Information on the thesis

The research features interrelations of elections and democracy, analyzes basic approaches to evaluation of electoral process’ democracy level in the national and foreign science. It is proven that elections can be democratic exclusively under the condition of complying with democratic principles. Three groups of democratic principles of elections are distinguished. They are the following: basic principles, which regulate conditions of exercising active electoral right (the principles of free, equal, general and direct elections, the principle of secret ballot); additional ones, which concern exercising the passive electoral right (the principle of general passive electoral right, the principle of election campaigning freedom, and the principle of equality of electoral process’ subjects); and procedural ones, which characterize the electoral process (the principle of open elections, the principle of baring responsibility for violation of electoral legislation, the principle of administrating elections by special bodies). Comprehensive analysis of each democratic principle of elections, conditions and aspects of their adherence is carried out.

International normative and legal documents of universal and regional character on regulation of democratic principles of elections are analyzed. Aspects of establishing democratic forms of administration and thus, democratic elections in Ukraine are studied. Analysis of the legislation of independent Ukraine has given the opportunity to trace evolution of the political and legal regulation of each democratic principle of elections, to show omissions and disadvantages of national electoral legislation which create obstacles for comprehensive exercising of citizens’ electoral rights. It is proven that the current electoral legislation of Ukraine, with few exceptions, meets international electoral standards. At the same time, the importance of political aspects of democratization of the electoral institution is emphasized.

The author suggests the methodology for calculating the level of elections democracy based on the index of democratic elections. It is a relative value which demonstrates relations between the level of democracy of a specific electoral campaign and the model of democratic elections. In order to use the methodology in the framework of each democratic principle, indicators of democratic elections are distinguished which, in their turn, are divided into components. Every democratic principle of elections, indicator and their component has a certain number of points which are added due to their presence or compliance with. Besides, the index of democratic elections includes both the analysis of electoral legislative norms (“de-jure” components) and studying electoral practice (“de-facto” components). Suggested methodology is elaborated only for states with the “transitional” political regime and cannot be effectively applied to evaluate elections with stable democracy.

The index of democratic elections, taking into account its relative character, can obtain a numerical value from 0 (elections are completely undemocratic) to 1 (elections are completely democratic). Main advantages of this methodology are complexity, comprehensiveness, and detalization of indicators, taking into account norms of electoral legislation, peculiarities of electoral practice, and specificity of “transitional” states. Depending on the level of democratic character, there are distinguished undemocratic elections (0-0.5 points), elections with the low level of democracy (0.5-0.7 points), elections with the middle level of democracy (0.7-0.85 points), and democratic elections (more than 0.85 points).

On the basis of the reports of international and national observers, the level of compliance with democratic principles of elections in Ukrainian electoral practice is studied. It is proven that the process of democratic transformation of the institute of elections in Ukraine took place undulating: tendencies of increase in the level of democratic character of elections alternated the reverse ones. After the Revolution of Dignity, democratic level of elections significantly increased. This allows to consider the early Presidential and Parliamentary elections 2014 in Ukraine as democratic ones. However, finding the index value at the lower limit constitutes a danger and real threat of decreasing the level of democracy of elections, makes relevant the issue of their further democratization, preservation, and strengthening of these positive tendencies.

Key words: Ukraine, elections, democracy, democratic principles of elections, index of democratic elections, indicators of democratic elections, electoral legislation, electoral practice, electoral rights.