Abstract

The basic characteristics of the cartel political party concept are examined. The basic features of the cartel of political parties, state institutions that contribute to their occurrence are determined. The concept of the cartel political party has the right to exist in the research of Ukrainian party system. One does not expect a complete description from it or exclusive explanation of everything that happens within it. The party system in real life does not have to meet all the signs of the cartel in order to allow the use of this concept. Different types of parties can continue to coexist - the mass of the elite, with the «catch-all» parties and even cartel. These types of parties are known as polar models that are convenient to use and store signifiant heuristic potential. Really existing parties can only converge more or less to these ideal types. Applying the concept of cartel political parties to Ukrainian realities enables you to track the merging parties and the state, that was observed particularly in the case of «Party of Regions» during the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych, and track background of the cartel emerging, to which we refer: public fiancing of political parties, conditions of election campaigns, the tradition of compromise and practice of politicians` transitions from one political party to another that has got a mass distribution in Ukraine.