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Studies of political systems and political processes in the post-Soviet states of the Central Asian region are based, as a rule, on institutional and neo-institutional concepts. Attempts to mechanically apply certain ready-made western description schemes and even the corresponding conceptual apparatus to the Central Asian material rarely lead to convincing results. Many important factors affecting the political development of the region remain beyond research. By the beginning of the 2010s institutionalization and pluralization of the political space outside state control also included the development of the necessary legislative framework. Such a framework implies the consolidation of the legal basis for the creation and effective functioning of public associations and organizations, and the formation of legitimate and viable representation institutions. Russian authors are much more familiar with the material of the political reality of the CAR, therefore they give more balanced and accurate assessments. The disadvantage of Russian studies is the fact that, methodologically, they follow the approaches developed by Western political science. This encourages one to concentrate on some aspects of the political development of the Central Asian states and to underestimate or even completely ignore other, no less, and sometimes much more significant ones. In recent years, this deficiency is gradually being replenished. The findings of the researchers are becoming more objective, which helps to overcome erroneous political decisions and strengthen interstate cooperation. Over time, such studies will have the results of the development of new systematic and well-reflected approaches, adequate to the subject of political science studies.

It has been substantiated that the use of a research strategy of rational choice institutionalism was one of the factors that contributed to a return to the institutional theory of policy analysis individual dimension in the paper. Possibilities to achieve utility and distribution of resources in society at the political process micro-level began to be considered as sufficiently important resultants of functioning of the institutional system alongside macro-politics. In addition, it is specified that application of the methodology of the STEM subjects has allowed characterizing the activities of political institutions using the terms of effectiveness, which led to a reorientation of the study of their informal varieties as real regulators of political behaviour. However, the interest in empirical development has created the danger of rationalizing the politics up to its dehumanization, whereof avoiding, according to foreign political scientists, is possible adhering to ethical constraints that arise from the peculiarities of complex human nature. As a result of the analysis held, it has been found that, unlike the studies of foreign experts who distinguish various substantive areas of analysis in the theory of rational choice institutionalism, the applied potential of implementation of elements of its methodology in the works of Ukrainian scientists is rather instrumental. The general conclusion is that the research strategy of this version of new institutionalism in the practical plane is used mainly as one of many methodological approaches to the study of different political phenomena and processes. To some extent, similar to the particular area of research that reveals the analytical resource of rational choice institutionalism is to study the peculiarities of formation and functioning of parliament and the related processes (electoral strategies and coalition arrangements). It is emphasized that the most interesting for us may be the segment of scientific works, which are based on the theory of rational choice institutionalism, and related to the analysis of those factors that may impede democratic transformations in transitional political systems. It can be argued that inefficient political institutions, despite their irrational nature, continue to function in the political system because they are the product of a rational choice of influential political actors. In this case, the understanding of the very concept of rationality is distorted, which from an absolute category is transformed into a relative one, not only because of the limitations associated with the action of moral and ethical factors, but mainly due to maintenance of an inefficient institutional equilibrium, i.e. an institutional trap.

Article studies the strategic frame, organizational and operational aspects of UN peacekeeping missions police components activities to ensure sustaining peace.It is noted that at present the UN Police actively participates in UN peace operations acting as an integrated solution of issues of peace and security. Consideration is also given to the growing importance of the UN Police to international peace and security and the increased attention given to policing by the Security Council and the Secretary General.The UN police now engage in United Nations peace operations across the entire peace and security spectrum, from conflict prevention to peacekeeping and peacebuilding. Serving in the frame of UN interim administrations the UN Police acquired a unique experience of law enforcement and international cooperation on combating crime.It underscores the most recent global developments, including advances made in the Strategic Guidance Framework for International Police Peacekeeping, to ensure coherence of effort and refine strategic police generation platforms.From the viewpoint of the structural and functional approach, the UN Police as a peacekeeping actor has not only specific functions and tasks, but also the potential, organizational structure, trained personnel needed to perform a wide range of tasks both at the stage of conflict prevention and post-conflict peacebuilding.The legal and organizational issues of UN Police involvement in peacekeeping activities are almost resolved. At present the UN Police component as an institutional subsystem represents an organizational structure that unites international policemen from various member states, which acts as a collective actor in UN peacekeeping.

