Ukraine is a sovereign state. It has its own territory, supreme and local governing bodies, government, coat of arms, flag and anthem. The state system of Ukraine has a branched structure with the separation of functions of various branches of government and meets international legal democratic standards.
Gaining sovereignty
In July 1990, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (Ukrainian Parliament) adopted the “Declaration of State Sovereignty”. This document opened a new page in the history of the country, which leads to the construction of a democratic state based on the rule of law.
According to the Declaration, the interests of society are authorized to express the Verkhovna Rada. No parties, organizations or individuals (with the exception of the president, and then on a number of issues) had the right to do this. The document consolidates the power of the Constitution on the territory of the state, denotes the interaction of branches of power, approves the borders of the state (Ukraine currently borders seven countries), civil rights and other issues.
From a parliamentary republic to a presidential
The path that Ukraine has taken from the adoption of the Declaration to the adoption of the State Constitution is slow and difficult. This is easily explained by the great transformations in political and economic life.
In July 1996, the structure of state power changed. The Verkhovna Rada approved the new Constitution of Ukraine. According to her, Ukraine is now a parliamentary republic with a presidential administration. The president is elected every five years. He is the head of state, while he cannot fulfill duties for more than two terms.
Presidents:
- Kravchuk Leonid Makarovich (12/05/1991 - 07/19/1994).
- Kuchma Leonid Danilovich (07/19/1994 - 01/23/2005).
- Yushchenko Victor Andreevich (01/23/2005 - 02/25/2010).
- Yanukovych Viktor Fedorovich (02.25.2010 - 02.22.2014).
- Poroshenko Petr Alekseevich (from 7.06.2014).
Governing bodies
The types of government in Ukraine comply with generally accepted democratic standards. The entire aggregate of power is divided into three equivalent branches:
- legislative;
- executive;
- judicial.
The Verkhovna Rada is the highest Ukrainian legislative body. It is a unicameral parliament, where the speaker presides. The functions of the Verkhovna Rada are lawmaking and close monitoring of the government. Parliamentary elections are held every 4 years. They are carried out by secret ballot. All citizens over the age of 18 have the right to vote.
Executive structures headed by the president are represented by the government under the leadership of the prime minister and regional authorities. The executive bodies include ministries, law enforcement agencies, the army and other services.
The Constitution of Ukraine is the main law of the country. It guarantees certain rights and freedoms of Ukrainian citizens and determines their responsibilities. The judiciary is vested with independent decision-making powers. In practice, in countries with a transitional period, it can be difficult to completely distance oneself from the executive and legislative branches. The dominant body is the Constitutional Court.
Forms of government
The following types of government exist in the world:
- unitary (simple);
- with a complex form of device (federation, confederation).
Unitary - states with a territory divided into administrative equal rights units (oblasts, provinces, districts, etc.) subordinate to the center.
A federation is a complex union state containing administrative entities (republics, autonomous regions, states, lands, etc.) that legally have a certain independence.
The grounds for the formation of a federal state and the consolidation of federal relations may be the Constitution and (or) federal agreement. On the basis of direct agreements, for example, federations of Australia, Switzerland, the USA, the USSR, Malaysia, Russia and other states arose. They are usually called contractual, in contrast to non-contractual ones, such as, for example, Canada, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, which arose on the basis of the granting of autonomy status to future subjects of the federation by central state bodies or metropolises.
A confederation is a temporary alliance: it either breaks up or turns into a federal state. For example, Switzerland now exists as a federal state, while retaining the name “confederation”. Confederations arose for various reasons and in different eras also in the USA, Germany, and the Netherlands.
In Ukraine, all types of state structures, the most optimal for effective administration, were considered (and are being considered). At the moment, a unitary system is operating.
Ukrainian parliamentarism
Individual fragments of the Ukrainian parliament throughout its history were the folk echelons of Kievan Rus, the Sejm of the Polish-Lithuanian state, the Cossack races of the times of the Hetman, later the highest legislative bodies of the Austro-Hungarian, then Russian empires, the Ukrainian SSR as part of the Soviet Union.
The creation of Ukraine as a state is impossible without the formation of a legitimate government-delegated governing body, which the parliament acts in most countries. The consequence of the beginning of the practice of parliamentarism in recent history was the creation and activity during March 1917 - April 1918 of the Ukrainian Central Rada - a kind of national proto-parliament, which went the evolutionary path from a socio-political association to the "representative" body of the Ukrainian people.
