Floor Crossing as an Element of Functioning of Parliamentarism and Party System in Ukraine the Scientific Article Examines

The scientific article examines the problem of floor crossing as an element of modern parliamentarism and the party system. The authors reveal the essence and main causes of floor crossing at the current stage, namely: the weakness and instability of the party system; the short-term nature of political parties; lack of legal regulation of the phenomenon of floor crossing; undemocratic political regime in the country; non-democratic style of state administration; violation of opposition rights; low level of political culture of parliament members; lack of public control of citizens over the government, etc. The level of floor crossing in Ukraine has been studied using the example of functioning of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of the third-eighth convocations. It has been found that floor crossing is an integral element of modern Ukrainian parliamentarism. Its level is quite high and is determined by a number of objective and subjective factors. In particular, it refers to such factors as: the presence of power pressure on opposition deputies; a change in the political situation connected with the emergence of new centers of political influence; high-profile political events (the Orange Revolution, the Revolution of Dignity, etc); the weakness of political parties and the instability of the party system of Ukraine; low level of political culture of Ukrainian MPs and their desire to be members of factions that are considered the most promising in terms of personal benefits, etc. It has been proved that in Ukraine the level of floor crossing is largely correlated with the nature of the parliamentary mandate: the presence of an imperative parliamentary mandate reduces the number of party switchers, while the presence of a free parliamentary mandate contributes to an increase in the level of party defections.