The purpose of the article is identification of the specifics of political and religious institutional interaction of Russian Orthodox Church and the state. Speaking about institutional interaction of church and state, the author focuses attention on the degree of religious institutes integration into political system. The main content of the research is the analysis of the institutionalization of the Russian Orthodox Church’s (ROC’s) political and religious interaction with the modern Russian state. The methodological basis for the research is the institutional approach. In the course of the research the attention is focused on the concept “secular” as a norm within which there is a standard regulation of political and religious interaction. Following the results of the research the authors draw the following conclusion: the ROC is a part of the political system and the specific actor of the political process. Using the category “secular” the authors managed to update the perspective of the analysis of the political-religious interactions.

In the field of scientific research is the selection and use of approaches for analyzing the state of the political system of society. The collapse of the colonial system, the socialist camp led to the formation of a significant number of states by transitional political regimes. Intensive globalization processes accelerated the already contradictory socio-political processes in transitional and quasi-democratic states. Despite the lack of experience of statehood in some countries, or the lack of democratic political traditions and practices, led to the formation of contradictions between formal and informal rules by the institutions of transitional societies. In the context of the study of the interaction of formal and informal institutions, the question of the use of situational analysis and the synergetic approach, in the process of studying the causes, consequences and the essence of political stability of the instability, is actualized. In cases of situational analysis, it is especially important to note that the essence of the method consists in studying both formal institutions (organizational forms) and informal (practices, models and rules of the game) - as the main subjects and objects of the political process. At the same time, if the situational analysis simply states the presence of certain formal or informal designs, the synergetic approach allows us to trace the dynamics and development of political processes. Considering the political system in which energy acts as the information produced by such formal institutions as political parties and organizations, the synergetic method allows us to consider the system as a self-regulating organization capable of arming the manifestations of political instability. Or vice versa - as a system artificially restraining social entropy, and therefore doomed to destruction, as a result of the action of attractors: economic, political, social, environmental, in the cases of our research. With the help of general scientific (historical, systematic, functional, sociological), general logical methods (analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, analogy, abstraction) and the methods of politological theoretical and applied learning (institutional, structural comparative, comparative, axiological, behavioral), the analysis of the influence of non-institutional factors on the procedural, organizational and structural aspects of the political system is performed. Research allows us to reveal the essence, structure and consequence of existing processes in the political system. The synergistic method and situational approach details the existing processes, enabling to conduct a correct analysis of the relevant processes. Thus, it can be concluded that these two methods make it possible to qualitatively evaluate and demand. This allows us to correct the actual political practice, towards stabilizing the political environment.

It is established that the specifics of politological approach to studying the phenomenon of opposition consists in the fact that it focuses on the main attributive features of opposition as the carrier of protest, “alternative” interests, namely, on opposition’s organization and its aspiration to acquire power. The connection of political participation and political opposition has a dual character. On the one hand, the political opposition acts as one of the institutes of participation, a sort of intermediary which gives citizens the opportunity to participate in political life of the country. On the other hand, the opposition is one of the group agents of participation. The main channel of acquisition of the political capital for oppositional subjects is electoral process as the period of the greatest intensification of political life of the country, manifestation of the political orientations by citizens. Thus, the authors base their study on the politological discourse in order to investigate the opposition as a political subject. They also reveal the determinants of political opposition’s participation in the electoral process (character of a political regime, a sociocultural context, a condition of the competitive environment, parameters of selfidentification of political subjects. It is proved that subjectivity of political opposition within the electoral process reveals in the formation of consolidated “negative consensus” in relation to the power for the purpose of mobilizing the protest moods of population. When forming a uniform electoral strategy of actions, the opposition uses information opportunities for the purpose of articulating the “new” agenda and organizing different street protests. E.V. Efanova has designated approaches to the operationalization of the phenomenon of opposition, systematized the types of political opposition. N.Yu. Veremeev has defined characteristics of opposition as a subject of electoral process, revealed the factors of participation of political opposition in elections.

