Ukrainian Society

23-39

Authors: Mishchenko M. D.

The article is devoted to the study of the middle class as social community and analyses the role of ideological discourse in shaping construct of middle class. It notes that different concepts of middle class carry out “social engineering” function to form social community “middle class”, just as working class turned from “class-in-itself” into “class for-itself” first of all under the influence of socialist ideologies (in this sense the author regards middle class as “objectifying ideologeme”). Social conception can be a class forming factor, if it is transformed into ideological conception and “drops down” on the level of “everyday ideology’ and social mythology. In the formation of construct of middle class (and its positive image) in the mass conscious such mythologemes about its characteristics and social functions played a role: mythologemes of “middleness”, “moderation”, “democracy”, “normativity”, “constructiveness “, and “progressivity”. The results of the research suggest that the characteristics of middle class, presented in the mass consciousness, are generally consistent with stereotypes, formed within liberal ideological conceptions, under which the representatives of middle class should be different from the representatives of low class by a higher level of social activity and by a higher level of internalization of democratic values. But these stereotypes are countered by the fact that in realities of Ukraine the representatives of “the core” of middle class are involved more often than the representatives of low class in corrupt practices. This confirms existence of “corruption subculture” in the Ukrainian society which covers also middle class. The author concludes that in the behavioural practices, and in the group consciousness of the representatives of middle class contradictory trends exist, which reflects the contradictions of the development of modern Ukrainian society. And each of these trends has a chance of being realized, that will determine in the near future social face of middle class and its role in the social changes in Ukraine.

62-72

Authors: Kalynyak (Ben) O. T.

The article dwells upon the search of military discourse in the representations of people about the contemporary non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which became more relevant in terms of civic society formation on the background of the determinative for the contemporary Ukrainian society military conflict. The public opinion research of 2017, conducted in Lviv (the city poll gave the possibility to see the regional character of aforementioned problem), demonstrated the presence of military discourse in representations of Lviv people about NGOs. According to study results this discourse has some specifics, which are described in the article. It is found that most vividly the importance of military context of contemporary NGOs’ interpretation reveals theoretically – such direction of NGOs functioning as the army help is considered by Lviv people as one of the most important ones (social help is the only one direction, which got higher score; all other areas, such as youth education, culture initiatives, politics etc. stayed behind). Theoretically Lviv people declare the necessity of military-oriented activity of NGOs, but the public opinion is not so unambiguous if it goes to more practical or personal meanings. First of all NGO is interpreted by the research respondents as club by interests, opportunity for self-realization or problem solving, place for ecclesiastical development or gathering of like-minded people. Only after those statements Lviv people mentioned that NGO could be the structure, which helps the army. If one speaks about his/her personal involvement to the NGOs activity, the military-oriented NGOs got the second-rate position (clubs by interests, sport, professional, cultural and educational organizations look more attractive for the respondents). Accordingly, the military discourse in the representations of Lviv people about the contemporary NGOs is defined as being manifested rather theoretically, so its manifestation at the level of practical or personal involvements is rather middling. The explanation of revealed contradiction of theoretical and practical dissonance of Lviv people representations about the military context of contemporary NGOs functioning goes to psychological, organizational and informational areas. It was assumed that overcoming such dissonance, could be possible thereafter due to deeper psychological changes, formation of effective social organizational structure and improvement of mutual informational space.

89-104

Authors: Dulska I. V.

The article investigates the current state of development of electronic (e-)governance in Ukraine in view of its ability to implement social engineering of society as a set of approaches to changing organizational structures and institutions that determine the behavior of citizens in order to more fully reveal the internal potential of the social system. The priority directions of e-governance expansion are singled out, which will create wider technical and organizational opportunities for forming the awareness of the complex of their rights and responsibilities in relations with the state and their realization. It has been established that in Ukraine, e-governance, e-participation has created significant benefits for society, state administration and business through a large number of the state e-services at the central and regional levels. The disadvantages of e-governance in Ukraine are the lack of its statistics, although international organizations assess its level as high, the level of public access to e-budget services – as limited, transparency of the process – as insufficient. The quality of e-services needs to be improved, since e-government interfaces are not unified, often inconvenient. The lack of transparency in spending budget funds reduces public confidence in state institutions, causes a significant amount of shadow economy. It was established that in Ukraine, all attempts of the state to conduct e-identification through ID-cards, banking and through mobile operators were not sufficiently effective due to the lack of state’s consistent approach in this regard. This is also hampered by the lack of development of digital infrastructure, payment and settlement systems, despite the fact that these elements are sufficiently developed, creates an appropriate legislative framework, harmonized with the requirements of the EU. The directions of deepening the partnership between the state and society on improving the quality of e-governance by solving the problem of e-identification for the wider coverage of the society by state e-services, introduction of indirect methods of controlling the incomes of citizens, increase of cashless settlements to reduce the size of the shadow economy.

125-136

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

Based on the results of national surveys, the dynamics of voters’ electoral orientations and the peculiarities of electoral preferences among the population groups were analyzed.