Ukrainian Society

21-41

Authors: Balakireva O. M., Bondar T. V., Pavlova D. M.

Article dwells upon the data obtained within the framework of the international research project “European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs – ESPAD”. The sixth wave of the survey took place in Ukraine in 2015 (the previous waves were organized in 1995, 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2011). It was conducted by Ukrainian Institute for Social Research after Oleksandr Yaremenko with the support of UNICEF in Ukraine and the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) within the framework of international research project European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD) carried out in 36 European countries. The data not only focuses on the latest results of the sixth wave of the students’ survey, but also analyzes trends of tobacco, alcohol and drugs use since 1995. Dynamics of distribution of answers about availability of cigarettes during the research years demonstrates the positive trend of access reduction to tobacco products among adolescents. Since 1999, the rate of access to tobacco products almost halved. Data for trends in smoking prevalence during the past 30 days confirmed the downward trend among youth. During all years of the study (since 1995 and until 2015) among students aged 15–16 years, there is an observed trend of availability reduction of alcoholic beverages. Significantly reduced is the availability of alcoholic drinks for 16-year-old students. By one and a half times has decreased the availability of wine. Regarding soft drinks and champagne, the data is only available for the last 2 waves of the study and it also demonstrates a decline. However, during 6 waves of the study there were spikes in the indicator of alcoholic beverages availability. Since 1995 until 2003, there has been a dramatic increase in availability of beer, wine and spirits. Since 2007 there has been a significant decrease in availability, on average, by half for wine and beer, and almost doubled for spirits. The last two waves of observations revealed decreasing trend in the number of students with alcohol consumption experience (consumed alcohol at least once in a lifetime). Since 1995 until 2007 this figure has gradually increased, peaking in 2007. For the entire 20-year period, the lowest rate of alcohol consumption was recorded in 2015. Since 1995 until 2007 there was a gradual increase in the number of students who have consumed alcohol during the last 30 days. In 2011, this figure has decreased, but the significant decrease in the number of students was recorded in 2015. The gender difference observed after the first two waves, changed from the predominance of the proportion of girls who consumed alcohol during the last 30 days (preceding the survey), to the predominance of the prevalence of number of boys in 2007. However, the last two waves do not capture a significant gender difference in the prevalence of alcohol use during the past 30 days. When comparing the indicator of the drugs’ availability it should be noted that during the period from 1995 to 1999, the number of 16-year-old students who mentioned the easiness of obtaining marijuana across the group of respondents has increased by more than 2.3 times. In 2011 there was some decline in availability of marijuana, but survey of 2015, confirmed the new increase in the share of young people who noted that they can “very easy” or “rather easy” get marijuana or hashish. A significant gender difference remains in answers on the availability of marijuana. It should be noted that the declared accessibility of marijuana among girls in 2015 is the highest for the entire study. Prevalence trends of marijuana use repeats the described trends in the prevalence of any drugs addiction: growth in 1995–1999–2003 years with decreasing rates in 2007, a slight decrease in 2011 and a minor decrease in 2015. The highest rates of marijuana use among the target group during the past 30 days (preceding the survey) were recorded in 1999 and 2003, and the lowest in 2011. In 2015 on contrary to 2011 data, there was an increase in use of marijuana both among boys and girls. The obtained data provides important information for understanding of youth; the relationship between the development of habits and prevention interventions; for the development and planning of educational programs aimed at reducing risky behavior in adolescence and youth. The authors consider it appropriate to emphasize the need for continuous monitoring of availability levels and prevalence of substance use such as tobacco, alcohol, drugs; behavioral practices in relation to their experiments and use of substances. Monitoring data also allows analyzing the effectiveness of policies and/or individual measures to identify barriers and factors affecting distribution. Moreover, sociological surveys provide an opportunity to identify and determine the level of awareness regarding the harmful consequences of such use, and of attitudes in relation to their own health.

57-68

Authors: Titar I. O.

