DECENTRALIZATION POLICY IN UKRAINE: STAGES OF FORMATION AND PROSPECTS

Abstract

Despite the martial law, the issues of local self-government reform remain on the political agenda, which determines the interest in the prospects of decentralization policy. The purpose of the study is to identify the stages of the formation of decentralization policy in Ukraine, their characteristics, as well as its forecast for the future. When conducting the study, the chronopolitical approach, the periodization method, the structural-functional approach, the comparative method were used. So as the neo-institutionalist approach, in particular such its directions as normative and historical institutionalism. Decentralization policy is defined as a set of state policy goals for reforming and increasing the efficiency of local self-government, regulatory, organizational and other mechanisms for its implementation, and the means implemented within its framework. The content of decentralization policy is determined by the local self-government model. A conclusion is made about the validity of the continental model that has developed in Ukraine. In the 1990s and 2000s, the legal foundations for the development of local self-government were formed, but the conceptualization of a holistic decentralization policy was absent during this period. The contradictions of the local self-government model were identified, in particular regarding its organizational principles, administrative and territorial structure, and the features of management at the local and regional levels, which in the future determined the content of the decentralization policy. The second half of the 2010s was identified as the first stage of its implementation. The features of its concept, approved after the Revolution of Dignity, the implementation mechanisms, and the problems that were not resolved before the start of the full-scale invasion were analyzed. The second stage of the decentralization policy was the period of martial law. It has been determined that during this period, the main mechanisms for the development of local self-government are or should be the continuation of the reform of the administrative-territorial system, the democratization of public administration, intermunicipal cooperation, digitalization, and European integration.