The concept of political participation within western political thought: evolution and current status

Abstract

The article explores the approaches to interpreting the concept of political participation. The research is based on the scientific works of western political thought theorists, who made a significant contribution to the study of this socio-political phenomenon. It was proved that socio-economic changes, rapid democratization, the development of information and communication technologies along with many other factors have influenced society, changing its attitude to politics in general and the role of the citizen in political decision-making. Therefore, there appeared a need for scientific study of the category of political participation; factors influencing the involvement of citizens; forms and types of participation; reasons for political apathy and mistrust. Despite the fact that currently, there is no unified definition of political participation, as new forms of citizen activity that encourage scholars to view them as a form of political participation are increasingly emerging, the article analyzes the genesis of the subject of study and the modern forms of political participation within western political thought. At the same time, traditional and modern forms of political participation are distinguished. It has been determined that in the mid-twentieth century, the concept of political participation goes beyond the usual approaches. If earlier, when researching forms of political participation, first of all were singled out voting, now they emphasize that it is non-electoral forms of participation that give citizens more opportunities to control politicians. According to the conducted research, the author comes the conclusion that non-institutionalized forms of political participation are becoming increasingly popular, especially among young people, while information and communication technologies make it possible to convert them into an online space, increasingly blur the line between consumer and creator of information, leading to the displacement of traditional forms of political participation.