Динаміка представництва духовенства у районних радах Волинської області II–VI скликань

The religious factor occupies the remarkable place in the political process of state. The end of the XX-the beginning of the XXI century has been affected by the attraction to the strengthening of trends of the mutual usage by these worlds all possible resources for the achievement of the personal strategic goals. The role of religious organizations in the parliamentary and presidential election campaigns of the recent years has been examined. The official positions of the religious organizations in which the tendency to the separation of the spiritual and political life is clearly traced. It has been emphasized the active involvement of the religious organizations in the political life of the regional and district levels, local communities, which quite often openly support certain candidates, or parties. It is found out, on the example of the Volyn region, that quite not uncommon are the cases of the direct participation of the religious organizations’ representatives in the struggle for the deputy mandates in the bodies of government of the different levels. These tendencies are mostly expressed on the districts’ levels. For the first time the representatives of the priesthood won the deputy mandates in the district councils of Volyn region in 1994 (local councils of the second convocation). Characteristically, that starting from the given convocation the clergy had constant representation in the district councils despite the changes of electoral system to the local councils, though the cases of the membership in the political parties had been extremely rare. The investigation showed, that the summarizing of the results of election campaigns to the local councils, in this section, is being possible only at the regional level, as in the councils of some areas there were not clergy representatives in any of convocation.