Holynska K. Party Responsibility: World and Ukrainian Experience

In the thesis, the author analyses party responsibility in Western states and Ukraine. Various aspects and dimensions of party responsibility are evaluated and compared. The author develops a definition of party responsibility as a principle of functioning of political parties, which includes their program-based existence (commitment to declared values in all documents and activities) as well as such balance between intraparty democracy and discipline that is optimal with regard to current system or government and party system in a certain state. Main works of Western political scientists, who scrutinize various aspects of political responsibility of political parties, are systemized and categorized into three groups: "British", "American" and "Continental-European". Their features and peculiarities are broadly discussed. Major tendencies of modern researches of party responsibility, first of all, expansion of geography of the analysis to include new democracies and investigate the process of development of political responsibility of political parties in such systems, are determined.