Lecture
The term "process" comes from the Latin procesus - advancement, passage. It refers to relatively uniform series of phenomena connected by mutual causes or functional dependencies. For example, the growth of an organism is a process, since its subsequent state is determined in a particular way by its preceding state.
We call social processes the series of phenomena involving the interaction of people with one another or with the constituent elements of society. A series of social phenomena can be regarded as a process if it retains its identity (sequence, interconnection over time). Socialization, viewed as the formation of a social person, is likewise a social process, since it represents a long series of interactions between the child and the social environment. The series of phenomena retains its identity (gradualness, sequence of influence and perception). We will call a social process the successive changes in the state or movement of elements of the social system. These may be recurring acts of interaction among people aimed at preserving their social status, living conditions, leisure, and the like.
A variety of social processes are political processes
The political process reflects the changeability of politics and reveals the interaction of political institutions and political actors performing certain functions and roles. Since the "political process" is one of the universal categories, having fairly broad use in the social sciences generally and in political practice, it is accordingly difficult to find a single strict, definitive interpretation of its essence.
The general scholarly interpretation of the term "process" presupposes two approaches:
a) a successive change of phenomena, of states, in the development of a given object;
b) a set of successive actions aimed at achieving a particular result. Proceeding from such an understanding of the generic concept of "process," the political process can be defined as:
The content of political interaction consists of a real or hidden struggle for power, its resources and statuses, the redistribution of which each time disrupts the established balance of interests and brings the system to a new state.
The modern political process in transitional societies, to which Ukrainian society also belongs, is extremely contradictory and complex. In order to understand the logic of political processes in societies that are modernizing, moving from totalitarianism to democracy, one must grasp not only the content and sequence of political changes, but also the specific historical circumstances that accompany them.
The character and specific content of the political process are determined by the features of the political system and the existing regime. A democratic system corresponds to a type of political process distinguished by the breadth of citizens' participation in governing the state and in ensuring individual rights and freedoms. A totalitarian system presupposes a different type of political process, one that excludes genuine political participation and freedom of social and political choice.
In terms of its structure, the political process consists of subjects — the bearers of political action — and an object, that is, the goal to be achieved. The political process also includes means, methods, resources, and executors.
The political process is made up both of the purposeful, conscious efforts of the subjects of political activity (individuals, social groups, political parties, state bodies, and so on) and of interactions that arise spontaneously, independently of the will and consciousness of the participants in the process. This combination of purposeful and spontaneous actions on the part of the subjects and participants of the political process rules out any strict predetermination or foreordained course of events and phenomena in the political process. The result can turn out the way the well-known saying puts it: "We wanted it to be better, but it turned out the way it always does".
In carrying out their role functions and positions, the subjects and participants of the political process demonstrate their functional significance and their capacity to reproduce, develop, alter, or destroy elements of the political system. Thus, the political process reveals both the surface-level and the deep-seated changes taking place within the political system, and characterizes its transition from one state to another.
From the standpoint of structure, the political process consists of a series of stages that follow on from one another in sequence (yet always remain internally connected to one another) and recur cyclically.
The following stages of the political process are distinguished:
The main stages of the political process express the dynamics of the development of the political system, as a result of which changes and transformations take place within it. That is why, in each new cycle, the political system does not merely copy itself but is enriched with new facets and properties (for example, the emergence of an electoral system or of new legislation, political blocs, parties, etc.), and political changes take place within it. But the main process, all the same, is a repetition, in a new way, of what came before — reproduction itself.
At the stage of reproduction of the political system, the historical type of the political system, its class nature, and its ties with the other subsystems of society are repeated and consolidated, modified and renewed. Political relations and institutions, political norms and values, symbols, and speech are reproduced. The very participants of the political process are reproduced as well, as exponents of particular political positions, bearers of corresponding views, and performers of this or that political role.
Control over the functioning and development of the political system is achieved by preventing and eliminating deviations in the behaviour of parts of the political system and of the participants in the political process from the benchmarks and standards of activity that are set for them.
The result of the political process depends on a set of independent variables (the availability of resources, favourable or unfavourable conditions, that is, the external environment, the intervention of unexpected, chance factors, and so on) and on dependent variables contained within the political process itself — the chosen means, methods, executors, and so on, and the relations among them. Most of the independent variables can and must be taken into account when designing the political process, as can the dependent ones; however, it is precisely this second group of factors that is most capable of disrupting the process.
At the same time, the political process within individual countries is significantly influenced by an external factor — world-political and world-economic relations and ties, the entire complex of realities of an international character.
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