The exact meanings of the notions “IDP adaptation” and “IDP integration” despite their active use in academic and practically-oriented literature and state regulations still remain uncertain. The article aims to clarify the content of the notions of “adaptation” and “integration” of IDPs, doing it both in theoretical and empirical dimensions. The article also examines another practical issue closely associated with a public policy – what terms should be used in decision to withdraw the IDPs status. The academic periodicals and UNHCR manuals were the most important source for the study. The analysis of the sources demonstrated that different scientific disciplines, depending on the focus of their research interests, put different aspects in the center of study of IDP adaptation and integration. However, there can be identified two theoretical and methodological approaches that cross disciplinary boundaries of the certain social sciences. We offer to call these approaches as socio-cultural and resource (-oriented). As a part of the socio-cultural approach IDP adaptation is seen as an overcoming of the shock of cultural environment change and the process by which displaced person is used to a different culture, including the construction of the mode of the coexistence of IDP’s identity with the identities of other groups. According to the resource(-oriented) approach, adaptation is seen as the process by which information about the existence, accessibility and ways of getting relevant resources needed in the new place of residence is obtained. Within the socio-cultural approach IDP integration is interpreted as a convergence of IDPs’ and host communities identities, and within the resource (-oriented) approach it is seen as an establishment of IDPs and host communities resource sharing. The resource(-oriented) approach seems to be more relevant to the current situation in Ukraine. The differences in the volume of resources between the IDPs differentiate the majority of IDPs more significantly than culture and identity do

78-89

Authors: Verbova O. S.

The article researches the genesis of the innovative entrepreneurship in Halychyna at the turn of 19th – 20th centuries. Author predetermines the need for the in-depth study of innovative tradition of entrepreneurship. This need is predetermined by the necessity of forming the innovative model of national economics development under the conditions of Ukrainian integration into European economical space. The essence of the innovation doctrine entrepreneurship of Ivan Levynskyi is disclosed. Paper reveals the significant influence of professor I. Levinskyi into formation of young generation of architects. Author proves the value of his innovative approach regarding the justification of the economic and financial aspects of construction and architecture, lowering real estate taxation, development of a sound master plan for the city. Designated are the features of the ecological thinking genesis in the scientific and entrepreneurial endeavors of I. Levinskyi. The role of the innovation ideas and entrepreneurship activity of I. Levinskyi are justified for the institutional understanding of conceptual principles of innovation strategy for the Ukrainian state.

101-133

Authors: Balakireva O. M., Dmytruk D. A.

Based on a nationwide survey, authors present the level of interest in political processes and assessment of the political situation in Ukraine. The balance of trust is shown to organizations, public institutions, public figures and also the dynamics of population’s current electoral preferences is depicted. In addition, paper presents data on protest sentiments and the results of the Revolution of Dignity, confidence level in NATO, EU, their support dynamics, and the assessment of the consequences of a new President of the United States election. Self-rated material status of the population and the minimum wage increase is suggested together with the data on the population’s mood at the end of the year.

20-32

Authors: Savelyev Yu. B.

The article aims to answer the question whether peculiarities of Ukraine’s population values prevent development of Ukrainian society during a period of independence and what should be done for its successful modernization. Based on the longitudinal data of the World Values Survey (WVS), the European Values Study (EVS) 1990’s – 2010’s as well as the data of the Research Institute of Credit Suisse Group the article demonstrates that high levels of poverty and social inequality are barriers for the development of Ukraine and impede the spread of emancipatory post-materialist values among the population. Application of modernization and value change model, which was developed by R. Inglehart et al., indicates absence of substantial value cleavage in Ukraine. Also the relationship between value orientations and paternalist expectations of the population is not observed. It is found that despite the fact that there are fewer people who share emancipatory values compared to other East European countries, Ukraine, nevertheless, also encounters a latent fundamental shift from traditional materialist value priorities towards emancipatory post-materialist orientations. Yet, Ukraine is poorer and has significantly more unequally distributed wealth than the rest of neighboring countries. Based on the research results one can predict that the increase of well-being and a corresponding rise in a sense of existential security among the population will accelerate the change of values that will create opportunities for civic participation and more effective control over the state institutions. Discovered significance of historical effect in value change leads to a substantial elaboration of the existing modernization model. The efforts of national government, local authorities, international organizations, civil society should be directed at assistance to Ukrainian people in becoming capable social agents and escaping “the poverty trap”. Thus, the purposeful and competent policy of Ukrainian government, true institutional reforms, restriction of “crony capitalism” rent-seeking practices and social inequality reduction provide a chance to modernize Ukrainian society successfully.

42-57

Authors: Stehnii O. G.

