Formation of the Regional Political Elite of Vinnytsia Region

Abstract

The article examines the process of regional political elite formation of Vinnytsia region in the context of Ukrainian state formation based on the analysis of the results of national and local elections held in the constituencies of Vinnytsia region, biographies of deputies from the region as well as deputies of Vinnytsia regional and city councils, heads of Vinnytsia regional state administration, heads of district state administrations and district councils of the region. The author provides the definition for the regional political elite and outlines the ways of its set up, offers the model of its modern structure for Vinnytsia region.Also, it was determined that at the beginning of the existence of an independent Ukraine, a key role in the formation of the new regional political elite was played by the people from the «nomenklatura» and former leaders of the Soviet enterprises. The obtained data confirms, that this social group was the main pool of recruitment of heads of Vinnytsia Regional State Administration and District State Administrations of Vinnytsia region until the mid-2000s, and the traditions they introduced into modern political culture influenced the formation of political and economic groups (clans) and the dominance of neopatrimonial relations in the interaction between different actors.As defined, people from different spheres of economic and socio-political life of the region participate in the formation of the modern regional political elite of Vinnytsia region. In particular, they are representatives of the economic elite (business owners, managers of private and state enterprises), party elite, elites of mass media and public organizations, and intellectual elite (heads and employees of science, education, medicine and culture). The tendency to increase the number of business representatives in these authorities while reducing the number of heads of state authorities, local governments and utilities was shown by the example of the Vinnytsia Regional Council of II, III, VII convocations and Vinnytsia City Council of VI and VII convocations; a consistently high level of the number of people from the intellectual elite in the regional and city councils was noted. Special attention is paid to the penetration of media and public sector figures into the power institutions as well as to their influence on the formation of the political agenda of the region.