Political Power Distribution in Ukraine: Dynamics and Perspectives

Abstract

Political processes in Ukraine attract significant attention both of the researchers and politicians especially after the cancellation of the Association Agreement with EU signing and Euromaidan appearance. Numerous political analyses published by Ukrainian and international scholars still remain often within the behavioral approach leaving aside the logic and perspectives of the Ukrainian political institutions functioning. As the political system in Ukraine is significantly distanced from the society and the political processes seemingly proceed mostly inside the polity it would be more convenient to characterize the system by the political power distribution models. In the article presented is the retrospective analysis of the changes in the structures and procedures of political decision making in Ukraine. It is shown that in making political decisions the Ukrainian political system is more and more influenced by external forces – social organizations, businesses and the International community with the Russian Federation and the European Union as the dominating actors.