Consumption of academic degrees in Ukrainian political science

Abstract

The article describes the (new) patterns of obtaining PhD and/or doctoral in political science by applicants from outside the higher education system during 1999-2022. The work is carried out within the theoretical framework of politics of political science aimed at describing the impact of political regime on the institutionalization of the discipline and the features of its knowledge. The hypothesis is that neopatrimonial science, regime and credentialism (the general tendency of modern societies to provide formal evidence of competence) have led to the consumption of academic degrees in Ukraine. The empirical basis is 1,735 PhD theses in political science, of which 428 (24.66%) were defended by applicants outside the Academy. The main achievement of the article is the verification of the thesis that the consumption of academic degrees is a socially and politically selective process, where the initial pattern is set by reference groups of top officials. Within neopatrimonial science, obtaining an academic degree is considered as a manifestation of the success in inter- and intra-elite competition at the regional and/or central levels. Accordingly, the processes of status differentiation are limited to groups close to power which are distinguished by their ability to control the administrative means of accumulating academic capital and thus obtaining prebendal income. This pattern is subsequently copied and reproduced by lower ranks. Despite the significant symbolic component of the academic degree, the reproduction of the pattern is associated with (economically) favorable conditions that determine the transfer of academic regalia from the category of luxury items to consumer goods. The process itself has its own peculiar features for different groups of applicants from outside the Academy, where the position and rank of the applicant, the regional structure of the political regime, and gender are significant.