Витоки інститутів громадянського суспільства в давній Русі-Україні

Abstract

In our opinion, there are grounds to consider that at the time of the early Middle Ages, elements, particular institutions of a civil society were taking shape in Ukraine. An enormous sector of social life functioned independently of the State and relied on the principles of self-regulation. That was virtually a domain of extra-State existence, which operated, first of all, due to State’s failure to cover by its control all spheres of social life. The simplest associations of people emerging to ensure their survival, and in the first place rural communities, formed its basis. The further evolution of the social environment, complication of sociopolitical and economic life resulted in creation of government agencies that began at once to develop according to their own logic. The State gradually restricted the sphere of the already existing proto-civil society meanwhile tending to develop through its full absorption and transformation of the highest public authority into a main master of the subjects’ fate.