Local self-governmentin Ukraine in the 1990s: the soviet model rejection,reform features

Abstract

The purpose of the research is to elucidate a local self-government formation in Ukraine in the 1990s, to find out the issues of the Soviet model governance transformation into the European-style democratic structures. The methodology of the research is based on the principles of systematicity, specific historical approach, historical systemic and historical typological methods. The above-mentioned applied methods made it possible to single out the specifics of Ukraine’s sovereignty formation, development and power structures democratization. The analysis of the “local self-government” category has been carried out using a logical method, which made it possible to reveal the objective patterns of this phenomenon development. In addition, there have been applied the following methods: general scientific methods of analysis and synthesis, comparative, structural functional, and generalization. The Scientific Novelty. The processes of a local self-government formation in Ukraine in the 1990s have been studied for the first time, and transformation issues of the Soviet model of governance into the European-style democratic structures have been revealed. The Conclusions. The study on a local self-government institutionalization has proved the relationship with the processes of de-Sovietization and decentralization of public power in Ukraine at the transitional stage of the state formation. In the article there has been traced the relationship between the institution of a local self-government formation in Ukraine and the power vertical de-Sovietization processes. Changes in local self-government began during the last years of the USSR and Ukrainian SSR existence. However, a full development of municipal democracy took place after the adoption of Declaration on Independence of Ukraine. Local state administrations were established, which aimed at unifying the management system under the conditions of economic crisis and significant political disagreements between the President and Parliament. The conclusion of the Constitutional Treaty was an attempt to overcome the political crisis and balance attempts to centralize power by the President. The document laid the foundations for the constitutional approval of a local self-government. The adoption of the Constitution of Ukraine and relevant legislation in the following years was decisive for the further development of democracy and local self-government development, which basically combined democratic postulates and post-socialist centrism characteristic of this period.