Plebiscitary Democracy in Ukraine: Manifestations of the Social Order Crisis in the Political History

Abstract

The research is aimed at the depiction of social order problems as a cause of instability and crises which took place in Ukraine’s political history during the thirty years of independence.

The research methodology includes a few cognition methods, mainly historicity (for the uncovering of crisis phenomena and revealing its causes in the past) and comparative analysis (for the estimation of changes in public understanding of the order problem validated by the results of the polls).

Scientific novelty. Following the basics of M.Weber’s theory of society and politics, the representation of Ukrainian political history in independence years was developed. It is aimed at a more comprehensive understanding of the “hybridity” of the political system by applying the concepts of order, power, and state. It was argued that revealed manifestations of plebiscitarism, which is a well-described long ago historical phenomenon, indicate the deep crisis of social order. And the dominant tendencies in the political system development only aggravate it.

Conclusions. The key reason for public distrust in state authority institutions is the social order’s problematic features, mainly its inaptitude for the establishment of a conclusive junction of interests. The resolutions of political crises in 2004 and 2014 did not lead to necessary decisions. The long row of internal and external processes only amplifies the problem; manifestations of plebiscitarism are a consequence of it. The result of the order inconsistency is the risk of Ukraine’s transition to the plebiscitary democracy regime and Weberian extraordinary politics. Charismatic leadership as a basic foundation of such a regime threaten the civil conflict as well as a shrinking of Ukrainian democracy in its value dimension similar to what happened in Russia. Significant changes in the cultural realm are needed to avoid that scenario, especially the active role of Ukrainian state authorities and humanitarian research institutions in the development of a conclusive language and symbolic representation of a Lifeworld and social order based on it.