Political process - a set of all dynamic changes in the behavior and relations of subjects, in the performance of their roles, the functioning of institutions, in all other elements of the political space, carried out under the influence of external and internal factors.
Supporters of the institutional approach connect the political process with the functioning and transformation of power institutions (S. Huntington).
Representatives of the second, behavioral approach, consider individual individuals or groups of people as subjects of policy. Therefore, the political process appears as a "resultant vector" of behavior, political interests of these subjects.
The third, structural and functional approach focuses on the internal structural and functional features of the political system and environment, which determine the way and nature of action and interaction between the actors. In this case, the units of analysis are not so much individuals and groups as large structures of the political system, as well as their functional and role-playing structure.
From the point of view of the importance for society: those
The basic ones characterize the various changes in different areas of political life, which relate to the modification of its basic, systemic properties. These include, for example, political participation, which characterizes the ways in which broad social classes can be included in relations with the state. In the same sense, we can talk about the process of public administration (decision-making, legislative process, etc.), which determines the main directions of targeted use of material power of the state. Peripheral political processes express changes in the areas not so significant for the society. For example, they reveal the dynamics of formation of separate political associations (parties, pressure groups, etc.), development of local self-governance, other connections and relations in the political system, which do not have a fundamental influence on the dominant forms and methods of power.
In form:
The obvious political process is characterized by the fact that the interests of groups and citizens are systematically revealed in their public claims to the state power, which, in turn, makes the phase of preparation and adoption of administrative decisions available for public control. In contrast to the open, hidden, shadow process is based on the activity of publicly unregistered political institutions and centers of power, as well as on the power claims of citizens, not expressed in the form of appeal to the official bodies of state administration.
By nature:
Stable political processes express a clearly defined direction of changes, predominance of a certain type of power relations, forms of power organization, which imply stable reproduction of political relations even in case of resistance of certain forces and tendencies. Externally they can be characterized by absence of wars, mass protests and other conflict situations threatening to overthrow or change the ruling regime. In unstable processes, however, there is no clear predominance of certain basic properties of the organization of power that exclude the possibility of qualitative identification of changes
Political extremism as a kind of political process.
Political extremism - 1) the use of violent and illegal means to
2) commitment to extreme views.
In Western political science, there are 3 basic concepts about forms of gender extremism:
- The concept of unified extremism: it implies the initial existence of "communist and fascist dictatorships
- The concept of 2 extremists: it sees the difference between the social base and a number of goals of extremist political movements with the same form of government. Western Democracies =>Appose two forms of gender extremism - fascism and communism.
- The concept of 3 extremists: fascism is the extremism of the center, while Hollywood, the Horthy regime in Hungary, Salazar in Portugal is the extremism of the "right", and communism is the extremism of the "left".
In terms of ideological content, this type of extremism can be conditionally divided into left and rightwing extremism.
Right-wing extremism, unlike left-wing extremism, exploits not so much the enlightenment ideology of class struggle as the "soil" ideas of struggle between nations and races, cultures and civilizations. Among the forms of right-wing extremism are right-wing populism, ultra-conservatism, religious fundamentalism, as well as fascism.
Left-wing extremism advocates the destruction of the existing state system; the creation of a declared "more just" society on the basis of ideological borrowings from socialist and communist concepts, as well as its own newest left-wing extremist doctrines; which is carried out by all available means.