TRANSFORMATION OF BRITISH POLITICAL PARTIES AFTER LEAVING THE EUROPEAN UNION: TRENDS AND PROSPECTS

Abstract

The main tendencies and prospects of transformation of British political parties after the state’s withdrawal from the European Union are studied. It is noted that in recent years the British political system has been developing and transforming under the direct influence of public debate on the expediency or inexpediency of the state’s stay in the European Union, which resulted in a referendum on leaving the EU and further implementing it at the organizational and institutional level. It is proved that the transformation of the party system can be both progressive and regressive, depending on the nature of external and internal changes that occur under the influence of a holistic set of socio-political factors. It is noted that the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of any party system as an object of transformational change, it seems appropriate to include the following: the model of the party system; the number of political parties that actually claim to participate in the formation and implementation of the political course of the state; legal (formal) institutionalization of political parties; party ideologies, programs, election platforms; public opinion on the evaluation of the activities of both individual political parties and the party system as a whole; results of political elections; the level of defragmentation and regionalization of the party system. The leading role of the Conservative Party in the process of preparing, conducting and implementing the results of the referendum on the expediency of Britain’s stay in the EU, which corresponds to the traditional conservative ideology of protectionism and the decisive role of the sovereign nation in political and economic processes. It is concluded that the British vector of integration as a principled position of the Conservative Party, which is perceived as an alternative to the idea of European integration in the sense of creating common European institutions, whose activities are largely based on supranational sources of law. It has been shown that the traditional left-wing and center-left electorate of the Labor Party has been partially overthrown by populist parties with essentially socialist socio-economic slogans, such as Reform UK. It is assumed that in the charismatic and personal conditionality of modern world politics, the current electoral situation may be somewhat changed by the emergence of a strong, bright and at the same time moderate in political and socio-economic views leader, which is an important factor in election technology.