REASONS FOR THE DEGRADATION OF POLITICAL ELITES IN THE MODERN WEST

Abstract

Aim. To study the geopolitical causes of the political elite degradation in the leading countries of the modern West.

Methodology. The main content of the study is an analysis of the causes of the political elite degradation in the leading countries of the modern West, in particular, the United States, the Federal Republic of Germany, the French Republic. Systematic, comparative and phenomenological research methods are used.

Results. The author concludes that during the struggle of geopolitical actors carried out mainly in the geographical and information-ideological space the main actor was the state. Therefore, the high quality of its elite was crucial. However, during the period of economic corporations’ dominance, the role of the state and the quality of political elites inevitably decreases to increasingly critical values since they do not act as an independent actor, but rather as a screen and functional support for the global struggle of corporations in the field of foreign and domestic policy, and within their own country as well.

Research implications. A certain contribution to the theory of political systems is made by establishing the direct dependence of the domestic and foreign policies of the main Western countries on the interests of the largest business corporations, as well as considering the main forms of its manifestation. Taking into account the factor of degradation of the political elites of the modern West will make it possible to build an effective strategy for the interaction of the Russian Federation with the collective West and its individual representatives in the geopolitical process.