RESEARCH “INSTRUMENTS OF LEGITIMATION OF POWER DURING THE PERIOD OF MARTIAL LAW” WAS CONDUCTED

The Department of Political Institutes and Processes of the Kuras Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and the Association of Political Sciences of Ukraine conducted a study “Instruments of legitimation of power during the period of martial law”. The purpose of the research is to identify and analyze the tools that can be used (according to the current legislation) to maintain trust in domestic political institutions under the conditions of “prolonged” (during the martial law regime) electoral legitimation in order to preserve democracy in Ukraine. By “legitimate democratic political regime” we understand a system with a high level of support and recognition by citizens of the activities of power structures (parliament, president, government, local self-government bodies), which guarantees maximum compliance with laws and democratic procedures, the implementation of which is not limited by the relevant law on the introduction of military state in Ukraine.

The scientific tasks of the research include:

• A matrix of factors shaping the general legitimacy of institutions of public power has been developed. The approach to assessing the level of legitimacy in democracies by M. Stephen Weatherford was used, which was supplemented by the authors of this study taking into account the Ukrainian context
• The basic tools of legitimation of such institutions as the president (10 tools), the parliament (11 tools), the government (11 tools), local self-government bodies (12 tools) are singled out, the use of which is not limited to the legal regime of martial law in Ukraine
• The level of experts’ understanding of the importance and application of specific legitimation tools of each of the researched institutions, the implementation of which is able to support the development of the Ukrainian political system in the direction of democracy, even in the conditions of full-scale aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, is determined. The method is an online survey of experts in the period from May 12 to June 15, 2024. 261 experts participated in the survey, of which 76% are scientists (political scientists, lawyers, sociologists, economists, public administration specialists)
• According to experts, there are gaps between the importance of tools and the level of their implementation
• Averaged levels of importance and application of legitimation tools (according to expert evaluations) were established for each institute, clustered into the following thematic groups: “normative-legal”, “practical-instrumental” and “communicative” (according to the approach of R. Amossi)
• A wide selection of tools is offered, the comprehensive introduction of which can improve the management system and the practice of inter-institutional relations in the country in wartime conditions, as well as after the renewal of electoral procedures.

Among the basic conclusions of the study:

• The most important features of a legitimate modern government institution in Ukraine are citizens’ trust in it, its ability to guarantee security and real efficiency, carried out within the limits of the Constitution (according to experts’ assessments)
• The development of national security policy, conducting foreign policy activities, and guaranteeing compliance with the Constitution are very important tools for legitimizing the institution of the president during martial law. According to experts, the most important practices for the legitimation of the parliament are its clear and transparent observance of law-making procedures, the formation of the government and the implementation of parliamentary control over it, as well as the demonstration of deputy integrity. The top tools of the government’s legitimation (in terms of importance) are the trust in it of international partners, its clear public communication and the realization of the responsibility of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine before the Verkhovna Rada. As for local self-government bodies, for their legitimation, according to experts, such tools as fair use of local budgets by self-government bodies, communication with territorial communities and effective resolution of local issues/problems are very important
• Most of the identified legitimization tools for all institutions were classified by experts as “rather important” and “very important”, while their use by the parliament, government and local government in conditions of full-scale war was recognized by experts as mostly irregular. The smallest (but still quite large) gap in expert assessments of the importance of legitimization tools and their practical application at the presidential institute
• According to experts, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine uses, among the clustered tools of legitimation, first of all the tools of the practical group. While the most important, according to experts, for maintaining the legitimacy of the parliament today are the tools of the regulatory and legal group. In order to maintain a high level of legitimization of the institutions of the government and the president, according to experts, the tools of the practical group are the most important. The tools of the same group, according to experts, are those that are used more often than others by the CMU and the President. The problem of such “coincidence” is the presence of large gaps between the assessments of the importance and application of the tools (especially in the government case).
• Even the transition to the thorough implementation of the tools of legitimation of the existing institutions should not negate the need to improve the legislation regulating the institutional design of the political system of Ukraine, which needs changes. Preparation for the redesign of the country’s political system should actively take place at the level of scientific and expert discussion during the legal regime of martial law.