UDC

Authors

Abstract

The paper analyzes the mechanisms of political elite recruitment in modern Ukraine and the factors affecting this process. Elite circles and leaders are usually selected under severe competition between various forces seeking to win popular support. In modern democracies, representatives of the higher social strata with money, social connections and opportunities to get prestigious education have the best chances of taking elite positions. Failures in this important social process result in the selection of non-representative persons, timeservers, unprepared to exercise their functions and only using power to pursue their own interests. The new elite-forming trend during the first years of Ukrainian independence was a certain transformation of top-level Party and Komsomol leaders into the new “democratic” elite. Instead of humanist intelligentsia and university employees, the state administration and top management of large enterprises were formed of agricultural specialists and engineers. Social recruitment as the key mechanism of political elite renewal was replaced by monopolization of power leading to redistribution of power factors within closed groups. These trends have provoked tribalism, nepotism and clientelism both at the top and local levels. These problems can be solved by using a new recruitment system adapted to the current situation in Ukraine; this system should stand on the principles of competition, staff lustration and selection based on clearly defined professional qualities of political, economic and administrative leaders. In the context of transforming Ukrainian political regime, such study and evaluation of the existing elite recruitment and selection procedures are more important than ever due to the controversial trends developing in the current politics.

Keywords

References

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