Respondent

Kiyanka Iryna Bohdanivna

Theme

Historical forms of conceptualization of populism as a category of political science and ideological norm

Annotation

The scientific interest in the chosen issue is due to the agenda of Ukrainian politics and a set of modern challenges faced by the state: the political system of Ukraine undergoes a significant transformation, on the one hand, under the influence of European integration, on the other – under the pressure of internal crisis phenomena and foreign policy pressures in the form of a hybrid war . Populism in conditions of political, economic and ethnopolitical instability is gaining influence, turning into widespread political technology aimed at ensuring the achievement of short-term political goals.
In the Ukrainian popular political lexicon of years of independence, the term “populism” belongs, apparently, to those most often used. At the same time, he is the most widespread accusation against government officials or political opponents. In domestic political controversy, the reproach in populism almost always means the assertion that it is a proposal of seemingly attractive but impossible to implement or even harmful options for solving certain problems, often socio-economic.
However, addressing the issue of populism as a category of political analysis makes it possible to conclude that it is much more complex and multidimensional. In the scientific community, consensus on the understanding of populism has not developed today, and researchers’ approaches are marked by different accents, embodying different views on the meaning of the term “populism”. He appears both as a political technology and a specific characteristic of political activity, and a socio-political phenomenon, even an ideology.
In our work we have worked out numerous and at the same time very different, distant in space and time of manifestations of populism, with which its history is not exhausted. It is important for us to show excellent “populist” plots precisely because of the complexity, variegatedness and ambivalence of the phenomenon of populism, whose study on the basis of only one of them would be inadequate.
The study of populism is actualized by the presence of a social order from interested actors of political action, which apply populism for the implementation of its programs and in the struggle for power.
In many countries of Western Europe, the early 1990s appeared to be the frequent updating of populism. Today, the populist forces of “old Europe” characterize, firstly, the propensity for various forms of nationalistic rhetoric and ideology; Secondly, the critical perception of the EU and the processes of globalization; Thirdly, the negative attitude towards mass immigration. A specific new feature of Western European populism is the emergence of movements and politicians who, as populists in rhetoric and political technologies, advocate the principles of a free market, restriction of state regulation, reduction of tax burden, often combining them with calls for protectionist policies.
In the history of independent Ukraine, populism has manifested itself differently and on a large scale. Already in the years of the crisis of the socialist system, which became fatal for him, without political populism, political agitation helped the national-democratic forces to eliminate the communists from power.After independence, significant elements of populism became the constant of the political struggle in Ukraine. The actual norm of political competitions in Ukraine was generous and unlikely social and economic promises that were distributed by most parties and politicians.
The Ukrainian election race, especially the presidential one, is characterized by another populist trait – an attempt to provide political rivalry as a struggle for good and evil. This was due to the deep cultural and mental differences between different Ukrainian regions. It is possible to state the presence of populist traits in most of the significant Ukrainian political forces. For some, party ideology sometimes became a scenery to cover the interests of certain business groups.
There is a clear need to reduce the level of populism in Ukrainian socio-political life, weaken its influence on the process of struggle for power and the adoption of managerial decisions (although they may have relatively less than election campaigns, populist workload). This could be facilitated by a series of measures. That is, the saturation of the information space with objective analytical materials that would demonstrate the possible consequences of attempts to implement populist proposals, their harm or unrealistic. A public space could be a media platform potentially capable of counteracting populism.
The paper concludes that counter-populism efforts can become effective if they are aimed at changing the widespread public demand for radical and deceptively simple solutions to complex social problems. For antipopularist changes in the mass political culture, changes in the education system, the upbringing of the younger generation of the principles of perception of social problems are needed: awareness of the internal contradictions of many social phenomena; The ability to dialogue thinking; Tolerance to the opinions and opinions of others. It is worth talking about the axiological dimension of the education system, the unpopular choice of its value orientations.

Key words: populism, political science, political science, ideology, political leader, charisma, political system, political regime, political movement, political party, transformational processes, postcommunism.

 

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