ABSTRACT
Aiming to analyse the peculiarities of the decentralization process in Ukraine, this article focuses on the quality of changes taking place within the local self-government system in the context of democratization. I attempt to answer whether the democratic values contained in the Ukrainian Constitution and separate laws, as well as the European Charter of Local Self-Government, are observed in practice by utilizing the system analysis method combined with elements of the synergetic paradigm. I find that the decentralization process is characterized as nonlinear, chaotic and contradictory. However, the ever increasingly frequent manifestations of local democracy occurring within the analysed system have a positive impact on the effects of its democratization. The analysis of the practical dimension of the functioning of the Ukrainian local self-government made it possible to distinguish the main conditions influencing the nature and results of the decentralization process.
Notes
1. This project would not have been possible without the financial support of the American Agency for International Development USAID, see: Iak oshukaty mistsevu hromadu. 50 + 1 sposib, Project „Spryiannia aktyvniĭ uchasti hromadian u protydiïkoruptsiï „HidnaUkraïna”, Kyïv 2008.