Level Of Public Consciousness Research Articles

Антикорупційний аудит: визначення, інваріантність підходів та форсайт розвитку

The aim of the article is to define the concept of anti-corruption audit, taking into account the invariance of the approaches of different scholars, and to present a forecast for its further development. Ukraine is confidently moving in the European integration direction, so the issue of economic security of our country is crucial, and it is the anti-corruption audit that contributes to the identification, prevention and elimination of corruption risks and practices, verification of compliance with the requirements of national and international legislation in the field of prevention of corruption, and the formation of a culture of rejection of corruption. The article substantiates the need to introduce a single, generally accepted definition of this concept and the introduction of anti-corruption audit in all areas of business and at all levels in government agencies, which will create obstacles to bribery and fraudulent actions of business or government representatives and will help significantly reduce the level of corruption in our country. Thus, it will contribute to the improvement of the investment climate, increase the confidence of foreign investors and the level of economic security of the country. The necessity of introducing additional opportunities to combat corruption, a system of control measures to counter corruption, and the implementation of audit procedures to assess the corruption risks of business processes is also substantiated. The authors emphasize that, despite the fairly wide application of this concept in the business environment and in the public sector, there is no single definition of the concept of «anti-corruption audit», as well as an understanding of the peculiarities of the methodology of its implementation. As a result of the study, an analysis of the existing definitions, their comparison and generalization has been carried out, and the introduction of an improved unified definition of the concept of «anti-corruption audit» has been proposed. It is proved that a systematic increase in the level of public consciousness, ensuring transparency and simplification of business procedures, increasing the efficiency of economic mechanisms of State supervision, control over entrepreneurial activity and the introduction of mandatory anti-corruption audit of companies will allow the country to significantly reduce corruption and minimize the shadow economy in our country.

The capacity of blogosphere in the framework of constructing the image of the future among youth

Introduction. The study of the role of the blogosphere in shaping the values and meanings of young people is a relevant and little-studied aspect of virtual network communications. The blogosphere today has become an integral part of digital culture and mass media. It has penetrated into all spheres of human life and has become a sought-after resource for young people. Today, blog platforms are not only a serious tool for presenting individual and collective self-consciousness, but also a means of re/forming ideas, attitudes, value orientations both at the level of an individual and at the level of public consciousness. The aim of the article is to study the capacity of the blogosphere and its role in the socio-cultural and value-semantic space of young people, which influence the formation of the image of the future (individual, collective). Materials and methods. Russian and international publications in periodical peer-reviewed journals served as materials. Research method: theoretical analysis of modern approaches to the study of the blogosphere in various social sciences. Research results. It is shown that opinion leaders demonstrate negative forms of self-expression and selfpresentation in the network and construct a complex destructive and controversial image of the future. The blogger's audience: 1) actively observes different models of the image of the future; 2) evaluates the presented models; 3) correlates personal images of the future with the images of the opinion leader and other participants; 4) the majority of the audience accepts or demonstrates acceptance of the presented model. The research outcomes indicate that young people who prefer to receive various kinds of information from bloggers (not the media) trust the content of the information more and are more motivated to take specific actions after viewing the content. Discussion and conclusion. An analysis of modern research has shown that the blogosphere has a huge educational potential, but from the point of view of psychology, it remains a complex and little-studied area. The importance of further research is due to: 1) the transformation of mass consciousness, the intensification of crisis manifestations of consciousness against the backdrop of serious changes on a global scale and in all spheres of human life; 2) an increase in destructive content on the Internet and an increase in negative social activity, which is demonstrated by opinion leaders in the digital environment; 3) the need to create tools that contribute to the formation of competencies among young people, allowing them to resist the influence of negative content on the Internet (including opinion leaders) and their introduction into various educational systems. Keywords: blogosphere, opinion leader, youth, image of the future, Internet

SOCIETY-GOVERNMENT INTERACTION AS A STRATEGIC DIRECTION FOR THE FORMATION OF EFFECTIVE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IN UKRAINE

Ukraine is currently in a state of radical changes. Changes are taking place both at the level of public consciousness and in the reforming of public administration institutions. And it is very important that these two movements complement and not go against each other. The formation of communicative interaction of the main institutions of social organization, namely, government bodies and institutions of civil society, is an important prerequisite for the democratization of public life and the system of public administration. The directions of strengthening the public-authority influence on the democratization of the public administration system of Ukraine are defined and substantiated. The course of social and political life proves the need not only to co-opt individual activists to government bodies, but also to develop mechanisms for regular public-authority communication, and ultimately, to implement the principles of real peopleʼs rule filled with practical content. The basis of the development of functional social-authority interaction should first of all be the principles of self-organization, self-regulation, proportionality, and mutual integration. The most influential aspect is the proportional relationship in the context of centralization and decentralization of power between state and civil organizations, the center and regions. Thus, in the end, a certain self-regulatory system should be formed as a result of the consensual integration of the interaction of the state and civil spheres. The basis of such a self-regulatory system is feedback between state and civil elements, thereby ensuring the ability for sustainable development of society as a whole.

