Social Capital of Ukrainian Society: Essence, Transformation, Consolidation Potential

Abstract

The study is devoted to the phenomenon of social capital of the Ukrainian society as a set of creative resources of society, relationships in which are built on the basis of moral and ethical regulatory principles. The analysis of the origin and functioning of the national social capital is carried out, the factors of its support and use, the significance for the consolidation of civil efforts to protect the national interests of Ukraine are determined. In traditional culture, relationships between people were based on the principles of trust, responsibility, obligation, respect, kindness and justice, collective care for others, devotion to the Fatherland. Foreign abuse imposed on Ukraine a foreign matrix of behavior, the canons of which were service to the government, deception, hatred of others and contempt for the weak, which significantly affected the completeness and content of the social capital of Ukrainians. Particular attention is paid to the categories of trust and betrayal: the first is an inspiring source of growth of social capital, the second – its destroyer and a means of increasing the resources of aggressors. Emphasis is placed on the functions of the main forms of social capital – connecting and unifying: in the first case we are talking about integrative connections within the group (community), in the second – intergroup positive interactions. Group social capital can negatively affect the general social system in the case of opposition of local norms and values to national regulations. In modern conditions, the combination of the heuristic potential of the archetypal customs of multicultural Ukrainian society with modern democratic mechanisms of social capital formation becomes a priority. The latter presupposes the acquisition of the normative status of the relationship of trust and responsibility between civil society and government, in various spheres of activity (production, finance, trade, etc.), etc. The sectoral indexation of Ukraine’s social capital shows the existence of problem areas related to the loss of social capital due to low levels of trust in various branches of government, corruption, ineffective economic reforms, imperfect judiciary system and collaboration.