veterans, etc. will lead to increased demand for simple solutions. This will mean a surge of populism with all the consequences – political scandals, instability, unsystematic political decisions. And here the problem arises as to how far existing political institutions – parties – considering how they are created, will be able to adequately articulate these problems or will it be an imitation. Stability (instability) in the state will be determined depending on this.

During the scientific event

After the war, the level of political absenteeism, passivity, and anomie will significantly decrease, and the demand for political participation will increase. But this is a double-edged sword. Why? Because the mechanisms of political participation in Ukraine remain quite ineffective. And here we return to the problem of the content of political parties as political institutions that perform the relevant functions. Therefore, the task of adopting a new law on political parties with the subsequent re-registration of political parties is already facing us. Thus, the process of political rehabilitation will be launched. The second, archive-important step is the return of those functions that were allocated to local self-government bodies before the war. Since there will be a desire of the current powerful people, who have concentrated power in their hands, which is quite logical for war, not to share their competences in peacetime. The third step, which should be taken now, is to ensure the system (institute) of political responsibility of deputies of representative bodies through the adoption of appropriate procedural legislation, streamlining of intra-parliamentary procedures, etc. This does not require changes to the constitution, so it can be adopted even under martial law. That is, the condition of more or less normal development is precisely the provision of systemic access, the inclusion of society, the provision of channels of participation and, ultimately, the consociational model of democracy.