Author analyses social importance of the natural environment for the activities of various social actors; the necessity of taking into account ecological and sociological theories of social practice, social events and institutional models that have ecological value. The prevalence and social significance of the processes and phenomena of the double socio-ecological nature is noted. The need for a sociological reflection of environmental issues is explained by the fact that social community, with the exception of extreme conditions of environmental and technological disasters, does not just react to biophysical parameters of the environment, but also perceives social problems caused by the anthropogenic load on the natural environment, including environmental risk conditions of everyday living. Special attention is given to clarification of the terms “social ecology”, “environmental sociology” and the use of the concept “environment”. It is noted that the permanent coexistence of various views on the social interpretation of nature, without a real desire to reach consensus in the terminology of sociological study method of environmental issues, reproduces the isolation of national researchers from the Western sociological school. The paper suggests retrospective of major domestic studies conducted by social scientists on environmental issues for the entire period of Ukrainian independence. Ukrainian sociologists’ approach to the study of environmental issues is based on the assertion that the causes of environmental problems, the results of their impact on human society, like the possible ways of solving are related to processes of social regulation. The essence of this regulation is determined by the mechanism of the formation of social relations stable forms between the subjects of social interest on risk-reflection, adequate nature and severity of environmental problems. As evidenced by the analysis, over the past decade, the Ukrainian sociologists have focused on the study of the environmental component of balanced social development; various aspects of ecological consciousness; the social consequences of the Chernobyl disaster; the influence of environmental factors on health and well-being; the study of particular environmental problems; the study of environmental policy and environmental rights of citizens. The most empirically developed area is the study of the public opinion attitude towards the environment. Author emphasizes the importance of scientific and practical value of public opinion monitoring on environmental problems and the need for relevant methodology for the study of specific social communities on this matter.

72-87

Authors: Suprun N. A.

The article dwells upon the study of framework conditions and institutional determinants of the corporate sector development of the national economy, which include: catch-up nature of the economy and accelerated institutionalization of the business environment; the lack of long historical evolution of market relations and the culture and forms of business communication; government protectionist policies as an active factor in the development of corporate forms of business; the influence of the external environment and the practice of the Western norms borrowing (import). It is shown that the development of the corporate sector during the privatization process, which was characterized by asymmetry of information and market opportunities, aborted competitive environment has become, in fact, the bureaucratic redistribution of state property and its transformation into private. Under these circumstances, a merger of the political elite with the business elite took place, and the formation of private bureaucratic ownership, with the dominant feature of nomenclature component. The result of this process was the rapid concentration of share ownership and establishment of corporate governance insider model with the subsequent reorientation of corporate business by creating a more “investment closed” organizational forms and mechanisms of corporate control. Under the conditions of underdevelopment of important market infrastructure institutions (stock market, registry and depository systems), which are designed to limit the negative effects of power and ownership monopolization in corporations, insider control becomes one of the most influential institutional barriers for the corporate entrepreneurship effectiveness. Feature of the insider control is its bureaucratic-nomenklative origin. Because of the the corporate sector institutional strains, the national economy functions as a shadow mechanism of capital redistribution and preserves insider control. It is determined that significant institutional constraints for the effective development of the corporate sector are informal institutions, economic nihilism and majority absentism of minority shareholders; priderite as the willingness of smallholders to shift management control functions over to other persons; the lack of public confidence in the institutional reforms.

100-109

Authors: Balakireva O. M., Dmytruk D. A.

