ПОЛІТИЧНА МЕНТАЛЬНІСТЬ УКРАЇНСТВА: ВІД ТРАДИЦІЇ ДО МОДЕРНУ

Abstract

The article deals with the basic features of the traditional political mentality of the Ukrainian people in the historical and contemporary context. The urgent need for modernization of the political and legal life of Ukraine predetermines the search for adequate scientific prescriptions for the solution of topical, dominant problems, among which the prominent place belongs to the political and legal mentality as an integrative scientific category, which acts as a defining indicator of social dynamics. The definition of the main characteristics and trends of the development of the contemporary political and legal mentality of the Ukrainian society will order to provide the necessary mental support to a complex of reforms that are being conducted in Ukraine. Among the factors that determine the negative perception of power by the Ukrainians at the macro level (i.e., political power), the long-term stays in the colonial position should be mentioned. Detecting its own inability to form a sovereign state, the Ukrainian community naturally turned out to be dependent on more cohesive and powerful neighbors. Unfortunately, it has to be noted that during all its history, the disassembled Ukrainian people were forced to submit to foreigners more than to build their own state. Therefore, for most generations of Ukrainians, state power was perceived as something foreign, inhumane. The state is often embodied with national and social coercion. From here, from generation to generation, a negative stereotype was portrayed in relation to public affairs in general. The negative guidelines of the political mentality of Ukrainian arising from the natural negation of colonial power are being established through a well-known psychological transition phenomenon when a conscious (or subconscious) protest against the authorities of the enslavers is transformed into a permanent alienation of Ukrainians from political power in general. Thus, a notable component of modern mentality is inherited from previous generations of a certain ethnic group and is transformed quite slowly, while reproducing the most common psychological guides, models and behavior patterns. This leads to the existence of a hybrid mentality of contemporary Ukrainians, in which modern elements are combined with traditional ones. The following mental attributes of Ukrainians are singled out: a complex of mistrust of power, a complex of inferiority (rudiments of colonial mentality), marginalization (the consequence of geopolitical interrelation), «messianism on the outside» (hope for help from the outside), orthodox introversiveness (immersion in the inner world), social dreams , escapism, existential individualism, hromototsentrizm, a special sense of humor (mechanisms of self-defense from life problems), etc. Key words: state creation, Ukraine, mentality, tradition, modern, modernization.