The appearance of the Rada and its activities became a logical step in the consolidation of the Ukrainian people on the path to national-state independence in the twentieth century. It is this historical tradition of the Ukrainian Central Rada that the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine continues in modern conditions.
Along with parliament, the interests of the majority are represented by the president of Ukraine.
Ministries
The administrative system of Ukraine in the administrative plan has a clear structure. At the head of the administration is an elected president, authorized by a majority of voters to rule the country.
Below are the ministries that oversee the most important areas of all areas of society: economy, defense, healthcare, culture, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, regional development, agricultural policy, ecology, energy, foreign affairs, information, youth and sports, infrastructure, education and science, justice, finance, social policy, the Cabinet of Ministers.
The structure of the ministry is approved by the minister, and of individual central bodies by their leaders. The composition of the executive central bodies is approved by agreement with the Prime Minister of Ukraine, the First Vice Prime Minister, Vice Prime Ministers in accordance with the distribution of their functional powers.
The Prime Minister becomes the head of the government, the candidacy of which is proposed by the president, but is finally approved by the deputies of the Rada. Unlike a number of countries (Germany, Japan, Great Britain, Italy and others), the Prime Minister of Ukraine does not have the entirety of decision-making. He reports to the president.
List of Prime Ministers and Acting:
- Vitold Fokin (1990-1992);
- Valentin Simonenko (1992);
- Leonid Kuchma (1992-1993);
- Yefim Zvyagilsky (1993-1994);
- Vitaly Masol (1994-1995);
- Eugene Marchuk (1995-1996);
- Pavel Lazarenko (1996-1997);
- Vasily Durdinets (1997);
- Valery Pustovoitenko (1997-1999);
- Victor Yushchenko (1999-2001);
- Anatoly Kinakh (2001-2002);
- Viktor Yanukovych (2004-2005, 2006-2007);
- Mykola Azarov (2005, 2010-2014);
- Yulia Tymoshenko (2005, 2007-2010);
- Yuri Yekhanurov (2005-2006);
- Sergey Arbuzov (2014);
- Arseniy Yatsenyuk (since 2014).
Administrative division
Features of the state system of Ukraine are reflected in its administrative division. It is natural for a young country to “grope” the most optimal form of interaction between the population of different regions. The situation around Crimea and the Donbass only confirms that it takes time, and possibly certain reforms, to build a monolithic administrative system that takes into account the interests of all sectors of society.
The republic is divided into oblasts whose borders have hardly changed since the times of the USSR — there are 24 in all. Oblasts, in turn, are subdivided into 490 districts. 176 large cities have a special status - regional (republican) subordination and, as districts, are territorial objects of the second level. At the third step - closest to the people - there are local councils: city, village and rural. Kiev is the capital region.
State characteristic
The state structure of Ukraine includes a constitutional form of government, an administrative-territorial structure and a political regime. The last paragraph is a system of means and methods of exercising state power, characterized by the level of guarantee of civil rights.
Article No. 1 of the Constitution positions Ukraine as a democratic state. The document establishes the principles of the expression of will, separation of powers, political, economic and ideological diversity, responsibility to the person and the like.
Democracy
The unitary state of Ukraine professes the principles of democracy, which is carried out directly through state bodies and local bodies with the powers of self-government. The Constitutional Court of March 26, 2002 stated that "local self-government should be considered as a form of exercise of power by the people."
A manifestation of direct democracy is elections, all-Ukrainian and local referenda, popular initiatives, public discussions and the like. In the case of the exercise of power by the people through the state, bodies of national representation are formed.
The state apparatus should distinguish between the bodies of primary and secondary representation of the people. State bodies of primary representation are formed by their elections, through which power is delegated to the state directly by the people. In the country they are the Verkhovna Rada (BP) and the President of Ukraine.
The state bodies that are formed by the Verkhovna Rada and the president are bodies of secondary, indirect representation. The advantage of direct democracy is the breadth of involvement of the population in solving public affairs. The advantages of the functioning of representative bodies is that they are permanent, functioning on a professional basis.
State sovereignty
The unitary state of Ukraine is sovereign and independent. Sovereignty is called the supremacy of state elective power within the country and actual independence from external forces (countries, movements, organizations, etc.).