The level of the populations’ trust to the National Bank of Ukraine remains low: only 12% trust it, and 81% do not trust it. The trust balance is “minus” 68 percentage points. Ukrainian banks are trusted by less than 15,5% of the population, 77% do not trust them, in particular 47,4% – do not trust them fully. Conditional trust balance to the Ukrainian banking system is “minus” 62 percentage points. The vast majority of the population suffered significant losses from hryvnia depreciation, which resulted in a number of negative consequences for the well-being of Ukrainians: 96,4% said that their purchasing power reduced; 91,6% of respondents confirmed that it had become difficult to pay utility bills; 89,5% of respondents noted the fall invalue of wages; 82% mentioned the devaluation of pensions and social benefits; 80,7% believe that their hryvnia savings have depreciated; 75,1% refused the usual leisure; 46,6% became debtors. According to the survey results, 8,8% of the respondents said that they have deposits in banks. For the last 2 years, 4,1% of respondents personally lost deposits in troubled banks, another 9,4% have family members who have lost their deposits. Evaluating the activities of the NBU, only 7,4% of respondents noted that the main controller has made sufficient efforts to rescue banks, in which citizens of Ukraine have lost their savings. Only 10,3% believe that NBU sufficiently protects the depositors’ rights (interests) in Ukrainian banks; 8,2% – that NBU made enough for the dishonest bank owners to be able to escape justice; 20,6% believe that NBU is interested in a stable hryvnia exchange rate. The balance of trust to the NBU Governor V.O. Gontareva is “minus” 77 percentage points. Only 3,7% of respondents would trust their savings to her personally. More than 2/3 of the adult population (68,9%) are ready to support deputies’ appeal to the President of Ukraine to demand the resignation of V.O. Gontareva. For the past two months, 13,2% of the respondents had cases of delayed or unpaid salaries and pensions. The income per capita, which would ensure today’s real subsistence level, respondents identified as close to 5,000 UAH (average value – 4,925 UAH), which is 3,5 times more than the one guaranteed by the state.

19-24

Authors: Dmytrenko M. Yo.

The article touches upon the phenomena of current cultural processes. The author investigates the modern paradigm of corporate culture and multiculturalism in the terms of philosophy. The interconnection of current cultural processes and the process of modern corporate culture development has been grounded theoretically. The topicality of the problem is proved by the fact that under the conditions of the development of a fundamentally new socio-cultural reality of post-industrial model corporate culture acquires a global dimension. The article is aimed at theoretical substantiating of the impact of cultural processes in the development of the society on the change of the modern paradigm of corporate culture and multiculturalism. To achieve the set aim the author makes use of the following methods: theoretical analysis, summarizing and systematization of the scientific literature on philosophy and culturology. Historical prerequisites of the appearance of the notions “multicultural society” and “multiculturalism” have been analyzed. The author shares the ideas of multiculturalism represented in the works by U. Eco, O. Spengler, Ch. Taylor, G. Thernborn, A. Toynbee. The changes in the paradigm of values of the modern corporate society and the influence of the Western model on Ukraine’s corporate culture have been highlighted. Noting the high potential of humanistic multiculturalism, the author believes that it forms one of the reasons for the optimistic scenario of the culture as a whole, including corporate culture as its form. The author considers the study of communicative aspect of corporate culture to be one of the prior directions of further research as it will promote the formation of a new subject of the communicative space of the corporation and thus, help to overcome the spiritual crisis.

41-47

Authors: Sogorin A. A.

Content analysis today is one of the leading research methods at the intersection of history, sociology, cultural and other sciences. As a method, content analysis is not only a set of common principles for texts analysis, but also a set of tools for it. With the intent to prevent possible errors while using and improving the research performance, the author tried to present content analysis as a leading method of information gathering and to offer the description of its semantic characteristics of identifying errors that are quite common in works that use this technique in sociological research. Standardized, formalized methods of analysis have emerged as alternative informal methods. Content analysis as a valuable method of sociological research as it is able to reveal both explicit and implicit content information. Therefore, we can conclude that the systematic, objective and quantitative conditions and principles are not the only conditions and principles of content analysis. If compare it to other research methods, content analysis has some special features of the procedural peculiarity – that is a careful count of the total number and incidence of certain units. Quantitative parameters (context unit and unit count) obtained in the study reveal quality content of analyzed document. The use of qualitative components in the content analysis and its modification will give the ability to solve new, more complex tasks, to expand the problematic field of research, and to obtain more accurate conclusions about the nature of the phenomena studied. Content analysis as one of the oldest research methods is still relevant today. It is a dynamic environment in interdisciplinary research and it diversifies due to developments in various fields of data analysis that require special attention of scientists to refine procedures for the content analysis implementation in order to obtain the most accurate data.

61-70

Authors: Duiun D. O.

