Political parties programs through the prism of elections in Ukraine

During the years of independence, Ukrainian political experts have evaluated that the party system of Ukraine has undergone several stages of its evolutionary development. We are currently at the stage of stabilization of the political system, which began in 2005. The political realities of the proportional electoral system of formation of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine during 2006-2007 laid the foundation to strengthen the role of political parties in Ukraine as dominant political entities involved in the implementation of power and the formation of state policy. At the same time, a sharp increase in political responsibility for the development of parties did not lead to crystallization of their institutional and software and ideological component.

According to Razumkov Center experts in their study, there are now several trends to the Ukrainian party system that can explain this state of affairs. First, there is a transfer of parties from party programs to prepare election program documents, which allows you to expand the electoral support database. Secondly, the most election documents of the parties began to focus on specific, topical problems of voters, which led to the emergence of a unified nature of programs and partial separation from party ideologies. Third, the importance of the ideological direction began to decrease at the expense of personification of party activity, the growth of political leadership. [1]

The current expert discourse on the topic of the development of the party system of Ukraine is mainly focused on the spread of internal democracy, solving the problems of financing parties both political entities during both election campaigns and daily activities. The issue of software activity of political entities remains somewhat aside.

But do not forget that the legislator clearly connects the political party its program. Thus, according to the Law of Ukraine “On Political Party in Ukraine”, a political party is a voluntary association Also the ways of their achievement (Article 7 of the Law on Political Parties). [2]

As we can see, the programmatic orientation of parties and the attachment of this process to the election is one of the characteristics of this kind of political associations. In the Code of Proper Practice on Political Parties, adopted by the Venice Commission in 2008, this relationship is outlined in more detail. Thus, in the Code, political parties are defined as non -profit associations of persons who intend to act in early perspective, have an internal structure and are aimed at participating in public affairs by obtaining the support of their political program by voters.

The development of programs by political parties is one of the most important functions, which is carried out as a result of internal discussion by party members and adoption in accordance with the established procedures. The program directs the party’s activities when it is in power. At the same time, parties should inform civil society and voters about their activities and take all possible measures that would increase transparency, provide ground for healthy criticism and envisaged measuring achievements.

It is important to note that party programs are not agreements and have no legal consequences of their non -compliance. Their observance cannot be demanded normatively and all European countries rely on the principle of representative democracy, which excludes the imperative mandate. For example, in Ukraine, part one of Article 19 of the Constitution of Ukraine indicates that no one can be forced to work that is not provided for by law. Since neither the Party nor the Party’s Statute is norms of law, they do not have legal liability for their non -compliance. The violation of these documents cannot be appealed in court, namely compliance is an indicator of the goodwill of members of the political party. [3]

At the same time, the Code of Proper Practice states that political programs are a certain kind of “soft agreements”, the moral obligation of parties to voters. Therefore, the publication of the program not only corresponds to the principle of transparency, but also serves as a further deepening of accountability. Moreover, its constant availability serves through the electoral mandate to check compliance with election promises. [4]

The software documents are the most suitable material for such evaluation. Ideally. But in practice in Ukraine the situation is somewhat different. According to Ukrainian party system researchers, modern political parties do not seek to develop comprehensive programs that would simultaneously cover the ideological basis and the specific steps that the party plans to take by winning the elections. Common practice is the distinction of the main program and election. The obvious tendency to pragmatism encourages parties to develop programs for certain terms. [5]

In this context, the electoral legislation of Ukraine, despite the proportional or mixed form of the electoral system, should provide for the increase in the weight of political programs as part of qualification requirements for political parties that have expressed a desire to become participants in the election process.

Unfortunately, the analysis of the bills on the reform of electoral legislation (bills 9265, 9265-1, 9265-2, 9265-3), which are currently registered in the Verkhovna Rada, indicates that the issues of party programs in their election version are also out of the attention of legislators. In most cases, it is only about formal signs of a election program, which should be submitted to the CEC as one of the list of required documents (for example, the printed appearance, seal and signature of the party head, number of printed signs). The draft laws do not talk about meaningful filling of programs, an attempt to logical development and attaching to available resources and the timing of promises.

It can be stated that during the elections to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in 2012, party programs will not again play a significant role as a form of communication of political parties with voters.

However, further reform of electoral legislation in the medium term requires a change in approaches to determining the place of political programs in the process of formation of representative bodies, which are attached to the implementation of state policy.

One of the areas may be to strengthen the requirements of election programs that will be submitted to the CEC. First, the program must be submitted in two formats: full, with a deployed presentation of the goals and objectives of the party, for the period of convocation of the Verkhovna Rada, and shortened, for publication in the media. Secondly, given the fateful powers of the Parliament in the process of formation of domestic and foreign policy of Ukraine, each program should contain proposals for options for implementation of policy in the following areas: political, legal, socio-economic, in the field of national security and international cooperation, in the cultural and spiritual sphere. Third, all these proposals should be based on the possibility of budgetary resource, taking into account the specifics of the country’s main estimate, as well as to provide for a clear term of implementation, which in most cases should not exceed the term of exercise of the powers of deputies of one convocation (in the current case, 5 years).

The introduction of in-depth requirements of election programs should return the software and ideological context to the agenda and become another link in the development of the party system of Ukraine.

Sources:

Party system of Ukraine: features of formation, problems of functioning, trends of evolution // National security and defense.- №5.-2010.- P.2-33

Law of Ukraine “On Political Parties in Ukraine” // Bulletin of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.- N 23.- 2001.- Article 118

Bogasheva N., Klyuchkovsky Y. Problems of Institutionalization of Political Parties in Ukraine // Elections and Democracy.- №2.- 2008.- P.31.

Code of Advanced Practice on Political Parties // Elections and Democracy.-№ 4 (22) .- 2009. – Article 55

Kovryzhenko D., Chebanenko O. Effectiveness of political parties: problems and prospects // Parliament.- 2007.- №1.- P.4-44

President of the Polissya Fund of International and Regional Research,

Gennady Maxak,

Especially for elect.in.ua