POLITICAL LEADERSHIP IN UKRAINE: BETWEEN THE PERSONALIZATION OF POWER AND THE INSTITUTIONAL RESILIENCE OF DEMOCRACY
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17721/2415-881x.2026.100.3.174-189
Abstract
The article examines the phenomenon of political leadership in Ukraine through the prism of the interaction of individual influence of political actors and institutional mechanisms of the functioning of a democratic political system. Based on classical and modern theoretical approaches to the study of political leadership, the need for a comprehensive analysis of leadership as a phenomenon that is simultaneously formed under the influence of personal characteristics of political figures, institutional constraints and the socio-political environment is substantiated.
It is shown that the development of political leadership in independent Ukraine took place in the context of the transformation of the post-Soviet political system, the formation of democratic institutions and the formation of a new political elite. It is established that a feature of the Ukrainian political process was the combination of institutional development with a high level of personalization of politics, when political competition was largely concentrated around individual political leaders, and not around stable party structures or program platforms.
Special attention is paid to the influence of key political transformations of modern Ukraine on the evolution of political leadership models. The role of political leaders during the Orange Revolution, the Revolution of Dignity, and the Russian-Ukrainian war is analyzed. It is proven that crisis periods contributed to the strengthening of the public demand for personalized political leadership, capable of ensuring the mobilization of society and making strategic decisions in conditions of high uncertainty.
The impact of the processes of mediatization of politics and the development of digital communications on the transformation of mechanisms of political representation is separately considered. It is substantiated that modern communication technologies contribute to the further personalization of the political process, strengthening the role of the political leader as the central subject of political communication.
The conclusion is made that the effectiveness of political leadership in democratic conditions is determined not only by the personal qualities of the political leader, but also by the level of development of political institutions, the ability of civil society, and the ability of the state to maintain a balance between personal political influence and mechanisms of democratic accountability.
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