UNIVERSITY OF WARSAW
FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
Taras Myshlyayev
Party System Change as a
Determinant of the Process of Political Transformation: Ukraine’s Case
Abstract of Doctoral Dissertation
Doctoral Dissertation
written under scientific supervision of prof. dr. hab. Józef Tymanowski
Warsaw 2022
Selection of the topic of the present dissertation was dictated by the author’s belief that political parties and changes in a party system play a key role in the process of political transformation of Ukraine. Since the time Ukraine declared independence, the issues of the political parties’ formation and activity as well as the creation of a party system drew attention of the Ukrainian and foreign scientists because the representatives of the intellectual millieu were among the initiators and active participants of the processes of political changes of which vital element was creation of political parties in Ukraine. It was reflected in numerous publications devoted to the evolution of the Ukrainian multi-party system. It must be noted that an issue of developing a complex analysis of the process of evolution and transformation of Ukraine’s party system requires detailed research.
The subject of the dissertation is Ukraine’s party system and its impact on the process of political transformation in this state. Selection of Ukraine’s case was dictated by the following circumstances:
firstly – the scientific interests of the author of the dissertation;
secondly – general belief concerning drawbacks and significant obstacles in the process of democratic transformation as encountered by Ukraine;
thirdly – close links between politics and business which in the common opinion are recognized as one of difficulties underlying the democratic transformation of Ukraine;
fourthly – a continually present historical factor which is reduced not only to the so called Post-Communist division but also involves Ukraine’s experiences of staying within the Soviet Union (USSR) structure.
The goal of the carried out study was to specify the importance of party system changes in the processes of democratic transformation and to establish dependencies between a party system and its change versus the political transformation on the example of Ukraine.
In this thesis, the party system change was examined as a category of politological analysis. To this end, a party system change was defined, a general model of such change was determined and – which constitutes the merrits of the present dissertation – the above model was applied to a specific Ukrainian case by showing common grounds and differences between them. Thus, the dissertation combines a theoretical aspect of the analysis with empirical dimensions by indicating how much the transformation of the Ukrainian party scene exhausts an idea of a party system change and to what extent they are but not the same.
With a view to achieving the goal of the dissertation, the following scientific problem was formulated: What is the role and importance of the party system in a context of democratic transformation studies and what is the significance of the party system change for the Ukrainian case of transformation?
In order to achieve the afore mentioned goal of the dissertation, the answers to the research questions as posed below are necessary:
1. What scientific theoretical and methodological trends are present in the foreign and Ukrainian science regarding the nature and specificity of the party system and its role in the processes of political transition?
2. What factors and mechanisms of development of a party system are present in Ukraine and what is the specificity of the social and economic, social and political as well as social and cultural context being changed?
3. What is the role of the party system in the systemic transformation of Ukraine in respect of democratisation and inter-party competitiveness?
4. What is the reason of unsuccessful changes in the Ukrainian party system taking into consideration the grounds within political parties, systemic reasons, the role of civic society and external causes?
5. What the perspectives of the party system changes of Ukraine look like in the context of political transformation?
The answers to the above formulated research questions allow to verify hypothesis of the dissertation which took the following form:
The Ukraine’s party system change affects the scope and nature of the political transformation. The evolution of the party system from the one-party Soviet model towards the adoption of democratic rules by that system provides the opportunity to build stability and cooperation of political parties aimed at competitiveness and gaining of political power.
Difficulties underlying the process of shaping democracy in Ukraine result from immaturity of both political elite and a substantial part of the Ukrainian society and, corruption which all together confine the evolution of the political and economic system.
The foregoing hypothesis are accompanied by a few auxiliary hypotheses as verified in this dissertation:
the party system change constitutes an inseperable element of carrying out the systemic transformation;
in case of Ukraine, the party system approached the old establishment of Communist nomenclature substituted later on by business nomenclature largely based on the old Communist regime;
the Ukrainian democratic political transition is dependent on functioning of the party system;
starting from the nineties, the processes taking place in the party system in Ukraine do not correspond to the notion of a proper change; they approach it or are but similar only which becomes a factor hindering the process of democratisation.
future development of Ukraine’s political system requires the stability of the party system.
The theoretical and methodological basis for the study of the party system change’s impact on political transition is: a systemic approach and functional structuralism. Their use will help to consider the party system as a set of inter-related and cooperating party organizations and as a integral part of a political system.
A historical approach allows to explore the contemporary process of Ukraine’s party system transition in the context of the world trends of political process in the framework of the Post-Communist transformation.
The theoretical basis for the study of shaping and changing of the Ukrainian party system conceived as determinant of the systemic transformation process are also transitological theories which define the political transformation as the process of transition from the authoritarian system to gradual consolidation of liberal democracy. Transitological approach allows to understand the logics of the Ukrainian political process and to clarify its specificity through the study of contemporary condition of the party system.
