The article examines the etymology of the word „unity”, the genesis of the idea of unity in Ukrainian political thought and scientific discourse, proposes the theoretical and methodological foundations of the research, and analyzes the evolution of the idea of unity in the discourses of political parties and presidents of Ukraine. It is about the evolution of the idea of unity throughout the entire process of Ukrainian state formation. Historical realities were of great importance for the formation and affirmation of the idea of unity, namely, the fragmentation of lands, foreign rule, the loss of the religious oneness of the people, and national oppressions. The evolution of the idea of the unity from the princely era to the present, from the idea of a united Rus to the idea of a free Independent United Ukraine, is traced, based on the research of domestic and foreign authors. Attention is focused on the symbolism of unity, markers of unity, traditions of holding „living chains” of unity as the main symbol of the Day of Unity, which Ukrainians build, symbolizing the unification of Ukrainian lands and state unity and the nationwide celebration of Unity Day. The Day of the Unity of Ukraine is characterized by the actualization of three dimensions of political meaning – past, present and future. The idea of unity was determined, first of all, by the unity of values, ideals and interests of the citizens of Ukraine. In the political discourse, emphasis was placed on the fact that the unity is a symbol of the unification of the country, as well as a reference point for the future as a territorial and spiritual unity of the people. In the addresses and speeches of the Presidents of Ukraine, the evolution from the idea of unity to the idea of oneness was traced. Presidents of Ukraine appealed to the lessons of the past and historical figures of Ukraine; they emphasized that the unity is an indivisible whole of all Ukrainian lands; noted that unity is not only about the territory, but also about oneness, cohesion, community. Preserving the territorial integrity of Ukraine, strengthening the unity of its regions, the diversity and distinction of which have developed as a result of objective historical circumstances, will continue to be a relevant, but also an urgent task of today.

The article provides a multidimensional analysis of the post-truth phenomenon from the historical aspect, as well as an instrumental means of achieving an informational-communicational goal; a way of positioning in relation to significant aspects of socio-political reality; and a political technology aims at ensuring competitive advantages, etc. Post-truth is conceived in the form of a specific information and communication product of the postmodern era, which arose in response to certain megatrends including criterion relativism, devaluation of meanings and values, and the simulation imperative of socio-political life activity. Priority research efforts are focused on the meaningful demarcation of the post-truth regarding truth and lies, since this subject field determines the prospects for the conceptual expression of post-truth. The narrative form of representation is essential for the instrumental and functional effectiveness of post-truth. Not polemics and discourse with their requirement of convincing semantic reliefs and hierarchies, but the narrative as a certain order of words and storytelling, not burdened by the requirements of convincing argumentation, provides the most comfortable conditions for the expansion of post-truth in the informational and communicational environment. An important feature is a striking difference between reality and its portrayal by post-truth instruments. An analysis of the challenges and threats of post-truth, which requires a priority response from the professional community and the public consciousness in general – shows that the avalanche-like use of post-truth tools in the informational environment leads to the increase of a disinformation level aimed at creating and spreading false perceptions of reality to serve political interests and needs. It is the post-truth toolkit that is a specific experimental platform for double standards, bias, prejudice, manipulation, and propaganda. The devolution of truth into post-truth objectively and naturally leads to symmetrical degradation and involution of politics into politicking, which is never guided by public interests, but always only by its own, de facto parasitizing on the opportunities and powers it has gained.

In the eighteenth century, the former Mongol vassal Moscow usurped the name and heritage of the early medieval Kyivan state. Starting with these eighteenth-century events, Russia became a special type of civilisation - neither European nor Asian, but a permanently autocratic regime, and subsequently a major obstacle to the maturation of Ukraine's pre-modern ethnic and modern national identity. Today, Russia's imperial identity influences Ukraine as an undisguised old-fashioned, peculiar empire, and for Ukraine it is a key factor in international relations. Russia's demonstration of anti-democratic sentiments against the "totalitarian West" is evidenced by its outright denial of Ukrainian identity when Ukraine tries to turn to the West. Putin's extremely aggressive, dismissive attitude and humiliation of the Ukrainian national idea of separation from Russia have strengthened and intensified Kyiv's desire to leave Moscow's fatal orbit. During the current bloody struggle for existence, historical time is accelerating and an anti-Russian and pro-European national identity is being formed in Ukraine. At the same time, the war for Ukraine is bringing together the pre-war divided identities of Ukrainians, who have rallied around the idea of a common Ukrainian pro-European destiny against an aggressive and brutal Russia. On the other hand, Russia's invasion of Ukraine accelerated the transition of the Russian political regime to dictatorial rule and certain pro-fascist methods, including but not limited to the elimination of any public opposition or dissident opinion. Within the framework of the sociology of history and constructivist theory of international relations, Russia is analysed as a decisive factor in international relations for Ukraine and an independent variable of causality with the existence of Ukraine.

Traditionally, authorities are formed to ensure the needs of society, guarantees of security and economic opportunities. However as history has proven, as long as there are political ambitions, imperial narratives, and a growing military-industrial complex, there will always be a risk of war or interstate conflicts. That is why basic things are included in the content of the state administration system, which can be used in the conditions of military operations, the emergence of various kinds of conflicts, and at the same time ensure the vital activities of the country. How correct the approaches to the formation of institutions in Ukraine and the mechanisms of their interaction are in this matter, let's try to understand on the example of one of the key institutions of power – the President. The uniqueness and at the same time the complexity of today’s situation is that the events are analyzed in the process of their reproduction, there is no ready-made template, and the model of the near future, which should be formed in the post-war period, is not clearly formed and not presented to society. It was necessary to react to the events here and now, when there was no time for discussions, long talking. Martial law is not a period that creates a comfort zone in the political environment. Therefore, at some point, especially in the early days of a full-scale invasion, the President became the figure on whose actions and decisions society awaited. Hence, during the last year, in the conditions of martial law, the president assumed responsibility for the situation in the country. However, the presence of one person in the public sphere does not mean that all the powers and work processes are behind him and take place exactly as the President needs. More and more often we hear about the role of the President's Office in political matters. However, is the power can be monolithic at least within one institution, or do they have enough powers and mechanisms to influence current processes? In the end, what attempts are being made to strengthen the influence on the president and why – we will try to outline in this material.

