Theoretical and Methodological principles of studying the party spectrum of Ukraine

Abstract

The article describes key approaches to understanding the concept of a political party, points to the peculiarities of electoral parties and emphasizes the importance of studying the program positions of the party in order to identify its ideological affiliation. The main purpose of the article is to analyze the programs of political parties in Ukraine to determine the party spectrum of political parties that formed parliament in 2019. The results of the study indicate a weak ideological articulation of parliamentary parties in Ukraine, a tendency to centrism. The author of the article also concludes that on a number of formal grounds, most parliamentary parties in Ukraine can be described as electoral, and in general, the Ukrainian party system – as a system of «moderate pluralism.»