KEY FEATURES OF THE GREEN PATIES’ PROGRAMS IN UKRAINE

Abstract

The article analyzes programs and public statements of the Green parties in Ukraine, as well as the parties that had a significant Green component in their programs in 2019–2021, in comparison with the classic Green ideology. The purpose of the investigation is to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the semantic features of the Green parties’ programs in Ukraine and the factors that determine their common and distinctive features in comparison with classical manifestos and declarations that represent the principles of the Green ideology in the political process. It is established that the Green Party of Ukraine and the Ecological Alternative party were ideologically Green in accordance with their programs and declarations in the period under study. The agenda of the GPU shows a number of certain features of the party’s agenda that distinguish it from the Green parties in the EU countries and the declarations of the Green associations in the EU and in the world. Occasional environmental “nationalism”, radical anti-oligarchic statements, protests against legal barriers for small parties are among these features. The analysis of similar sources on the Environmental Alternative party allows to distinguish the features such as significant focus on the problems of the city of Kyiv, not the whole country, focus on environmental issues and ecological living standards of citizens more than on social standards and equality of different social groups. The programs and declarations of the “Batkivshchyna” and “Samopomich” parties, which have an important ecological component in their agenda but are not ecological in accordance with their self-determination and components from other ideological directions, have also been studied. It is established that programs of these two political parties significantly correspond to the basic principles of the Green ideology, in particular in “human – nature” and “society – environment” dimensions, as well as social standards and poverty alleviation issues. However, the analyzed documents of the “Batkivshchyna” party contain energy and climate change issues which are not inherent for the Greens, as well as lack of focus on the problems of inequality and discrimination and the role of the state in dealing with them. At the same time, the agenda of the “Samopomich” party combines the inherent points of the Green ideology with aspects of the Christian Democrats and neo-liberal agenda.