Constitutions reflect national values and set out the foundational principles of governance. Traditionally, those values and principles have been male-defined. As such, constitutions often form the basis of the ‘gendered state’ with all its attendant inequities. Feminist constitutionalism challenges the wider domain of constitution-making to consider questions relating to gender inequality in constitutional debate, design and redesign. Through a case study approach, this article utilises a feminist lens to examine on-going constitutional debates in Northern Ireland that have been deepened by Brexit. Any new constitutional arrangements on the island of Ireland will drive multiple transformations in social, legal and economic life that will impact on the lives of women. Subsequently, this article explores the gender dynamics of current debates to contribute to the broader feminist literature on constitutional transitions in deeply divided societies.

The issue of unequal electoral turnout poses serious concerns for both the overall health of democratic politics, and the extent to which certain groups exert an unequal influence on the political process. This article explores the relationship between electoral rules such as: compulsory voting, electoral system proportionality, and voter registration with voter inequality in terms of age, income and education. This is examined using cross-national survey data and cross-level interactions between electoral institutions and socio-demographic variables. The final dataset is based on waves 2–4 of the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems, and contains information on 133,000 individuals, within 45 countries, between 2001 and 2016. The results indicate that compulsory voting is associated with a significant reduction in turnout inequalities, while the effects of proportionality and voter registration are somewhat more mixed.

Content, messages and the way voters are contacted are all increasingly tailored to the individual. But are voters really contacted in the way they prefer? What actually drives campaign preferences? Who are parties tailoring these preferences to? For the first time, we address this gap in the literature. Our findings suggest that there is considerable heterogeneity in voters’ contact preferences. While some voters prefer not to be contacted, those who do prefer traditional methods (leaflets) and, in some cases, more personalised modes such as doorstep canvassing. Preferences are primarily driven by previous exposure to the mode, political interest, having an extraverted personality and age. We also examine preference ‘matching’ and find that parties are no more likely to ‘match’ a voter’s specific preference if they have contacted them before. Preference contact matching is significantly more likely to be targeted at women, middle-age voters and especially weak or nonpartisans.

Ideas about what makes a ‘good citizen’ continue to evolve alongside the digitalisation of political participation. We examine these interrelated trends through an in-depth analysis of the normative basis for contemporary online petitioning. This article uses original survey data in Australia and Germany to confirm the emergence of distinctive ‘contribution’ citizenship norms which emphasise the importance of sharing content through networked communications infrastructures. We then examine the relationship between these novel citizenship norms and online petitioning, differentiating online petitioning along two dimensions of mode (signing versus sharing) and frequency. First, we find ‘contribution’ norms are more associated with sharing online petitions than signing them. Second, ‘contribution’ norms are more associated with high-frequency sharing and signing, as opposed to more casual instances of participation. In combination, these findings show that contribution norms are distinctively associated with more intensive forms of online petitioning (e.g. frequent sharing), while more casual forms (such as casual signing) are supported by a more diverse range of normative orientations. We conclude that the way citizens engage with online petitions reflects, in part, their normative orientation to contributing information towards networked communication infrastructures.

The phenomenon of consolidation is studied in various fields of scientific knowledge, which is reflected in the methodological approaches to its research: sociobiological, sociological, anthropological, political, socio-psychological. Solidarity (consolidation) is interpreted as a mechanism, condition, form, level, sign/property of socio-political existence of society. In its extreme variants it can lead to totalitarianism and tyranny or it can be its sign and symptom. The article deals with group consolidation, which is manifested in local group associations of citizens. The connection between the participants in these groups and their joint activities form a resource (social capital), which can be accessed by each participant separately to receive their own benefits. The socio-psychological content of solidarity (consolidation) is reflected in the variants of its interpretation as: support and assistance to the group in solving problems or tasks which it faces; positive attitude towards one's group; coordination of actions of group members, political attitudes they share, identity; the degree of coherence of voters' positions and the depth of political identification. Taking into account the existing theoretical and methodological developments, we believe that consolidation is the process and result of reproduction of the value-oriented unity of the group on the principle of conjunction, which is integrated with socio-political motives, the image of the political future, reflexive capital, group and political identities. It was found that the most significant substantive indicators of group consolidation were: political motive of the need to establish the contact, group identity, common vision of the future of the country, values of patriotism, nationalism, monolithicity, values of individual rights and democracy.

The partisan allocation of public funds has a long history in Australian politics. Using a unique dataset, which allows us to distinguish the merit-based component of the funding decision from the politically based component, we examine the 2018–2019 Australian sports grants scandal. We find that local funding allocations for sports infrastructure were directed disproportionately to win marginal electorates and to reward loyal supporters. However, contrary to our expectations, we find virtually no electoral impact of the grants: those electorates that received more sporting grant funding were no more likely to swing in favour of the government in the 2019 election than electorates that received no funding. A straw poll of members of the House of Representatives suggests one possible explanation as to why pork-barrelling persists: parliamentarians tend to overestimate its electoral impact.