Sovereignty is divided into internal and external. In modern conditions, the former is governed by constitutional norms, and the latter concerns the nature of relations between different countries, taking into account international law. Sovereignty is not a property of the whole state, but specifically of state power. She is above party, religious, financial — no one can dictate her will to her. Within a country, sovereignty is limited only by basic human rights.
The creation of Ukraine as a state was impossible without ensuring external sovereignty. It denotes the boundaries within which interstate integration processes typical of today's conditions should take place.
The sovereign sovereignty is the basis of state independence of Ukraine. It is the people, mainly through free elections, that legitimize state power. Since its source is the population, it must belong to the power. National sovereignty is exercised through an elected representative body and directly by local residents through elections, popular discussions, and referenda. So, in a democracy, state sovereignty actually coincides with popular sovereignty.
Law Enforcement
In order for the legal state of Ukraine to remain such, the government must guarantee compliance with legal norms at all levels: from the highest state bodies to every citizen. Legal order is the legal state of orderliness, organization, and regulation of public relations. In this capacity, he:
- acts as a powerful antipode of anarchy, chaos, disorganization, uncertainty and instability of relations between people;
- by legal means it restrains possible illegal manifestations on the part of the state, its bodies in relation to citizens, as well as one person relative to another.
With the weakening of power, the growth of protest moods in 2013-2014, the state system of Ukraine was in jeopardy. The rule of law is the legal model that determines the status of subjects of public relations, their nature, the relationship between individuals, legal entities, as well as methods, methods, procedures for resolving conflicts.
According to the territorial principle (scope of distribution) or by scale, the rule of law can be distinguished within:
- state (country) as a whole;
- intrastate entities (subjects of the federation, autonomous state entities);
- administrative-territorial units - cities, districts, regions, etc.
Depending on the impact of law, its structural parts on the process of forming the rule of law, we can distinguish a general, sectoral, special or institutional order. The common arises and functions as a result of the implementation of the entire system of law. In terms of volume, this class actually coincides with the rule of law on a territorial basis. Sectoral is compiled on the basis of the norms of a particular branch of law (constitutional, financial, civil procedure, etc.). Special (institutional) arises on the basis of the implementation of individual legal institutions.
Courts
The judiciary is the third system of government in Ukraine. It is implemented through special state bodies - courts. The country has a three-tier system, on top of which is the Constitutional Court. He is responsible for resolving global issues affecting the foundation of all power - the Constitution.
Practical issues (public, economic) are assigned to the general and arbitration courts, respectively. Thus, the form of government in Ukraine takes on a balanced structure balanced by the Rada (legislative body), the president (representative of the executive system) and the Constitutional Court (as the highest form of manifestation of the judicial system).
Ministry of Internal Affairs
Legal order is the actual legal state of orderliness, regulation, organization of public relations, a consequence of the actual implementation of the rule of law, their implementation. The concept of government is inseparable from the concept of “strong” legal power. To maintain and implement it, the Ministry of Internal Affairs was created in Ukraine.
Initially, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine was divided into specialized services:
- Public militia.
- The criminal police.
- GAI.
- State security service.
- Various special forces.
The reform
The reform of 2014 significantly changed the structure of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. First of all, instead of the police, the National Police approved the president’s order of 08/04/2015. It is planned to exclude transport, veterinary police and the GUBOP from the structure. Since 2016, the functions of the traffic police will be “transferred” to the created electronic system, designed to replace the “living” employees of the state traffic inspectorate. 09.16.2015 the territorial divisions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs were abolished. Reformation will end in 2017. Of course, the state-political structure will not change from this, but the transition period may affect the criminal situation.
It is planned that the finally new structure of the Ministry of Internal Affairs will take the following form:
- Criminal Police
- Special police.
- Police guard.
- Cyberpolice.
- Patrol police.
- Bodies of pre-trial investigation.
- Special Forces Police.
- Department of drug trafficking.
- Economic police.
Growth problems
There are various types of government. In Ukraine, a unitary form of interaction between administrative entities was chosen. The situation around Crimea and the Donbass, talk about giving the regions great powers, including federalization, poses questions for lawmakers, political scientists and society, for which there are no simple answers.
The process of creating a new democratic state is complicated. But in a short period a new system of government was created, the national Armed Forces, the security service, the police.