The article dwells upon to the human resources of the pharmaceutical production as the determinant of its effectiveness. The author shows that human resources as well as the R&D capacity, should be regarded as one of the high-tech manufacturing key indicators. Based on the reports of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industry and Associations (EFPIA) and EUROSTAT the estimation of employment scale in the pharmaceutical countries – EU members was carried out. It is established that the EU pharmaceutical industry employed 725 thousand people, including 118 thousand of those involved in R&D. Paper considers the provision of human resources in the pharmaceutical and activities related to R&D, the rate of which is increasing every year. In order to clarify that EU Member States have the largest concentration of specialists working in the pharmaceutical industry, the employment ratio was calculated with the rate per capita in the country’s pharmaceutical industry and the total population of the country. According to calculations by the EUROSTAT data, it was found that the highest productivity compared to other high-tech sectors is concentrated in pharmaceuticals. It was revealed that pharmaceutical production is characterized by a high rate of direct and indirect employment. According to the results, it was discovered that pharmacy is the most effective industry among the high-tech ones. Based on US NSF the author defined the countries with the highest concentration of employment in manufacturing and countries that are the most effective for creating added value. According to the results it was determined that the efficiency of pharmaceutical production in Ukraine is lower, in general, then in the countries – EU members, despite the fact that the implementation of R&D to obtain new drugs or reproduction (imitation) of specialties requires highly qualified personnel, enumeration of which is growing in the domestic pharmaceutical industry with every year, despite the general trend of reducing employment in industrial sector. This article may be useful for students, teachers, researchers and government officials, who work in the high-tech pharmaceutical sector.

80-87

Authors: Kurchenko O. O.

Innovative startups is a new form of innovative business and they create high value added and high-paying jobs. It is due to their positive impact, there is an increasing attention from countries with developed innovative systems and increased number of implemented programs to support startups. However, in Ukraine there are no instruments of public support, and there is no formalized legal definition of the term “startup company”. The article dwells upon the history of startups in Ukraine, the place of the country on the international rankings and the problems that startups are currently facing. Author presents main results of pilot study conducted by Institute for Economics and Forecasting, NAS of Ukraine on the development of domestic startups as the most dynamic agents of the national innovation system. The conclusion was driven that there is an urgent need for the STEM-specialists who are able to create, multiply, and promote new knowledge, to effectively use it in their work. Another important accent should be made on the implementation of government programs to support Ukrainian technology based of international best practices, and to strengthen information security startups for the participation in international support programs, including “Horizon 2020”. Creating similar conditions in Ukraine also will contribute to the development of startup ecosystem and strengthen innovative entrepreneurship.

97-104

Authors: Gerasymenko G. V., Nychyporenko S. V., Khmelevska O. M.

The article dwells upon the problems of policy on combating gender-based violence in Ukraine. Despite development of the progressive legal framework, implementation of programs and creation of appropriate institutional environment, the problem has not lost its relevance. Therefore, the scientific studies aimed at evaluation of the public policies effectiveness to prevent and combat gender-based violence are important. This publication presents the results of a survey of regional experts, who work in the field of preventing and combating gender-based violence in various institutional sectors. Practitioners led assessments allowed to identify main problems that hinder the effectiveness of policies on combating gender violence, including poor coordination of efforts in different sectors, the lack of common information base, the lack of skilled professionals, low availability of services for violence victims, including systematic lack of safe housing, etc. The results of in-depth interviews provided grounds for a number of general proposals on improvement of measures to prevent and combat gender-based violence, including improving the coordination between experts from various sectors, including establishment of the regular information exchange; creation of a unified database; solving of staffing issues; raising public awareness and development of social services for victims, etc.

120-123

Authors: Titar I. O., Bilous Ye. V.

Authors suggest analysis of the data from monitoring studies of protests, in particular, protests with economic demands (their quantity, tactics and the dependence of quantity on inflationary expectations and expected development of the country’s economy).

19-27

Authors: Lokteva I. I.

