Sabanadze I. The institualization of the interest groups in the transition society

The author presents the complex political analysis of the instutialization process of the interest groups during transition to the democracy. The thesis structures the main ways of interest group understanding: pluralist, elitist, corporativist and institutional approaches. The special attention is given to the role and functions of lobby as one of the main means of interest representation. It reveals the gradual transformation of clans as a feature of premodern and autocratic societies through interim stage - financial and political groups - to such modern form of interest representation as corporation, that is analyzed from the neo-corporativist point of view. The special place in the work is given to the regulation of lobbyist activities as primary mean for prevention their negative outcomes. Based on the analysis of western countries, European Union experiences, the author formulates the main directions of optimizing the national legislation in this field. The author defined the ways of formation of interests groups in Ukraine, their specific features, their place in modern political life and the perspectives of their development.