Long and arduous way to decentralization: past, present and future of the reforms of local self-government in Ukraine

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.