Strategies to increase the people’s standard of living and reducing their social exclusion vary according to the models of social welfare, which were historically developed in different countries. There are differences at the level of state support for those who are at risk to be socially excluded. Down to date the cross-country comparison of social exclusion in the general population of the groups of countries representing different models of social policy was not implemented. Therefore, the aim of this work was to compare social exclusion level (average scores) in groups of countries with different models of social welfare. At the first stage of the analysis the two components of the social exclusion concept were empirically identified and selected according to the approach to its measurement, proposed by G. Jehoel-Gijsbers and C. Vrooman. Based on data of the European Social Survey (ESS), the author used factor analysis to carry out the empirical identification of material deprivation dimensions and social exclusion in the groups of countries that represent social-democratic, conservative-corporatists, liberal, Mediterranean model of social policy, as well as the group of countries in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet States. To facilitate the interpretation of empirically identifiable factors, defined respectively for each dimension of indicators, author computed additive index of material deprivation and social exclusion. The results of Pearson correlation coefficient calculation revealed strong positive correlation between the additive index and identified factors, so the figures can be considered to be equivalent measurement tools. At the second stage of analysis, in order to compare mean scores of social exclusion among groups of countries with different social policy models, the author used single factor analysis of variance. The comparison results of the average values of the material deprivation index demonstrate its compliance with the level of social and pension security according to a specific model of social policy. However, the example of the group of Eastern European and former Soviet countries did not show a direct link between social isolation and specific models of social welfare.

43-53

Authors: Nagorniak K. M.

Investigation of democracy is needed to understand the changing process in each country. At the same time analysis of values dynamic is not efficient without evaluation of similarities and sustainable measurement of constructs. It means that in order to compare different indicators of values derived from surveys of heterogeneous samples, it is important to evaluate measurement invariance of indicators of values (measurement equivalence). The purpose of the article is overview of methodological problem of measurement invariance, specifically scales of democratic values. In other words, the core of research interest is to evaluate the possibilities of comparison of latent variables by checking the equality of factor measuring models that include factor loadings, indicator intercepts and their error variances, relationships between latent variables in the various samples. This article includes approaches of studying the concept of democratic value generalized definition of the concept of democratic orientation values and their components. Firstly, the author has given the definition of democracy (the brief overview of the concept). Secondly, according to existing studies, paper presents conceptualization of democratic values and their components. Thirdly, the construct of democratic values and their indicators was shown in order to give operationalization of concepts. Finally, in the end of the review, the idea of measurement invariance of scales of democratic values was illustrated as method of assessment of similarity measurement values of democracy with the example of post-socialist countries. Overview of the literature gives possibility to find the gap in the field study and propose the own view for further research. The purpose of the future study will be the assessment of measurement invariance of scales of democratic values in post-socialist countries. In other words, the aim of the study is to evaluate the possibilities of comparison of latent variables by checking the measurement and structural models between various samples.

65-74

Authors: Pankova O. V., Kasperovych O. Yu., Ishchenko O. V.

The development of volunteer movement in Ukraine in 2014-2015 has became an example of spontaneous purposeful mobilization of social resources aimed at solving public problems of different scales. This experience is extremely valuable for the development of civil society in Ukraine. The phenomenon of volunteer movement in Ukraine requires study and acknowledgement, summarizing data on volunteering, its motivation, problems, and development prospects. This article is the next step in addressing the aforementioned problems and is an attempt to use theoretical and methodological data collected earlier to identify the mobilizing potential of volunteer movement’s social resources in Ukraine. For the purpose of testing the obtained theoretical and methodological results and initial state assessment of the volunteer movement resource potential, in March of 2016 authors conducted an expert survey with 10 representatives of the active volunteer organizations managerial staff. The analysis of the status, resources and general trends of changes in the volunteer movement reveals typical problems of Ukrainian civil society, in particular, an exaggerated focus on public authorities, interaction with which is perceived as both the main source of problems, and as the main means of solving these problems. In addition, the alleviation of the confrontation in Eastern Ukraine leads to a certain attenuation of the volunteer movement. However, the volunteer movement provided the social self-organization processes in Ukraine, a strong impetus to mobilization. Active participation of public associations in the recent Ukrainian events, as well as the state of social resources that are available for public associations and can be involved, demonstrate significant potential to revitalize and increase the public associations participation ensuring development and reforms, including those at the regional level.

82-89

Authors: Shulha M. O.

