Антирелигия

Religious resource of electoral campaings in independent Ukraine: the national-democratic party

The paper aims to present the religious policy of the National-Democratic Party of Ukraine since the state’s in-dependence comparing this particular policy with the whole picture of political use of religion. The main atten-tion is given to the electoral campaigns of 1998 and 2002 as examples of high political activity. The NDP political campaigns, including electoral programs, periodicals and other practical work are discussed. As a result the author suggests that if you take into consideration the NDP’s approach towards religion it is a typical repre-sentative of contemporary Ukrainian political community.

This paper aims to provide an example of what I have named “religious resource” in my previous works [1-6]. It will be dedicated to the idea of the connec-tion between political doctrine and activities, including electoral campaigns, both Presidential and Parliamentary, of the National-Democratic Party of Ukraine (Narodno-Demokratychna Partiia Ukrainy) (1996). My choice has several explanations. First, I will present an aspect of use of religious resource during elections in contemporary Ukraine in order to support my thesis about whole picture of it. Second, the National – Democratic Party is an example of a political organization, which has quite a long history as for a Ukrainian party, which has never abolished religious components from its activities and played an important role in our society during Prime-Minister Pustovoitenko. Finally, the main doctrine of the party might be introduced as democratic and post-totalitarian that’s why it will be possible to define what kind of democracy towards religion and religious organizations this party supposes to provide. Thus the National-Democratic Party of Ukraine is in the focus of this paper in order to present the tendencies of political attitudes to the spiritual area of people’s life.

Rationalism says that with the development of social and eco-nomic structures there will be no place for religion. It will remain as a person’s private identi-fication but will never play an active role in any other sphere except the inner world. Nevertheless in the 21st century we have a situation which Casanova [7] names “the depriva-tisation of religion”. He explains it through the dual origin of faith. On the one hand, religion is based on a special connection between an individual and High Force. On the other hand, there is a specific community involved in the same religion. That is why religion combines privacy and publicity.

Meanwhile the situation in independent Ukraine cannot be de-scribed using this statement only. I think that the roots of the active use of religious slogans, etc. by Ukrainian politicians have to be found in the universal mental characteristics. Explor-ing such approach it is important to invoke Wilson when he argues that “the contingencies of human life occasionally force people to ask fundamental questions about meaning and pur-pose, and more often to seek support, solace… Here… might be a place for religion” [8, p. 49]. In other words, religion still exists because our rational world cannot provide a to-tally rationalized person.

Although this is not the Middle Ages the Ukrainian situation seems to present the level of interaction between politics and religion of that time. Firstly, politicians want to have the churches’ support in order to legitimize their power when modern democracies have to be legitimized by people’s votes. As Anderson remarks in the beginning of independent state “nationalist and democratic [my emphasis] politicians still find it useful to be seen as close to religious leaders or institutions” [9, p. 214] (the same idea is presented by Elenskyi in his article Religiia ta “Prebudova” [10]). Secondly, the process of interaction invokes moral principles in which the church remains the main authority. This is shown in different situations. For instance, the national deputies of Ukraine talked about spiritual crisis in Ukraine during their debate [11] and for Timoshenko during electoral campaigns it was possible to claim that Ukraine would prog-ress if it turned to God [12]. But it is quite easy to explain such details as the heritage of the soviet state and the subsequent national awakening. The Ukrainian investigators [13-14] agree that nowadays religion has replaced the soviet faith and religious renaissance is so closely connected with the national one that it is impossible for politicians and clergymen realize that they come from the different spheres. That’s why Mitrokhin is right when he claims, “…Ukraine… is a modern secular state which left the conventions of the 17th century when religious identity was synonymous with political and often national, far behind”[15, p. 183]. Overall, it is quite clear that contemporary religious resource combines features from medieval and modern times. Summing up, it has to be interpreted as historical anachronism but not the heritage of the soviet state and the national awakening of 80s and 90s of 20th century only.

