Parties in the symbolic space of politics

The article analyzes symbolic contents of the political relations, and place and role of the political parties in them. The first part of the paper reveals value of the symbolic components in the social and political integration of the society. The author analyzes in details interpretations of the ‘symbolic’ idea in the symbolic interactionism, structural functionalism and poststructuralism theories. The second part of the work deals with the political parties’ functioning in the symbolic space of the Russian politics. Basing upon the sociological analysis the author concludes that the modern parties are not just political institutions, but symbols of the new political hyper-reality, in which there is no real political struggle, only the symbolic one. The parties don’t defend or struggle for something real, they mimic the political struggle and feign opposition.