TERRITORIAL SUSTAINABILITY AND ELECTORAL PROCESSES: THE EXPERIENCE OF MODERN UKRAINE
Authors: Kuzyshyn Andrii 
Published: December 2024

The suggested study aims to assess the role of electoral processes in territorial sustainability as an indicator of state formation. The author characterises activities related to the electoral process as the only truly free form of human activity, since they are not subject to natural life needs and are not dictated by external goals and objectives, but instead are a prerequisite and an end in themselves. The focus is on the socio-economic, ethno-cultural, value-cultural aspects that reinforce territorial sustainability. For this purpose, the election programmes of domestic political parties that took part in national elections in the 21st century were analysed. The existing differences in the views of the electorate are a manifestation of the processes of demarcation that are common for democratic states, or they are artificially created barriers formed by the interested groups of influence, and to distinguish the role of geographical, geopolitical, economic, socio-political, and information determinants in its formation. Thus, the characteristics of electoral preferences were examined at the regional level as a condition for territorial sustainability. The study highlights the role of certain time periods in the modern history of Ukraine's independence (2004, 2014), which became a condition for the cohesion of Ukrainian society and a component of its territorial stability and self-identity.
In order to maintain the clarity, effectiveness and validity of the results of the study, philosophical methods were used (in particular, the principles of interdependence, relationship, causality), comparative geography and comparative history, the method of systems analysis and content analysis.
Based on the analysis of the programs of the parties that participated in the elections, the author examined how the electorate of Ukraine reacted to certain identifiers that influence the definition of national identity as a condition for territorial stability. In particular, the emphasis was placed on the markers of ‘federalisation of the territory of Ukraine’, ‘decentralisation’ as a condition for the formation of a sustainable democratic society based on local development, 'religious structuring of society’, and ‘language policy’. The multidimensional analysis made it possible to identify external stimuli that artificially influenced Ukrainian society in order to destabilise it and artificially divide and regionalise it. The factors that determine the differentiation of Ukrainian mental and political space and provide the basic foundations of the state's integrity are identified. The technologies that were based on the aggravation of cultural, ethnic, and foreign policy identification contradictions of the Ukrainian nation provoked the polarisation of Ukrainian society. At this stage of development of the political system, they have acquired a new meaning while maintaining the overall strategy of policy implementation. It is noted that parties and social movements in Ukraine were united around the national idea, searching for ways to preserve peace and consolidate the Ukrainian nation.
It was found, despite the socio-cultural differentiation in Ukraine, shaped by objective historical-geographical and ethno-geographical factors, the Ukrainian ethnic group is characterised by a separate political identity. This identity was complicated by regional-political interactions at the beginning of the 21st century. The study identifies the role of manipulative influences of parties that shaped the ideas of regionalisation and polarisation in Ukraine. The role of parties and their supporters as carriers of certain ideological views that can strengthen the role of national identity is emphasised. Having analysed these determinants as the main conceptual and practical dimensions of influence on the national space, an attempt is made to generalise the assessment of the problem in the scientific literature and to formulate the author's own substantiation of the objective determinants of Ukraine's geopolitical space.
Keywords: territorial sustainability, electoral processes, spatial identity, electoral preferences