The main sources I have used for my research are divided into three parts:

1. Official documents of Ukraine – the Constitution of Ukraine, adopted on June, 28, 1996, Law of Ukraine “On National Deputies’ of Ukraine Elections” (variants of 1997 and 2001), Law of Ukraine “On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations”, adopted on April, 23, 1991 etc.;

2. Official documents of the National –Democratic Party of Ukraine – its Programs, including electoral, materials of meetings, works by its leaders, periodical “Ukraina I Svit Siogodni” etc.;

3. Documents concerning electoral activities and results by CVK-Centralna Vyborcha Komisiia (Central Electoral Commission).

Exploring them it is possible to create the view of events and links between them.

The Program of the National-Democratic Party of Ukraine con-tains point 4.4 dedicated to its attitude toward religious situation in Ukraine. First of all, it says, “…revival of the church is an important part of national and spiritual revival” [16]. This idea has its continuity in the speech of V. P. Pustovoitenko as the Leader of the Party. In it he pays much attention to the Cultural-Spiritual Center “Ukraina Duhokvna” (“Spiritual Ukraine”) which was founded by the Party and its main aim is Ukrainian revival [17]. For ex-ample, national deputy of Ukraine, Professor V. Kafarskyi in his article about the Center mentioned claims that all the zeal of the Party is to support the revival of the Ukrainian nation and universal human values like “…traditions, morality, religion, arts, science, language, eco-nomic values”. This approach was underlined during the discussion on the topic “Tretiomu Tusiacholittiu – Ukrainu Dukhovnu” (“To Third Millennium – Spiritual Ukraine”) which took place during the event called “Luidyna, Rodyna, Dobrobut, Ukraina u Tretiomu Tysiacholitti” (Human, Family, Welfare, Ukraine in the Third Millennium). It was organized by the Na-tional-Democratic Party of Ukraine, National Academy of Science, State Committee of Re-ligious Cases, Academy of Arts, Fund of Supporting the Development of Arts [18]. Overall, the Party considers religion to be the mainstream in the national awakening and building the independent state.

Secondly, the Program of the National-Democratic Party of Ukraine proposes its point of view towards traditional and new religious formations on the Ukrainian terri-tory. For instance, it claims that it is necessary for state authorities to provide “…equal attitudes… towards all traditional confessions”. It means that as many other Ukrainian political parties, like the Communist, the socialistic etc., the NDP considers new cults and sects to be destructive elements of our society [19].

Finally, its program defines that the Church has to be separated from the state [16]. Even after the adoption of the Ukrainian Constitution in June 1996 it was necessary to add this point to the political party’s program. It means that state pressure on the Church as the remains of totalitarian time defines the contemporary way of church-state relations in Ukraine. The NDP describes its own approach to this problem through its wish “…to adopt the laws on prohibition of confessions’ use in “political adventures” and on returning of unjustly confiscated property to all religious societies” [16]. Thus after providing the good legislative basis for church-state relations they have to be improved and may be called really democratic.

To my mind exploring the correlation between two types of po-litical programs – the party’s itself and its electoral variant – it is possible to answer the ques-tion about the nature of religious resource during electoral campaigns. In other words, we may see the political party’s position towards religion and identify whether it is a resource or a profound attitude. In the situation with the National-Democratic Party of Ukraine in 1998 (time of parliamentary elections) it may be claimed that “Krok siomyi. Do dukhovnosti” (“the Seventh Step. Towards Spirituality”) [20, p. 95] in its electoral program repeats the points that I discussed before. That’s why the NDP does not go against their own statements and also provides the policy that does not contradict its democratic political doctrine.

Additional information about the religious position of the NDP may be found during presidential elections of 1999. Then it adopted “the Portrait of the Future President” [21] where the idea of one Ukrainian Orthodox Church’s formation is presented as well. Although the situation of the Orthodox split has a defective effect on all Ukrainian soci-ety it is necessary to remember that our state is secular, taking into consideration its legisla-tive basis. Also in such an approach the NDP shows that it is in controversy with itself because in the previous year its official documents argued that church is separated from state.

