Electoral process in the institutional political and social field as an object of scientific research: concept, essence, structure, functions

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to characterize the concept, essence, structure and functions of the electoral pro-cess as an object of scientific research in the institutional political and social field. The object of the study is the processes of satisfying social demands with the help of political mechanisms. The subject of the study is the social foundations of the effectiveness of electoral processes in modern political systems. The study of the sociological aspects of the institutionalization of the electoral process in modern Russia, carried out within the framework of this research work, allows us to draw the following conclusions. The division of social processes into political and social is a form of existence of modern science. In real life, society is a whole organism in which the social and political spheres are closely connected. In a single institutional mechanism, this connection is reproduced within the framework of the electoral process, the main function of which is to translate electoral requests from society into the sphere of real politics. At the same time, the mechanism of the electoral process itself is a set of socio-political, organizational-administrative, political and political-social processes carried out at four levels (phases), the final result of which should be the fullest possible satisfaction of electoral demands of society by means of real politics. Such conditionality of real politics by electoral demands on the part of society largely characterizes the sociological aspect of the electoral process in the structure of the political system. An important result of the possible conceptualization of such activities was the thesis that electoral processes, both in the ultimate goal of their functioning (meeting the needs of society by means of real politics), and at each of the phases of the electoral process can depend mainly on one of the two most important tasks that determine the functioning of the entire political system. These tasks are ei-ther aimed at promising socio-economic development, or at solving urgent problems in the field of security.