ARCHETYPICAL PRINCIPLES OF HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENT IN UKRAINE

Abstract

This study deals with the historical development of local self-government on the territory of Ukraine and the possible use of such experience in carrying out the reform of decentralization of power, considering the main archetypes that have developed in society. The following eight main stages of development of local self-government are considered: Trypillian (laying the foundations of local self-government and the emergence of the main archetypes), the stage of existence of the ancient Slavs and Kievan Rus (changing the structure of local power and narrowing the rights of ordinary residents to manage the state, reducing the role of the archetype of ‘personal freedom’), Tatar-Mongol domination and fragmentation (decline of local self-government, dominance of the archetype of ‘poverty’), Lithuanian-Polish period (departure from the traditional Veche self-government and introduction of Magdeburg law with the narrowing of the rights of residents, and therefore the archetype of ‘personal freedom’), self-government in the Russian and Austro-Hungarian Empires (actual incorporation of local self-government into the system of state power, complete levelling of the archetype of ‘personal freedom’), Soviet period (formal presence of local self-government, but in fact it was included in the system of state authorities), the development of local self-government in independent Ukraine, since 1991 (return to traditional archetypes, existing during the Trypillian civilization, but a departure from them in recent years with the renewal of the archetype of ‘poverty’). The author identifies the main problems that have arisen in the process of implementing the decentralization of power reform and suggests measures to solve them, considering the historical experience and archetypes that are typical for Ukrainian society. Also, the author identifies a range of scientific problems, the study of which requires additional scientific developments to better understand the processes that took place in the past and are repeated again in our time and to find possible ways to overcome such problems that faced Ukrainian society, in particular, the government.