Positional Approach to the Political Elite Criteria Selection in Democratic States

The relevance of the research problem is justified by the fact that contemporary political experts consider the political process of democratic ruling elite forming as in Russia so in other countries only in general aspects and there is no unified understanding of this process. The aim of this article is to summarize the scientific knowledge on the problem under consideration and to propose criteria for political elite selection in democratic States. A leading approach to this problem study is a positional approach. From the point of view of the positional approach the political elite is defined as the range of persons who has attained powerful positions and who has the right of direct participation in the process of government decision-making through open competition for votes and political elections’ win in representative bodies of power. The article can be useful for political scientists and sociologists studying the problems of political elites’ formation and functioning.