Now try to look at the trends of parliamentary elections of 1998 and 2002 in order to explain the changes of the political party’s attitude towards religion and place of the NDP in the process I named “religious resource”.

As it was mentioned before that in 1998 the NDP presented 5 points towards religion in its electoral program (according to my calculations the 30 Ukrain-ian parties and their electoral blocks proposed 16 different points about religion [22]), which are:

1) spiritual revival – this point was provided by 10 political parties and their blocks, that amounted to 33.3% of all?,

2) struggle with destructive contemporary elements – 5 parties and blocks – 16.7 %,

3)separation of state from church – 4 parties and blocks – 13.3 %,

4) returning of religious property – 3 parties – 10 %,

5) separate chapter of program concerning religion – 5 parties and blocks – 16.7%.

No party included more than 5 religious points in their electoral programs in 1998. That’s why the NDP obtained the leading position on religious resource with the PSPU (Progresyvna Sotsialistychna Partiia Ukrainy) – the Progressive Socialistic Party of Ukraine, the XDPU (Khrystyiansko – Demokratychna Partiia Ukrainy) – the Christian-Democratic Party of Ukraine and the electoral block “Trudovaia Ukraina” – “Labor Ukraine”. Besides, the points provided by the NDP were the most popular. Overall, this observation shows that the NDP presented the ideas of that time and may be an example for democratic parties’ ten-dencies towards religion.

In 2002 the National-Democratic Party of Ukraine took part in the parliamentary elections in the block of parties named “Za Edynu Ukrainu!” (“For United Ukraine!”). This block presented 2 points concerning religion in its program (this year the same number (16) were provided by all 33 electoral actors, but their content differed from 1998 situation [23]):

1) spiritual development – 14 parties and blocks – 43 %,

2) freedom of conscience – 7 parties and blocks – 21 %.

“Za Edynu Ukrainu!” appeared on the fifteenth position among 33 parties and their electoral blocks with 2 points when the Timoshenko block with 5 points obtained the highest position as it was in 1998 too. Nevertheless, I have to mention that all 2002 elections did not pay much attention to cultural and spiritual questions. Although the level of the use of religious resource by the parties was higher by 12 % than in 1998? the mid-dle figure per party was less than in 1998 by 0.68 [23, p. 13]?. Economy was the mainstream of 2002 elections. In this situation the NDP as the part of block “Za Edynu Ukrainu!” was a typical representative of that time. And again it became a parliamentary party.

Overall, two variants of the NDP’s electoral position towards re-ligion may describe the whole view of post-totalitarian Ukraine in its attempt to have demo-cratic order. Religion is an indicator of this process. Also attitudes towards spiritual life depict the inner situation of the Ukrainian society- what kind of problems it worries about.

Although religious resource contradicts the laws of Ukraine it re-mains a feature of all our electoral campaigns. Even now when the presidential electoral campaign is taking place it is possible to talk about some characteristics of candidates’ programs. For example, all of them apply the new term “spiritual health” as one of the main problems we have in contempo-rary Ukraine.

As a conclusion I would claim that the National-Democratic Party of Ukraine presents a middle position among other Ukrainian political parties and in its activities the NDP abuses religion. This statement is proved by electoral campaigns of 1998 and 2002 when this party did not chose particular points to describe its attitudes towards religion. Its position was as widespread as it may be. For instance, it never had in use such points as “privileges to one church” or “the church-school cooperation”. Also it was possible for it to change its views. Nevertheless it is a parliamentary party and its attitude towards religion seems to be general approach for many Ukrainian parties as the elections of 1998 and 2002 have shown. Thus taking into consideration its use of religious resource the NDP might be identified as a typical political party of contemporary Ukraine that uses religion as one of the political resources to achieve a powerful position in our society.