For the purpose of an analysis of shaping and functioning of political parties as main elements of the party system, their cooperation with other political institutes, institutional approach was applied. Combining the institutional approach with neo-institutional concept of a rational choice makes it possible both to reveal formal and informal characteristics of political parties, define them not only as the organizations, mental structures or the platforms of cooperation and strategy of the elites and also to „bind” the impact of various factors on the process of changes affecting the party system.
When studying the changes in multi-party systems two approaches – quantitative and qualitative – are used as a rule. By means of the first one, quantity of the parties and their structural units are examined as well as an optimal number of the parties for this or another system is projected. The most important variables of each party system which affect a way the political parties compete with each other and which concurrently are easy to be operationalised include first of all a number and size of political parties which are continually present in the system.
The other approach – a qualitative one – is used to take into account the institutional environment in which the party system is functioning. The first set of variables comprises: the level of electoral instability expressed by the amount of the electoral support shift between
subsequent elections, the level of fragmentarisation of the party system considering both a number of political parties and the amount of support gained by them, the level of concentration regarding the results obtained by the two strongest parties, the level of the party system competitiveness measuring distance between the strongest and the second party, the level of aggregation reflecting the party’s parliamentary power, the level of polarisation showing ideological and political distance between the two main parties and the level of alternation indicating the frequency of shift of the ruling parties.
The methods used in this dissertation are as follows:
a) historical method – the formation and evolution of the party system versus genesis of the democratic transition processes;
b) behavioural method – studying the behaviour of political actors – politicians; the relations: the power vs. opposition, citizen as the voters;
c) institutional method – the examination of respective institutions of which the party system is composed;
d) dogmatic method – the examination of the contents of the rules of law which refer to political parties;
e) decision-making method – studying the specificity of the political decision - making process with respect to the changes in the party system etc.
The application of a case-study method is conditioned by recognizing the party system as an unique subject which within its evolution determines the changes in the Ukraine’s political system.
This dissertation is composed of an introduction, five chapters, summary and bibliography. The first Chapter is devoted to the analysis of sources and methods used in politological studies of the party system functioning in the modern political establishment.
The above chapter analyzes among others the concepts of the party system changes in today’s politology; it defines the essence and key features of the political transformation, it highlights the importance of political parties and party system in the political processes which have impact on the changes in today’s political regimes.
The second Chapter contains an explanation of the conditions for changes related to the party system and elucidates key features of the Ukraine’s party system. An attempt has been made here to define the role of party nomenclature and oligarchy structures in the process of the party system changes which is crucial for this dissertation and to analyze a phenomenon of a „party of power” being specific for the today’s Ukrainian party system and which significantly transforms a standard or classic idea of democratisation and the role of political parties.
The third Chapter analyzes in turn the impact of the party system changes for the formation of democracy in terms of a competitive political scheme with the well established institutions of such competition (the parliament, government, parties). It provides explanation for the features of competition of the Ukrainian party system from the point of view of the electoral, parliamentary and governmental rivalry.
In the fourth Chapter, the reasons of ineffectiveness of the party system changes were defined; the changes taking place in the parties themselves were specified, the role and impact of business groups in functioning of the Ukrainian party system were analyzed, the role of civic society and the so called external factors were discussed as negative factors considering the changes in the Ukraine’s party system.
The fifth Chapter is devoted to the analysis of dynamics of changes related to the Ukrainian party system in the years 2015-2020, elucidation of current condition of Ukraine’s Party system, distingushing of key trends of the changes and an attempt to create probable scenarios of the evolution of Ukraine’s Party system in the nearest future.
The source material for the dissertation is provided primarily by the publications in Ukrainian language. They are mainly the publications written by the Ukrainian politologists, partly sociologists. The formation of the party system was described in the publications by Natalia Bohacheva1, Lilia Honyukowa2, Antonina Kolodiy3, Volodymir Lytvyn4, Andriy Meleshevych5 and Jurjy Shveda6. The specificity of changes in the constitutional system was presented in the publications by Oleksandr Fisun7, Yevhen Golovakha8, Volodymyr Hodovanets9, Taras Kuzio10 and Yuriy Matsiyes’kyy11. Studying of Ukraine’s political transition
1 N.Bohacheva, Evolyutsiya vyborchoyi systemy v Ukrayini, Visnyk Tsentralʹnoyi vyborchoyi komisiyi, 2005, № 1.
2 L.Honyukova, Politychni partiyi yak instytut derzhavnoyi polityky ta upravlinnya: teoretyko-metodolohichnyy analiz, Kyiv, NADU, 2009, s. 392; Honyukova L., Vplyv politychnykh partiy na protsesy suspilʹnykh transformatsiy,
„Stratehichni priorytety”, 2009, № 4.
