The mixed form of government as theoretical and constitutional construction became the ground for the creation of political regimes in France as well as in contemporary Russia. The idea of this article is to clarify the comparative effect of this model on the institutional transformation of both countries regarding such vital items as changing balance of power between Parliament, President and the Government in the context of the current political modernization.

In the article the critic review of the latest debate about forms of government in foreign political science is presented. The author focuses on four controversial problems - the search for the best government, semi-presidential system, presidentialization of politics, measurement of presidential power. The article pays attention to the discussion about the influence of one or another form of government on democracy and its fate.

The article analyzes post-Soviet institutional design. Legislative and nonlegislative presidential powers, the perils of post-Soviet presidentialism and strategies of institutional change. The article concludes that societal transformations lags behind the institutionalization and what matters is the political will and cooperation between actors within the framework of existing institutions.

Choosing a form of government in the transformation of the political system is a very difficult political and institutional task. Experience of post-communist countries of Central-Eastern Europe provides an extensive research material. Polish model of semi-presidental Republic shows an approximation to the desired balance of institutions. Institutional conflicts in Hungary and the Czech Republic are less likely than in Slovakia.

The paper is dedicated to examination of establishment and development of form of government in independent Ukraine. At first, reasons behind adoption of semi-presidentialism are analyzed. Then, key periods of its evolution characterized by different constellation of power among main political institutions and impact of form of government on democratic consolidation are distinguished. Finally, an attempt to discern relative influence of institutions and actors on dynamics of Ukraine’s political system is made.

Personalist political regimes that have established in most countries of the Caucasus and Central Asia are characterized by closure of the main political decisions to presidents personally. In particular, in cases of a leadership succession a transfer of power to «preemnik» (hand-picked successor) becomes more conceivable. Nevertheless, a comparative analysis of all cases of leadership succession in post-Soviet Caucasus and Central Asia reveals the limits of personalism that is a necessary but insufficient condition for the carrying out of a hand-picked successor.

The article considers the process of formation and evolution of institutional design in the context of transformation of political regimes in post-Soviet Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. It focuses on the constitutional amendments to the correlation of authority of the President, Parliament and government. The author comes to the conclusion that the process of increasing the volume of presidential powers were in parallel with the processes of consolidation of the political regimes. In Uzbekistan this led to the formation of stable authoritarian regime, in Kyrgyzstan - to political instability and coups.

The article focuses on the mutual interaction between the formal political institutes and informal structures. It compares their connections on the case of two presidents. The author concludes that informal structures substantially prevail over the formal institutions; moreover they even determine them. Centralization of the power in Turkmenistan created the system based on the personality of the president. Therefore, political institutions and political culture are determined by the personal character of the head of state, his background, career, entourage and other factors of personal character. This interdependence of personality of the leader and formation of political system was confirmed after the presidential change. The new president basically adopted the political culture of his predecessor and adapting it according to his personal situation.

The article presents the main ideas of the of G. Tsebelis' veto-players theory. The author examines key terms used in this concept, principles and methods of definition of the veto players, the results of their interaction and influence on the political system. In addition, the author analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of the concept, prospects of its further application in Russia.

В статье рассматриваются теории, объясняющие процесс формирования партийных коалиций в парламентских системах. В современной политической науке существует несколько теорий, которые при анализе партийных коалиций опираются на критерии размера и идеологической близости партий. В настоящей статье анализируются как теории формирования коалиций, ставшие классическими, так и современный динамический подход к формированию партийных коалиций.

In this paper, based on the theory of neo-patrimonialism revealed specifics of the process of institutionalization of parliamentarism in the Arab East. The author outlines the main vector of the institutional dynamics of the political systems of the countries of the region defined by the neo-patrimonial nature of the Arab state system, and identify the unique characteristics of the process of institutionalization of parliamentarism in the countries concerned, the essence of which is the dominance of particularistic practices in the arena of political cooperation in the countries of the Arab East.

Review on monograph «Ethnicity and Federalism» of M. Farukshin discusses and analyzes main ideas of the given work and the problems associated with positive or negative esteems of the ethnofederations and ethnofederalism, forms of political representation of ethnic groups and the status of minority languages in ethnofederations, ethnopolitical conflicts.