THE STATE OF SCHOLARLY RESEARCH ON POLITICAL PARTIES IN UKRAINE: THE REGIONAL ASPECT

Abstract

The article provides a comprehensive analysis of the state of research on political parties in Ukraine, taking into account the regional dimension of their functioning. The author outlines the main theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of parties and party systems in contemporary political science, summarizing the contributions of both foreign and domestic scholars – from classical theorists of party organization (M. Weber, M. Duverger, G. Sartori) to modern Ukrainian researchers (Yu. Shveda, I. Monolatii, O. Lytvynenko, M. Karmazina, Yu. Ostapets, among others). Particular attention is devoted to the issues of genesis, typology, and functional characteristics of regional political parties, as well as to the concept of the multilevel party as an analytical framework for examining the internal dynamics of party organizations within the context of decentralization. The article highlights the contribution of Ukrainian research institutions – the I.F. Kuras Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies, the Oleksandr Razumkov Ukrainian Centre for Economic and Political Studies, and the National Institute for Strategic Studies – to the exploration of regional aspects of party development. A separate section focuses on the processes of nationalization and regionalization of Ukraine’s party system and the application of quantitative indicators (such as the Mainwaring – Jones Party Nationalization Index, the Laakso – Taagepera index of the effective number of electoral and parliamentary parties, and the Gallagher index of disproportionality) for assessing electoral dynamics. The author concludes that Ukraine’s party landscape remains characterized by a considerable degree of regional differentiation, which underscores the necessity for further research into the interplay between regional political elites, party structures, and the processes of decentralization.