THE EVOLUTION OF APPROACHES TO ELECTORAL PROCESSES IN THE CONTEXT OF THEORIES OF POLITICAL PARTICIPATION IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Résumé

In the context of global transformations of democratic regimes and the growing crisis of political legitimacy, the study of political participation is increasingly relevant. Using an interdisciplinary approach that combines quantitative and qualitative methods, including literature review (Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar) and analysis of IFES, World Bank, European Parliament, and EIGE reports, the research develops a model for assessing twenty-first-century political participation. Key evolutionary stages of participation theories are identified: institutional-behavioral (early 2000s), communicative-network (2010–2015), identity-existential (2015–2020), and post-institutional crisis-reflective (2020–present). Modern political mobilization is increasingly flexible, hybrid, emotional, and digitally mediated, requiring new theoretical frameworks. A critical classification of participation theories—liberal-elite, participatory, resource-mobilization, digital-network, radical-democratic, postcolonial, and resilient—reveals diverse citizen engagement patterns. The proposed Analytical Model covers institutional, socio-cultural, digital-communicative, and semantic-existential dimensions, highlighting a paradigm shift from formal to value-driven, identity-based, and digitally mediated participation, reshaping approaches to legitimacy, representativeness, and civic engagement.