ЛИТЕРАТУРА
1. Афанасьєва В. Релігійні питання у виборчих програмах політичних партій та блоків України 2002 року // Культурный обмен и формирование толерантности в многоэтничном гражданском обществе. Материалы семинара 17 июня 2003 года, г. Севастополь. – Симферополь, 2003. – С. 15-17.
2. Афанасьєва В. Україна і релігійний ресурс політичної боротьби: аналіз передвиборчих програм 2002 року // Религия и гражданское общество: на пути к глобальному этосу: Материалы ІІІ Международ-ного семинара 20-24 октября 2003 года, г. Ялта. – Симферополь, 2004. – С. 6-14.
3. Афанасьєва В. Релігійні чинники політичної боротьби в Україні періоду незалежності // Матеріали конференції «Молодь-Філософія-Світ – ХХІ століття». – Харків, 2004. – С. 98-99.
4. Афанасьєва В. Роль церкви у виборчих процесах України (на прикладі 1998 та 2002 років) // Історія релігій в Україні: Праці ХІV Міжнародної наукової конференції. – Львів: Логос, 2004. – Кн. 2. – С. 63-67.
5. Афанасьєва В. Православні цінності та парламентські вибори в Україні 1998 року // Православ’я – наука – суспільство: проблеми взаємодії: Матеріали Другої Всеукраїнської науково-практичної конференції. – Черкаси: ЧНУ, 2004. – С. 73-75.
6. Афанасьєва В. Релігія в демократичному суспільстві (на прикладі виборчих парламентських кампаній в незалежній Україні) // Науковий вісник Чернівецького університету. Збірник наукових праць. – Чернівці: Золоті літаври, 2004. – Вип. 203-204. – Філософія. – С. 312-313.
7. Casanova, J. Public Religions in the Modern World. – Chicago-London: The University of Chicago Press, 1994.
8. Wilson, B. Religion in Sociological Perspective. – Oxford-New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.
9. Anderson, J. Religion, State and Politics in the Soviet Union and Successor States. – Cambridge: Uni-versity Press, 1994.
10. Людина і світ. – 2000. – № 11-12.
11. Парламентські слухання «Духовна криза суспільства і шляхи її подолання» // Віче. – 2003. – № 12. – С. 3-15.
12. Єленський В. Релігія, церква і суспільство в Україні: початок 2002-го // Людина і світ. – 2002. – № 3. – С. 32.
13. Єленський В. Релігія після комунізму. – Київ: НПУ ім. Драгоманова, 2002.
14. Курас Т., Рибачук М., Кирюшко М., Фещенко П. Релігія і політика в сучасній Україні. – Київ: ІПЕНД НАНУ, 2000.
15. Mitrokhin, N. Aspects of the Religious Situation in Ukraine // Religion, State and Society. – 2001. – № 29. – Р. 173-196.
16. Програма НДП, 1998.
17. Доповідь голови НДП В.П. Пустовойтенка, 2000.
18. Кафарський В. Україна духовна: національні та загальнолюдські цінності// Україна і світ сьогодні. – 2001. – 13-19 січня.
19. Структурна модель ідейно-теоретичних засад НДП, 2000.
20. Політичні партії та блоки. – Київ, 1998.
21. Портрет майбутнього Президента // Вісник Народно-Демократичної партії. – 1998. – 25 листопада.
22. Афанасьєва В. Православні цінності та парламентські вибори в Україні 1998 року // Православ’я – наука – суспільство: проблеми взаємодії: Матеріали Другої Всеукраїнської науково-практичної конференції. – Черкаси: ЧНУ, 2004. – С. 73-75.
23. Афанасьєва В. Україна і релігійний ресурс політичної боротьби: аналіз передвиборчих програм 2002 року // Религия и гражданское общество: на пути к глобальному этосу: Материалы ІІІ Международ-ного семинара 20-24 октября 2003 года, г. Ялта. – Симферополь, 2004. – С. 6-14.

V.V. Afanasyeva
Central-European University (Budapest, Hungary)

01.10.2012 16:35

Комментарии

Оставить комментарий

Ваше имя:		Ваш email (не публикуется):
Текст сообщения::

Новости по теме

Поиск по сайту

Популярные новости

Последние статьи