This study examines the motivations of party activists in Ukraine, a country known for clientelistic and oligarch-led political parties. It investigates whether these parties attract individuals seeking purposive incentives and explores factors associated with such motivation. Data were collected from surveys of approximately 200 party activists across three major Ukrainian cities during the 2019 Parliamentary Elections. The analysis reveals that purposive motivation is more prevalent among party activists than previously thought. Older activists and formal party members demonstrate higher levels of purposive motivation compared to their younger and non-member counterparts, while the study finds no positive correlation between ideological extremism and purposive motivation. These findings challenge the conventional assumption of party activists as hired “mercenarie” in volatile party systems and extend the scope of party membership and activism research beyond established Western democracies.
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