THE ROLE OF CIVIL SOCIETY IN DEVELOPING A MODERN SOCIAL STATE: CONSTITUTIONAL AND LEGAL PRINCIPLES

Abstract

The article is devoted to two problems of the modern Ukrainian constitutional doctrine: the establishment of the place of civil society and the development of the social state, while highlighting the place of civil society in the development of the social state. The author revealed these issues by taking into account scientific views on correlation between civil society and the state. The article examines the key institutions of civil society taking into account their general social orientation, and examines civil society’s features. The author emphasizes that civil society is social state’s attribute, while characterizing the social state as a constitutional principle. The author analyzed the views on this issue of the EU-members’ scientists, as well as other European states with an exemplary level of social security and general well-being of the population. The article highlights the roles that civil society can perform as a vector of social protection (part of the “welfare triangle”). The author revealed the place of charity as a phenomenon located at the intersection of both researched issues. The National Strategy for Promoting the Development of Civil Society in Ukraine for 2021–2026, approved by Decree of the President of Ukraine No. 487/2021 of September 7, 2021, is mentioned as a program document that initiates the development of this topic in the direction of neo-models of the welfare state, which are the subject of scientific discussions developed countries. The author claims that civil society and the welfare state are in a dialectical correlation and cannot exist without each other: only if there is a developed civil society, there is a need for a welfare state, and the welfare state can and should support the institutions of civil society (for example, to provide preferential taxation). Particular attention is focused on the need for further development of this topic, taking into account the need to reform the institution of the welfare state.