elections

The article examines the role of European left parties in the politics of their countries and the European Union. The author of the article examines the main types of European left parties, their program goals and the electorate. Modern left-wing European parties in terms of ideological orientation are mostly representatives of social democrats, the Greens, democratic socialists and communists, which roughly corresponds to the left-wing party coalitions existing in the European Parliament, with the exception of communists of the Marxist-Leninist type popular mainly outside the EU.

The article is devoted to the change in the attitude of American society to the ideology of socialism at the beginning of the XXI century. The article examines reasons for popularity of leftist ideas in the United States, the most popular interpretations of the concept of “socialism” among American citizens, taking into account their age or belonging to a particular social group.

Analysis of the second echelon parties and social associations’ participation in electoral processes within single voting day in September 2020 is presented in the article. An inference is made that as a result of municipal elections in different regions of Russia transformations related to strengthening oppositional forces’ resources have taken place; these transformations can manifest themselves as early as during the State Duma election-2021. Elections have shown that motivation of protest voting “we want reforms” is growing in popularity.

ВIn Russian practice, election control is a part of any election campaign. According to the current electoral legislation of the Russian Federation, a fairly wide range of people have the right to exercise control, in addition, web cameras are used at polling stations for observation. The amendments to the electoral legislation of the Russian Federation are aimed at strengthening control over the voting process and counting the votes of voters in elections.

The author considers two main interpretations of the information’s role in electoral procedures’ fulfilment in contemporary Russia and substantiates his own point of view that a great deal of competing electoral subjects’ information influence on voters forms a feeling of predetermined outcome of the elections and significantly decreases citizens’ motivation to take part in voting.

The paper evaluates the advantages of remote electronic voting through the prism of Russian national context, discusses the obstacles to its mass use. The author comes to the conclusion that in Russia there are no legal, socio-political and technical preconditions for the transition to this kind of vote in the near future. The most possible and it seems to be advisable the implementation and deployment of remote electronic voting in remote and sparsely populated areas of our country.

The authors analyze the results of the massive social surveys and focus-group investigations conducted in November-December, 2015 in municipal districts of Saratov region which are the parts of Saratov district constituency. People’s informational preferences, their attitude to the government, politicians, and elections were probed. Specific recommendations on elaborating electoral strategies in the run-up to the State Duma elections have been formulated.

The authors analyze the results of the massive social surveys and focus-group investigations conducted in November–December, 2015 in municipal districts of Saratov region which are the parts of Saratov district constituency. People’s informational preferences, their attitude to the government, politicians, and elections were probed. Specific recommendations on elaborating electoral strategies in the run-up to the State Duma elections have been formulated.