The efficiency of tools for social interaction between public authorities and civil society

Abstract

The aim of the article is to assess the effectiveness of the current tools for interaction between public authorities and civil society in Ukraine. A distinctive feature of this study is the use of the content analysis to study the content of consultations of central government bodies with the public, discussions of draft laws, decrees, resolutions, orders, petitions of citizens, as well as recommendations of expert opinions and proposals of public councils and measures for their implementation. The analysis allowed identifying significant shortcomings in organizing work to establish cooperation between central government bodies and the public. These shortcomings involve the dominance of a purely statistical approach to analyzing the petitions of citizens, neglect of public consultations, disregard for the proposals of public expert committees, and a formal approach to the activities of public councils at the ministries. The decreasing effectiveness of interaction between public authorities and civil society in Ukraine is noted, which is caused by the bureaucratization of this process on the one hand, and by the lack of citizens’ skills to defend their position in the legitimate field of social and political relations, on the other hand.