METHODOLOGY OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH OF MECHANISMS OF DEMOCRACY OF PARTICIPATION IN THE SPHERE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IN UKRAINE: CONCEPT, CONTENT, ESSENTIAL FEATURES

Abstract

The publication reveals the methodological aspects of research on the development and functioning of mechanisms of participatory democracy in Ukraine during the reforms. In particular, the origin of the concept, content and essential features of the methods and methodology of relevant research in the field of public administration are substantiated. It is emphasized that the methodology of public administration science is a relatively new acquisition of scientific thought. But it takes into account the previous achievements of human knowledge about the principles, methods and techniques of research of various statuses, phenomena, processes and phenomena in the field of knowledge of the universe, man, society and state. The origins of methodology from the philosophy of Antiquity (Plato, Aristotle, etc.) and the knowledge of contemporary thinkers of the essence and content of the phenomenon of democracy, which existed in the public administration of the city-city of Athens for a short period (IV century BC), but still attracts the attention of scholars and practitioners to building a fair and effective system of democratic public administration. It is emphasized that methods as tools of scientific knowledge began to be established after the «scientific revolution» of the XVI-XVII centuries. in Europe, and logic (syllogism) soon became the first universal methodology of cognition. At the same time, for the socio-humanitarian sciences, the «golden age» of methodology was the XIX century, when methodological systems of scientific research in history, sociology, economics, law, etc. began to form. These historically formed research methodologies have been optimally used in the formation of research methodologies in the field of public administration. Under this methodology it is proposed to understand the systems of interdependent and multilevel (philosophical, general scientific, special) methods and their groups, which are complex differentiated tools for understanding the phenomena, processes, statuses and phenomena of public administration, including the essence, content, mechanisms and forms of participatory potential public (state) governance.