Democratisation and Regional Political Elites

The study analyzes how the process of democratisation affect on the principles of formation and functioning of political élite in the modern transformational political systems. The research shows democratisation of the political regime is not an essential factor that could affect the system of political élite; rather possible to speak of a reverse process of influence of the political élite on the rates and directions of democratic transformation. The rates and scope of democratization in many respects are determined by the structures of political élite. Formation of any democratic regime is a complex process characterized by some specificity of its realization in different social systems. Correlation between the processes of democratization and the peculiarities of functioning of the political élite (élitogenesis) is one of the aspects of any democratic transit. The degree of correlation determines the specificity of formation of democratic regimes and has a direct effect upon the progress and course of subsequent reforms. Liberalization and subsequent democratization of the political regime in the post-Soviet Russia radically changed the basic principles of organization of power and functioning of the system of management, that is, the party state based on the merging of power and property, absorption of society by power, and rigid ideological doctrine of the mobilization type gave up their place to new power regime. That regime demonstrated a multisectional development trajectory. At the same time, in the conditions of transformation, the political institutions faced some challenges to which they could not find any adequate answers. The fact that it is impossible to minimize the risks that may result from the transformation of political regimes is indicative of the fact that not all the specific characteristics of the process are elicited. What is more important is that there are no rational ways of settling the crises that emerge as a result of the changes of political systems. In the research, the correlation between élitogenesis and democratisation was analyzed by applying the systems approach. As a result of the conducted study, three stages of evolution of the élite in the modern transformational political systems were elucidated. Having analyzed these stages in process of democratization, an attempt to appraise the structure of political élite, the framework of the system, incorporation/excorporation filters, and channels of interaction of political élite with the surrounding world were made.