The article dwells upon three domains of rationale creation: art, philosophy and science as the part of the overall concept of symbolic universe. The last is defined as semantic meta-systems that form the matrix of their own vision and offer interpretation of the objective, intersubjective and subjective events or phenomena. The most important characteristics of symbolic universe are defined as isolation and integrity, so it sets the boundaries of communication and interpretation in everyday life. The essential ability of symbolic universe is its integrity: it organizes social system for social actor after his birth to death. The existence of a symbolic universe is driven by objective and subjective reasons, therefore, the existence and struggle of universes are inherent in any society. According to the present concept, the hierarchy of symbolic universe domains includes language, values, economics, history, politics, religion, art, philosophy, science – the last three refer to the latter, the superstructure level. This is the essential feature of all three isolated areas: in these semantic fields the diffusion processes of symbolic universes occur the fastest. These realms begin the process of universe’s symbolic struggle and eventually invade other levels and domains and make them a clash field of alternative or opposite meanings. That is why the active phase of the struggle of two or more symbolic universes for cultural hegemony are immediately indicated in these domains and they are illustrated in them. Then, in the process of fight between symbolic universes more fundamental domains are attracted – politics, religion, economics, value and so on. Such involvement is inevitable, because the allocated domains are in dialectical unity and, therefore, the changes in the top level are necessary and lead to changes at the bottom.

102-112

Authors: Gorditsa K. A.

The article is devoted to the urgent problem of improving the efficiency of country’s export policy in terms of foreign trade restrictions. Author generalized the historical experience of domestic public policy stimulating exports in the late 19th – early 20th century; searched for opportunities in using the positive achievements of this experience to improve the current export policy of Ukraine. The author considers the main measures of national economic policy to stimulate exports that were made by governments led I.Vyshnehradsky, S.Vitte and P.Stolypin. Main attention is paid to analysis of the implementation mechanisms, effectiveness and socio-economic effects of fiscal, customs, tariff and organizational measures of trade policy aimed at increasing exports of agricultural products. The reasons of backwardness of the domestic economy from the leading economies in the case of increasing volumes and revenues from agricultural exports are analyzed and examples of promising export promotion in developed countries are found. The author concludes the inexpediency of forcing agricultural exports by increasing the taxes for small producers and proclaims the danger of administrative-and-premium methods to stimulate certain types of exports because of high risk of unwarranted social and economic costs and the growing structural imbalances in the economy. Article demonstrates the effectiveness of government’s organizational support to business to increase exports by the technical and technological providing of production, developing of market infrastructure objects and improving the institutional environment of entrepreneurship.

130-137

Authors: Kyryzyuk S. V.

Due to economic development global features in last decades, the share of agriculture in national employment has declined. Responding to this trend, the importance of wider socio-economic development in rural areas is recently stressed out within the implemented EU-oriented policy of rural development in Ukraine, mainly by the support of diversified rural economy. This study aims at the investigation of general framework and cross-country comparison of European and Ukrainian mechanisms for the development of non-agricultural activities in rural areas. At the EU level, we analyze organizational and financial features of special measures (M19 “LEADER” and M06 “Entrepreneurship development”), developed and implemented by the national Rural Development Programmes under the programming period of 2014-2020 for chosen rural areas in Poland and England. Our study describes specific settings of the analyzed measures, including key ones: small-scale beneficiary orientation; geographic related measure; projects co-financed by European fund (EAFRD), local budget and private sources; local leader involvement for project management etc. In general, the Ukrainian practice of rural small-scale entrepreneurship development is similar to the European corresponding measures. The study results indicate the higher efficiency of the implemented measure in Ukraine despite the low level of financial support (including both supporting costs: project management and entrepreneurs’ investment). The study suggests recommendations for the improvement of the Ukrainian practice under the limited budget opportunities with concentration on training and assistance activities for the potential development of rural society.

146-155

Authors: Nebrat V. V.

The subject of the article is the theoretical basis of the national economy institutional modernization. Paper considers the essence of fiscal decentralization. Author discusses the fiscal federalism theory and practice; determines basic principles of inter-budgetary relations: fiscal equivalence, fiscal solidarity and subsidiarity; generalizes the provision of public goods theory concerning principles and criteria for the optimal allocation of powers of central and local authorities. Paper suggests cited pros and cons arguments for fiscal decentralization. Author describes economic criteria for the distribution of power and resources between the levels of government and public goods; detects features of financing the public sector at the local level; characterized institutional asymmetry phenomenon in the area of public goods production and consumption. Paper raises the problem of interest groups conflict; reveals the role of local communities in the use of local finance for the public goods production; shows trends and opportunities to optimize the financing of the public sector at the local level. Author indicates relationship of economic democratization, development of civil society institutions and strengthening of the state’s responsibility as well as talks about implementation of social welfare and sustainable development as the defining matter of the priority of public finance and public administration reforming.