Measures for Reforming Local Government Bodies in Ukraine in the Context of Foreign Experience

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the main ways to reform local governments in Ukraine in view of the available foreign experience. Taking into account the experience of Poland in the implementation of reforms from the standpoint of analysis of their effectiveness, the authors tried to find out on a practical and theoretical level what factors caused the situation that Ukraine and Poland have diametrically different achievements in implementing almost identical reforms in political, economic and social spheres, given that these countries were at about the same stage of development at the beginning of the reforms. It is concluded that since local self-government is the subject of intersectoral research in political science, economics, sociology, law and other sciences, it requires the establishment of methodological boundaries of a comprehensive study of this civic institution. It was found that, despite the significant number of theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of local self-government in Ukraine, domestic experts have not created a holistic view of the activities of local self-government and its role in society. It is proved that there is still a purely national tradition of studying local self-government, based on its declarative role, which is enshrined in the Law of Ukraine "On Local Self-Government in Ukraine", at the same time the influence of modern political and economic researched. It is determined that in Ukraine there is no idea at the state level about the role of local self-government, on the one hand, it emphasizes the current and necessary role of community interests in the field, and on the other – the issue of state regulation remains open. All this has led to the emergence of modern research on local government as an innovative activity for modeling political processes on the ground.