The Institute of Political Leadership as Condition of Ukrainian Political System’s Democratization

Abstract

The article examines the institution of political leadership in modern democracy and the low quality of political leadership in transition countries as an obstacle to the democratization of the political system, the role of the political leader in the process of institutional transformation. The concept of "democratic leadership" is specified because of its broad approach to understanding it not only as a style of leadership, but also the ability to effectively perform its functions and realize the values and principles of democracy. Institutional, media and international constraints and conditions of functioning of the Institute of Political Leadership in modern democracies have been identified, including the short duration of power, orientation to victory in the next elections, the replacement of qualitative elite selection criteria with quantitative ones, the rise of populism, the unification of leadership criteria as a result of globalization processes. The consequences of such tendencies of functioning of the political leadership institute as violation of the principle of professionalism of the leader, impartiality of the official, decline of authority of the authorities, delegitimization of the authorities are revealed. The expediency of promoting the institutionalization of leadership is substantiated in order to neutralize the side effects of democratic leadership, whereby stable procedures and norms of leadership status are formulated, methods of management are formalized, parity is maintained between the elective and professional political elite. The positive aspects of democracy are identified, which allow to constructively influence the functioning of the political leadership institute, namely - the ability of democratic political institutions to self-regulate, competition of elites, their rationally-legitimate legitimacy, ability to organize the coordinated work of the leadership team, and influence on the government of non-political leaders.