THE EVOLUTION OF POLITICAL SCIENCE RESEARCH IN UKRAINE (1992-2021)

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to study the state of political science in Ukraine and its development from 1992 to 2021. In the course of the study, methods of analyzing statistical and primary data were used. Information on defended PhD and doctoral dissertations in political science was collected from the Unified State Web Portal of Open Data and the National Repository of Academic Texts. After manual transfer and systematization of this data, a set was created for further analysis. As a result, it turned out that from 1992 to 2021, 2,163 academic texts in the field of political science were defended in Ukraine, including 1,857 PhD theses and 306 doctoral dissertations. The highest peak of dissertation defenses occurred in 2009-2013. After the Revolution of Dignity in 2014, the number of defenses began to decline, reaching its lowest point in 2020 due to the pandemic. The most popular specialty among researchers was Political Institutions and Processes (23.00.02) with 1130 defended texts. The second place was taken by the specialty «Political Problems of International Systems and Global Development» (23.00.04) with 538 texts. The least popular was the specialty «Ethnopolitical Science and Ethnic Studies» (23.00.05) with 68 texts. The main topics of dissertations were focused on the political situation in Ukraine. Research in the specialty «Theory and History of Political Science» (23.00.01) focused on the theoretical aspects of political processes, leaving out historical aspects, while the specialty «Political Culture and Ideology» (23.00.03) studied mainly the political culture of society without focusing on ideologies. It was found that many dissertations are normative and descriptive in nature, which indicates a problem with the quality of research. The study emphasizes the need to strengthen control over the quality of research papers, improve the qualifications of scientists and support young researchers.