The goal of the article to specify the essence of the democratic political institution concept in the context of the modern Ukrainiane political system democratization processes. Main methods of reaserch: dialectic method, comparative, systemic, synergistic, new-institutional. The conclusion is drawn that the process of institutionalization of democracy in Ukraine has not ended, despite the formal availability of all institutional attributes. Democratic political institutions should be considered if they promote the formation of a democratic political culture, create guarantees for the implementation of the declared democratic principles. It is indicated that at the present stage it is expedient to include various public organizations, procedural institutes (elections, political participation) in a number of political institutions, and take into account their influence on the formation of certain values, development of norms of behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the conditions of global development, the processes of modernization of political systems contribute to the implementation of structural and content transformations in order to adapt to the challenges of the environment. It actualized the need of research of the subject of modernization activity, which in the process of institutionalization acquires the necessary resources and procedures for its effective implementation.The processes of institutionalization of the political elite are conditioned by: the strengthening of the professionalization of the political field of activity; the social need for the formation and regulation of the rules of interaction; the need to legitimize the status and procedures of the activity; the presence of structural and functional potential, needed to influence the functioning of the political system. The evaluation of the level of institutionalization of the elite in the processes of modernization of the political system is based on the criteria of adaptability, complexity, autonomy, cohesion, congruency, exclusivity. The high level of institutionalization of the Spain’s political elite in the processes of modernization allowed to ensure the appropriate level of democracy of socio–political development, consolidating the leading position in world politics. This was facilitated by: 1) the existence of transparent rules of incorporation and intra–elite interaction, their compliance with the Constitution; 2) the use of structural and functional potential and resources for raising standards of public life; 3) the development of the ideas and symbols aimed at consolidating society in order to achieve the strategic goal; 4) initiation of the strategic project of modernization; 5) the sequence of the procedure for the practical implementation and optimization of the project with the help of political technologies. The experience of institutionalization of the political elite of Spain is quiet relevant for Ukraine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of the article is to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the development of the system of political institutions that ensure the implementation of the state ethnonational policy in Ukraine. The research is based on the review of Ukrainian scientists’ works on this issue and the relevant legislative acts of our state. It was established that the political institutions at the level of national authorities in this sphere had undergone a lot of changes, which had not always led to improvement. At the present stage, the main disadvantage of their development is the absence of anindividual national authority of state executive power for ethnonational policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The experience of institutionalization of the elite in the processes of modernization of the political system of Turkey (1919-1930) was analyzed. The results of the study indicate a rather high level of institutionalization of the elite. This was manifested in: 1) the ability to respond to the challenges of the internal and external environment, offering new values and standards of the activity; 2) the use of the leadership potential of the power hierarchy for mobilization of the common people to meet the goals and objectives of modernization, forecasting the consequences and making the necessary amendments; 3) consolidation of efforts of branches of power, coordination of activities with internal and external interest groups; 4) the gradual formation of a secular legislative framework and the adoption of the Constitution, which established the stability of the course for modernization and the rules of political behavior; 5) the initiation of a modernization project aimed at combining the achievements of European civilization and national and cultural traditions of development, which provided for the gradual actions and the use of appropriate technologies of political activity [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of this study is an analysis of the role ofpolitical elite as the subject of modernization of political system in the S. Huntington's concept. S. Huntington made a significant contribution to the procedural approach for studying the role of elites in the process of political modernization, emphasizing the need to study the elite as a political institution. This institute because of its structural and functional and resource potential is able to initiate and implement in practice the modernization projects. The success of political and modernization activity allows to create a high level of social consensus and to ensure the stability of the political system. The scientist identified the specific models of the behavior of the elite in the processes of modernization and analyzed forms of itspractical activities. Comparative analysis of forms made it possible to determine the basic methods of activities of revolutionary and reformist's elite. It is characterized by the appropriate level of institutionalism, manifested in recognizing the need for changes, high level of professionalism in the goal-setting, choice of technology modernization, transforming activity, predicting its possible consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]