THE ROLE OF UKRAINE’S CIVILIZATIONAL IDENTITY IN THE INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF ITS EUROPEAN INTEGRATION

Abstract

The article examines the issue of institutionalization in Ukrainian society with special emphasis on the process of European integration and the role played by civilizational choice and civilizational identity in this matter. The research overviews the peculiarities of the institutionalization process of Ukraine as a post-Soviet country, the challenges it faces in the development of European integration and the general perception of Ukraine as a predictable international player. The author briefly reviews the process of institutionalization of European integration in Ukraine and shows that the European civilizational choice and the factor of Russian aggression play a decisive role in revitalizing this process, based on direct public demand for such institutionalization, which is now less dependent from the changes in political leadership. As an example of institutional changes caused by the civilizational choice of the Ukrainian people, there are changes in the practice of diplomacy, in particular regarding the use of civilizational rhetoric, as well as changes in the very functioning of the state system, which now combines the efforts of domestic and foreign policy departments for the development of Ukraine’s European integration. Ukrainian diplomats turned out to be the environment that was most sensitive to the public demand for a change in the civilizational direction of Ukraine’s development. The article also provides ideas for further development of this topic.