THE RETROSPECTIVE ANALYSIS OF THEORETICAL APPROACHES TO INTERPRETATION OF THE TRANSITIVE PROCESSES

Abstract

The proposed article attempts to retrospectively analyze the conceptual approaches to the theory of the political transit of the late 1990’s – the early 2000’s as the components of the political transitology. The rethinking reason a for certain theoretical positions and approaches to the transitive processes is substantiated. It is determined that the scientific potential of the political transitology has not been fully studied. That is why the theory of the political transit should not be rejected. It is proved that the content of the latest period of development of transitology was the analysis of transitions not from traditional society or right-wing authoritarian regime, but from the “socialist” type of society. It is noted that the multivector forms of transitions are quite diverse and cannot be predicted in advance. A variety of approaches to the analysis of the political transit are highlighted: the political transit in the post-communist countries as a part of a single global process of democratization; the political transit in post-communist / post-Soviet countries as a specific phenomenon under the starting conditions. It is proved, that in the study of the political transit, we can identify the three most important areas of study of the transition periods – the elite theory, the theory of the institutionalism and the theory of analysis of the intermediate and the alternative forms of post-transition regimes. The three ideal types of post-Soviet authoritarian regimes are analyzed: the autocracy, where the power belongs to the narrow circle of the political elite; the oligarchy, where the government is the agent of the bureaucracy and clan groups; the “exclusive” republic, in which the government is accountable to one the part of the population, and the other part of the population is deprived of such a right. It is determined that representatives of the theory of the institutionalism, focusing primarily on institutional macrostructures, tried through the evolution of the political institutions, their regulatory rules and norms, to reveal the deep mechanisms of political dynamics. It is proved that institutionalism (often combined with the theory of a rational choice) has acquired the status of one of the most important methodological foundations of transition research.