FEATURES OF STATE-FORMATION IN UKRAINE, POLAND AND THE BALTIC COUNTRIES (1991–2004): COMPARATIVE AND INSTITUTIONAL DIMENSION

Abstract

The article carries out a comparative analysis of state-building progress in the field of political system institutions in Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic countries. The study methodologically correlated the main markers of each institution within the political system with the identification of common and distinctive features in the indicated states. Such an approach, in the form of a vertical and horizontal comparison of political system institutions, made it possible to trace the features of the internal component of state-building in the indicated countries. The main markers of this internal component of state-building were the institutions of the president, parliament, government, courts and, separately, constitutionmaking. The adopted broad format of such coverage of the institutionality of the studied states allowed us to consider the specifics of each of them in comparison with each other at their latest stage of state-building. This provided grounds for generalizing models of political systems in each of the countries of comparison, as well as for highlighting the features of each of them during the period of their own state sovereignty in the latest period. A comparative analysis of the institutional dimension of statehood in Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic states reveals a number of peculiarities in each of the outlined components. In particular, the specificity of the constitutional process was that Poland and the Baltic states (with the exception of Latvia, which restored its interwar constitution) adopted their Basic Laws in nationwide referendums, while Ukraine did so exclusively at the level of the highest authorities, in particular with complex searches for compromises between leftwing and right-wing politicians in the domestic parliament, as well as in confrontation with the president. The peculiarities of the presidential model were that in Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania, this institution became popularly elected, unlike in Latvia and Estonia, where the head of state is elected at the parliamentary level. Parliaments in Ukraine and the Baltic states are unicameral, unlike the bicameral parliament in Poland. The legislative body in the Baltic states and Poland (the Sejm) is elected by a proportional electoral system (the Senate by a majority system), while in Ukraine the first two terms are by majority vote and the next two by a mixed system. The formation of governments in Poland and the Baltic states depended on the political configuration in parliaments, while in Ukraine it depended on the president.