УКРАЇНСЬКА НАЦІОНАЛЬНА ЕЛІТА ПОСТКОЛОНІАЛЬНОЇ ДОБИ: ГРОМАДЯНСЬКИЙ ВИМІР

Abstract

The article analyzes the Ukrainian national elite of the postcolonial era through the prism of citizenship. In recent years, the interest in elitist issues has been grown significantly. In modern socio-humanitarian field, the issues of the elites’ role in the modern world, the criteria for evaluating different elite’s activity, the measure of their citizenship, patriotism and professionalism are often discussed. Positive social transformations in many respects depend on the qualitative state of modern Ukrainian elites, on their socio-political maturity, on their willingness and ability to consolidate Ukrainian society, on the level of their responsibility for the fate of Ukraine. The author of the article follows to the concept of plurality of elites (based on the idea of distinguishing elite groups in the fields of their leading activities), which enables the allocation of political, ideological, publicadministrative, military, economic and engineering, scientific, spiritual, medical, educational (pedagogical), cultural-artistic, religious, informational, sporting, etc. In the post-colonial period, all these elite groups must become an integral elements of the Ukrainian national elite. In article the citizen is analyzed as a subject of qualitative social transformations in the post-colonial period, as well as civil practices of self-organization of society in the context of modern transformational processes in Ukraine by the article. The phenomenon of civic activity of an elitist person is analyzed in a theoretical, methodological and empirical perspective. The article deals with theoretical and methodological bases, structure and development peculiarities of the civil position of the personality. Civil society is seen as a cultural and historical type of society. The peculiarities of its formation and functioning in post-colonial Ukraine are analyzed. The author suggests his own periodization of the civil society development in Ukraine. So, the Ukrainian national elite would become the true subject of decolonization of Ukraine and positive social transformations only when all its representatives will begin to perform their core functions in a responsible way: culture-creating, state-building, nation-building, as well as consolidating, creative-transforming, forecasting, motivational, mobilizing, administrating, spiritual-ideological, identification, patriotic, humanistic, axiological, democratic, stabilizing, strategic, security, etc. The Ukrainian national elite must respond on time to the challenges posed by time (globalization, ecological, economic, technological, informational, etc.). The most important for modern Ukraine isn’t only the formation of an effective and responsible political elite that could consolidate other elite groups, directing their activities in a constructive way, but also ensuring its timely rotation, qualitative upgrading, de-oligarchy and overcoming its alienation from society. The national elite must carry out highquality legal, political, socio-economic, socio-cultural, technological, ecological and other transformations; to support the integrity and spiritual unity of society, the development of democracy and self-organization processes in Ukraine, the formation and approval of a civil-political and European civilization identity of Ukrainian citizens.