FEATURES OF THE PORTRAIT OF THE REGIONAL POLITICAL ELITE OF UKRAINE (ON THE EXAMPLE OF IVANO-FRANKIVSK REGION)

Abstract

Based on the use of a broad empirical base and modern methodological approaches, the article analyzes the main trends in the process of formation and qualitative characteristics of the political elite of Ivano-Frankivsk region during 1990-2019 yy. There is an attempt to define the main groups of the political elite of the region, which were involved in the adoption and implementation of the political decisions and define the trends of modern elite formation in the region (including the formation of the deputy corps in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the regional council, appointments to public authorities), the procedures and mechanisms involved in the process of forming and renewing the elite. The main factors that contributed to the formation of diverse identities and values of the regional political elite, which together determined certain patterns of its political behavior, are analyzed. Among them are socio-cultural and mental characteristics of society (including the factor of belonging to “historical Galicia”), the state of development of socio-economic relations, the level of integration of the region and its elite into national political processes. The analysis of the axiological characteristics of the leading groups of the region’s political elite (representatives of state power, deputies, party functionaries, entrepreneurs) gives grounds to assert not only the existence of a consensus in the elite of Ivano-Frankivsk region (“consolidation of the democracy”) about the question of the state independence of Ukraine and liberal freedoms, market relations, focus on the pro-European vector of the country’s development, the formation of civil society, but also proves high motivation and ability by mobilizing for their implementation.