The Concept of Political Stability and Political Conflicts

Abstract

The phenomena of political stability and political conflicts have been studied. Aspects and factors influencing political stability have been analysed, as well as theoretical approaches to analysing political conflicts and political stability. The peculiarities of scientific approaches to determining political stability have been briefly considered. Namely: institutional, socio-economic, psychological, geopolitical, and systemic. The actual definition of political stability has been provided as the stability of the political system, which means the absence of sudden changes and severe conflicts for at least a certain (preferably long) time. The systematized key aspects of this concept have been presented in table form using different approaches. Political stability will consider such aspects as civic participation, social planning and economic stability. In a narrow sense, political stability would mean the absence of radical changes during a certain period. The following theoretical approaches to the analysis of political conflicts have been analysed: realist, liberal, Marxist and postmodernist. Realists believe that political conflicts arise due to the power struggle, liberals see the causes of disputes in insufficient cooperation between the main subjects of politics, Marxists consider politics as a reflection of class and economic conflict relations, and postmodernists argue that politics is (de)constructed through diversity discursive practices. The following methods of conflict resolution in the scientific community have been considered: maintaining the balance of power (realists); appeal to the law and intensification of negotiations to end conflicts (liberals); aggravating the conflict for the society, having passed through revolutionary events, to move into a new quality (Marxists); maintenance of dialogue and tolerance in society (postmodernists).