3 A.Kolodiy, Politychna transformatsiya v Ukrayini: instytutsiyi ta lyudy, [w:] “Efektyvnistʹ derzhavnoho upravlinnya”, Lʹviv: LRIDU NADU, 2007, Vyp. 12.
4 V.Lytvyn, Politychna systema dlya Ukrayiny: istorychnyy dosvid i vyklyky suchasnoyi NAN Ukrayiny, Kyiv, Nika- Tsentr, 2008.
5 A.Meleshevych, Partiyi vlady ta partiyni systemy v postradyansʹkykh krayinakh, [w:] Naukovo-prosvitnytsʹkyy pravnychyy zhurnal "Vybory ta demokratiya", Nr 1 (7), 2006.
6 Y.Shveda, Teoriya politychnykh partiy ta partiynykh system, Navchalʹnyy posibnyk, Lʹviv, Triada Plyus, 2004;
Y.Shveda, Partiyi ta vybory: entsyklopedychnyy slovnyk, Lʹvivsʹkyy nats. un-t. im. I.Franka, Lʹviv, 2009.
7 O.Fisun, Inversiyni trayektoriyi postradyansʹkykh politychnykh rezhymiv i modeli neopatrymonialʹnoyi konsolidatsiyi, Natsionalʹna bezpeka Ukrayiny, Kyiv, 2004.
8 Y.Golovakha, Postsovetskaya deinstitutsionalizatsiya i stanovleniye novykh sotsial'nykh institutov v ukrainskom obshchestve, Sotsiologiya: teoriya, metody, marketing, Kiyev, 2001, № 4;
9 V.Hodovanetsʹ, Konstytutsiyne pravo Ukrayiny: konspekt lektsiy, Kyiv, 2012.
10 T.Kuzio, Desyatʹ svidchenʹ toho, shcho Ukrayina neoradyansʹka derzhava, http:[w:]www.pravda.com.ua vid 25.03. 2004 (date of reading 01 III 2015); T.Kuzio, Regime type and politics in Ukraine under Kuchma,
“Communist and Post-Communist Studies” 2005, Nr 38.
11 Y.Matsiyevsʹkyy, Mizh avtorytaryzmom i demokratiyeyu: politychnyy rezhym pislya „pomaranchevoyi revolyutsiyi”, http:www.politik.org.ua/vid/magcontent.php3?m=1&n=63&c=1399. (data odczytu 26 II 2015).
process was conducted by Antonina Kolodiy12, Volodymyr Rebkalo13, Mykola Riabchuk14, Vadym Karasev15, Natalia Minenkova16. In this dissertation, the relevant analytical material of the Oleksandr Razumkov Ukrainian Center for Economic and Political Research was also used. Understandably, to a very large extent the Polish scientific literature was also explored.
The latter turned out to be particularly useful since the topic of political parties, party systems and democratisation was often dealt with in detail. In this field, at least several interesting works devoted to the systemic transformation in Ukraine were written and they were also used in course of preparing this dissertation. Among the Polish-language researchers the following names should be mentioned, such as Andrzej Antoszewski17, Ryszard Herbut18, Walenty Baluk19, Józef Tymanowski20, Mirosław Chmaj21, Wojciech Sokół22, Mirosława Grabowska23, Konstanty Wojtaszczyk24, Ryszard Zięb25, Tadeusz Olszański26, Maciej Pietruszewski27. When writing this dissertation the analytical material derived from Marek Karp Center for Eastern Studies was of great importance.
Worth noting is that contrary to popular belief an issue of the party system changes was not analyzed in detail either in the Polish literature or – all the more – in the Ukrainian one where there are areas of not discussed subjects or those which in professional works were but only referred to. Hence, there was a need to frequently reach out for English-language elaborations
12 A.Kolodiy, Do pytannya pro politychnyy rezhym v Ukrayini, „Suchasnist” 1999, Nr 7, s. 84 – 96; A.Kolodiy, Tranzytolohichna paradyhma suspilʹnykh zmin u svitli pomaranchevoyi revolyutsiyi, [w:] Naukovi zapysky Natsionalʹnoho universytetu „Ostrozʹka akademiya”, Ser. : Politychni nauky, 2008, Vyp, 3.
13 V.Rebkalo, Politychni instytuty v protsesi reformuvannya systemy vlady, Kyiv, Vyd-vo NADU: Milenium, 2003, s. 108; V. Rebkalo, Shlyakhy reformuvannya politychnoyi systemy Ukrayiny, [w:] Politychna reforma - harantiya demokratychnoho rozvytku ukrayinsʹkoho suspilʹstva, Kyiv, 2004.
