The article examines the expansion of electoral rights of formal parties at the expense of other collective and individual actors. The author proposes typology of countries depending on political parties privileges when nominating candidates for elections. The paper examines the anti-democratic effect of granting privileges for parties in the electoral process. The paper describes the experience of Eastern Europe in removal of free associations out of elections. It is noted also that in Western democracies political parties have privileges not over associations of citizens, but over independent candidates. In general, providing electoral privileges to formal parties is assessed as a threat to democracy as a whole.

Organizational approach to the study of political institutions is a new trend in the political science. Using organizational theories in the study of political parties gives a new look at old problems. The article describes the theoretical concepts of organizational effectiveness. The author also gives his own concept of organizational effectiveness and offers to use certain provisions of organizational effectiveness theories for analyzing the effectiveness of political parties.

The second half of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first century have witnessed an unprecedented expansion of one-party autocracies. One-party regimes have become the most common type of authoritarian rule and have proved to be more stable and to grow faster than other types of authoritarianism. We review the literature on one-party rule and, using data from 1950-2006, suggest four avenues for future research: focusing on autocrats’ ability to simultaneously minimize threats from the elites and from the masses; focusing on the conditions that foster the establishment and the collapse of one-party regimes and on transitions from one type of authoritarianism to another; focusing on the relationship between authoritarian elections and democratization; and focusing on the global and international forces that influence the spread of one-party rule.

This article reviews the evolution of political parties in Germany over the last 30 years. The author comes to conclusion that the role of political parties, their relationship with society, methods of conducting election campaigns have changed dramatically.The partieshave abandoned ideology in favor of the image of their political leaders and political PR. They leave interaction with the traditional electorate for establishing contacts with civil society and turn from the expression of interests of definite social groups to intermediation between the society and the state. Thus, today's German political parties resemblemore and more the cartel party model, described by R. Katz and P. Mair.

The reasons for the under-development of the Russian party system remain contested, yet significant changes took place in the 2000 s. The system became more regulated and streamlined. There were far fewer parties, but the rights of those that survived were consolidated. Above all, the regime identified itself with a single major party, United Russia, although the relationship between the regime and the party was problematical. Russia practises a heavily presidential model of executive dominance, but the polity is characterized by a dominant power system. This system was careful to preserve its autonomy, and thus guarded against the emergence of a dominant party system. The regime party and its allies acted less as instruments of representation than as tools to achieve political mobilisation, and by the same token the role of political opposition was marginalised. However, the dual state character of the political order allowed contradictions to develop that made possible the strengthening of the constitutional state, and with it a greater autonomous representative role for political parties. The accelerated political reforms following the flawed December 2011 parliamentary elections sought to limit the arbitrariness of the administrative regime to permit the emergence of a more genuinely competitive political environment.

The article is considered two main aspects of political system in South Korea - the distinct features of political parties in South Korea and the specific of parties, participate in state governance. The author identifies the main vectors of conflict around which develops inter-party competition in South Korea. The article also discusses the strategy of inter-party cooperation, as well as the socio-political context in which it occurs.

The article focuses on the basic mechanisms of maintaining power by the Institutional revolutionary party in Mexico during the period of the authoritarian regime. The authors analyze the features of the Mexican political regime characterized by the absence of competition, availability of patronage and clientelism. The article notes that institutional characteristics and informal practices contributed to the stability of the political regime and the one-party dominance, but complicated the development of modern democratic institutions and the consolidation of democracy in Mexico.

The article presents an analysis of the strategy of ruling elites to retain the authoritarian equilibrium in post-Soviet Kazakhstan. The particular attention is paid to the mechanisms of co-optation and to the role of political parties in this process. It is concluded that mechanisms of using party institutions by authoritarian leaders are not universal. They are different in different cases and are evolving in every single polity in accordance to the transformation of the political regime.

The article analyses results of the electoral reform in Russian Federation from the point of view of elite representation. It is stated on the basis of the frequency analyses that legislative changes in countries of the electoral authoritarianism are aimed at preserving the status quo within elites. The study finds out that the proportion of regional, national and business elite representation is retained in the Russian State Duma of three terms convocations (2003, 2007, 2011).

This article analyzes the dynamics of party system nationalization in Russia. The analysis registers a salient discrepancy between the extremely low levels of territorial homogeneity of the vote in the single-member plurality section of Russia’s electoral system (1993-2003), on the one hand, and very high levels of party nationalization in party-list contests, on the other hand. This discrepancy, facilitated by such factors as the legacies of regime transition, federalism, and presidentialism, was reinforced by the integration of gubernatorial political machines into the nationwide political order. The findings challenge a conventional theory that equates the formation of national electorates to the progressive process of party system consolidation.

The article discusses the role of exogenous factors, which are understood the nature of the political regime and its institutional design in the development of the ideological function of parties. Party ideology interpreted as a resource, as a strategic choice that the party carried out under various conditions. The article also analyzes the dynamics of the ideological function of political parties in contemporary Russian political system.

The article analyzes the role of the parliamentary political parties in the legislative process in the State Duma. Recognizing the largely decorative nature of party structures in modern Russia, the author, however, seeks to clarify the mechanisms through which the parliamentary parties are involved in the legislative process. The article analyses the role lf deputies’ aids, fractions’ staff, committees’ staff, and the central departments of the parliament’s office in lawmaking. The author concludes that there is the fractions’ staff which is able to provide the open public discussion of bills with the participation of all stakeholders and experts.

The article is devoted to the problem of embedding «minor» political parties in the political life of modern Russia after 2012. The possibilities and prospects are declared how the gender parties can become effective participants of the political process. The author comes to the conclusion that, despite of the dominance of active female voters, «women's» party have a low chance to win elections. Due to certain circumstances, these party are doomed to remain spoilers or sparring partners. The article analyzes documents and activities of two «women's» parties - «People Party “For Women of Russia” and “The Women's Dialogue”».

The authors present their point of view on how Russian political parties realize their functions at the regional level. It is concluded that the low role of Russian parties in the system of social representation, in formation of ideology and mass consciousness does not contradict the global trends. Performing other functions is determined by peculiarities of institutional transplantation and by the Russian political regime, as well as by political and socio-cultural specifics of individual regions.

Based on results of sociological research, electoral statistics, expert interview and inclusive observations, the article analyses a potential of parties on the regional and local level. It observes the reasons for a insignificant role of parties on the regional and local level, their limited influence on voters and a low interest of political actors in establishing stable bonds with them. At the same time the article argue that an interest of political actors in consolidating resources on the local level leads to formation of political coalitions. The article observes the role, advantages and disadvantages of informal political associations on the example of the local region elections in the Perm Territory in 2012-2014.