14 M.Riabczuk, Dwie Ukrainy, „Krytyka” 2001, nr 10, s. 65-68; M.Riabczuk, Ukraińska transformacja postkomunistyczna, http://polit.ru/article/2010/06/01/ukraine/ (data odczytu 17 VI 2013).
15 V.Karasev, Metamorfozy i antinomii politicheskogo rezhima: Ukraina – 2006–2007, „Mirovaya ekonomika i mezhdunarodnyye otnosheniya” 2008, nr 9.
16 N.Minenkova, Transformacja reżimu politycznego Ukrainy za czasów niepodległości [w:] Polska i Ukraina – próba analizy systemu politycznego, red. Stanisіaw Sułowski, Warszawa, Dom Wydaw. Elipsa, 2011.
17 A.Antoszewski, Partie polityczne Europy Środkowej i Wschodniej, Poznań – Wrocław 2005, s. 13 i nast;
A.Antoszewski, Perspektywy demokracji w Europie Środkowo-Wschodniej [w:] Demokracje Europy Środkowo- Wschodniej w perspektywie porównawczej, Wrocław 1998.
18 A.Antoszewski, Tranzycja polityczna, [w:] Leksykon politologii, red. A.Antoszewski i R.Herbut, Wrocław 2000.
19 W.Baluk, Koalicje gabinetowe na Ukrainie w latach 2002-2012, Lublin 2012.; Baluk W., Kształtowanie systemu partyjnego Ukrainy w okresie transformacji ustrojowej 1987–2002, Wrocław 2006.
20 J.Tymanowski, Ukraina między Wschodem a Zachodem, Warszawa 2014.
21 M.Chmaj, W.Sokół, M.Żmigrodski, Teoria partii politycznych, Lublin, 2001.
22 W.Sokół, Geneza i ewolucja systemów wyborczych w państwach Europy Środkowej i Wschodniej, Lublin 2007.
23 M.Grabowska, Podział postkomunistyczny. Społeczne podstawy polityki w Polsce po 1989 roku, Warszawa 2004.
24 K.A.Wojtaszczyk, Konstytucjnonalizacja partii politycznych, [w:].W.Skrzydło, K.A. Wojtaszczyk, Instytucjonalizacja partii politycznych w państwach demokracji parlamentarnej, Warszawa 1989.
25 R.Zięba, Ukraina jako przedmiot rywalizacji między Zachodem a Rosją, http://www.klubinteligencjipolskiej.pl/2016/04/ryszard-zieba-ukraina-jako-przedmiot-rywalizacji-miedzy-
zachodem-a-rosja/. (data odczytu 23 IV 2017).
26 T.A.Olszański, Trud niepodległości. Ukraina na przełomie tysiącleci, Kraków 2003.
27 M.Pietruszewski, System polityczny Ukrainy w świetle pomarańczowych poprawek do konstytucji, http://www.psz.pl/117-polityka/maciej-pietruszewski-system-polityczny-ukrainy-w-swietle-pomaranczowych- poprawek-do-konstytucji. (data odczytu 6 VI 2016).
which to the extent of studying the very democracy and democratisation processes are undoubtedly remarkable. In this dissertation, the Englis-language works were used, in particular those which as regards the studies of political parties and party systems are of classic value (included but not limited to the works by: Stefano Bartolini and Peter Mair28, Herbert Kitschelt29, Mikael Laakso and Reine Taagepera30, Arenda Lijphart31, Sejmur Lipset and Stein Rokkan32, Giovanni Sartori33 and Maurice Duverger34).
Due treatment should be given to the limiters which are significant for a respective thesis.
One of them is time limiter. This dissertation covers period from 1991 to 2020, dating back to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the uprising of independent Ukraine till the end of 2020, i. e. the date preceding the year of the work completion.
In order to enable „surfing” through this dissertation, all the proper names were translated in accordance with their counterparts in the Polish language and in the basic text of the dissertation, forenames and surnames derived from the Russian and Ukrainian langauges were mentioned as per the rule of transcription.
28 S.Bartolini, P.Mair, Identity, Competition and Electoral Availability. The Stabilization of European Electorates 1885 – 1985, Cambridge 1990.
29 H.Kitschelt, The Formation of Party Systems in East Central Europe, “Politics and Society” 1992, vol. 20, nr 1.
30 M.Laakso, R.Taagepera, Effective Number of Parties: A Measure with Application to West Europe, “Comparative Political Studies” 1997, vo. 12, nr 1.
31 A.Lijphart, Constitutional Choices form New Democracies, “Journal of democracy” 1991, n1 1.
32 S.M.Lipset, S.Rokkan, Party Systems and Voter Alignmеnts: Cross-National Perspectives, New York 1967.
33 G.Sartori, Parties and Party Systems. A Framework for Analysis, vol. I, Cambridge 1976.
34 M.Duverger, Political Parties, London 1954.