Functions of state-building ideology in a socially turbulent society

Socio-turbulent trends in the global dimension lead to the loss of axiological foundations and guidelines for the development of humanity as a whole and individual social and state entities. The issue of disorientation of modern state-building is relevant even for developed democracies, not to mention such weak state constructs as Ukraine. There is a demand for ideological foundations of state-building and public administration. The purpose of article is to actualize the issue of the functionality of ideology as a structural phenomenon of state building in new socio-turbulent conditions and circumstances. The state ideology performs a number of important functions in the life of the country and society, namely: integrative, axiological, system-forming, spiritual, reproduction of national identity and more. Ideologies play the role of a consolidating factor in social relations, create a value and spiritual world in the state at the level of public consciousness. The negative role of ideologies is manifested in political involvement, the desire of its bearers to offer (impose) to society a one-dimensional picture of the world, which may conflict with the scientific picture of the world. Despite the negative manifestations of some political ideologies, state ideology is important as the basis of the country's development and the strategy of its progress: it allows to overcome the value vacuum in society, to consolidate the nation to build an independent state, promotes the development of national identity.

The State as an Indicator of Human Development (With Reference to Neuroscience)

The paper is transdisciplinary in nature: it is written at the junction of the theory of the state and neurobiology. The purpose of the paper is to establish a correlation between the evolution of human consciousness and changes in statehood. According to the type of neurobiological processes, people are divided into 4 categories: visual, auditory, kinesthetic and digital. If we group these psychotypes, then the neurobiological characteristic of society will appear as a changing constant of two types of thinking: irrational and rational. The global trend in their ratio is as follows: there is a gradual increase in rational thinking. However, the pace of development of countries varies, and to measure the level of development, the UN uses the Human Development Index (HDI), based on economic and social indicators. The author suggests supplementing the HDI with a political component: a characteristic of statehood, since ignoring this gives an incomplete picture of human development. The main parameters of the state are its type and essence. According to the type of state, they are divided into agrarian, industrial and informational. It is concluded that if in an agrarian state the proportion of people with rational thinking is extremely small, then in an industrial state their number increases, but not enough to make the government controlled by society. In an information state, the government becomes controlled by the people precisely because of the presence of a critical mass of sane people. The essence of the state — its volitional component — has a dual nature: it expresses the interests of society and the ruling elite. This balance again depends ultimately on the level of public consciousness. The pattern here is as follows: at the early stages of the development of society, the state mainly expresses the interests of the ruling elite. Then the share of general social interests gradually increases. At later stages of the development of the state, general social interests begin to dominate in law. Ultimately, the state turns into a «servant» of society, and civil servants, including senior officials, become managers of public administration.

Modern Russian Society’s Social Health in the Dynamics of Demographic and Criminal Statistics

The article is devoted to the analysis of social health trends reflected in the dynamics of individual causes and classes of causes of population morbidity and mortality, as well as in the dynamics of certain types of offenses. The work reviews the period of market transformations and includes data on Russia, federal districts and subjects of the Russian Federation. The study is based on information from Russian and foreign statistical sources (the Federal State Statistics Service, the database of the World Bank and the World Health Organization). The author looks at social health as an indicator of society’s adaptation to the changing social reality. We emphasize the fact that when analyzing social health it needs to be taken into account that subjective personality traits currently play a greater role than before, which is important when selecting empirical indicators. Despite the steady decline in the dynamics of most social health indicators over the previous years, Russia has still remained one of the world’s leaders when it comes to the spread of a number of social pathologies, including population mortality from homicides and suicides. At the same time the aforementioned problem continues to bear a high degree of latency: according to various estimates, the actual scale on which social illness manifests exceeds by many times whatever is indicated in the official statistical information. The paper concludes that, as the complex negative consequences of the “chaotic 90’s” wane, the problem of social health does not disappear, but instead manifests in different forms. It demands to be studied more closely at the level of public consciousness, social perception and behavior.

Историко-педагогические основы патриотического воспитания сотрудников органов внутренних дел в России

Based on the analysis of scientific literature, the article defines the historical and pedagogical foundations of patriotic education of employees of the internal affairs bodies, characteristic of different periods of the formation of the Russian state. Various approaches to understanding the essence of patriotic education, its goals, objectives and content are presented. The author's interpretation of the genesis of patriotic education of employees of internal affairs bodies is proposed, characterizing qualitative changes in the patriotic-oriented educational process. Such pedagogical approaches, methods, pedagogical conditions have been identified, which, on the one hand, most correspond to modern ideas about the self-realization of the subject in the educational process, on the other hand, ensure the effectiveness of patriotic education of employees of internal affairs bodies. Analyzing various approaches to understanding the essence of patriotic education, two levels of its interpretation are identified: personal and social (the level of public consciousness). At the personal level, patriotism is considered as a stable and integrative human trait that combines three components: the result of free self-determination of the individual; the orientation of attitudes, behavior of the subject, his activities and worldview; a socio-moral imperative expressed through connections with other personal qualities formed by other types of education. In the course of the historical and pedagogical analysis, productive ideas have been identified that should be taken into account in the construction of modern concepts of patriotic education of employees of internal affairs bodies.

Mauritania: the Evolution of Political Structures

The Islamic Republic of Mauritania as an independent State emerged as a result of the collapse of colonial French West Africa, which included Mauritania. Its independence was declared on November 28, 1960. At the turning point of historical epochs, under the influence of national liberation movements on the continent and the general democratization of world government institutions, wide opportunities opened up for political activity, both for individual parties and movements, and for a particular individual. The pressure of foreign monopolies, the archaic social structure, internal political instability and the complexity of relations with neighboring countries have become serious obstacles to the development of Mauritania. During the years of independence, Mauritania has repeatedly experienced coups d’etat, which could not but have a negative impact on the entire socio-political spectrum of this West African country. Decades of French colonial influence has been reflected in the formation of political institutions in Mauritania, such as the Constitutional Council and the judiciary. Mauritania’s domestic policy has been based on racial and ethnic lines for many years. The protracted confrontation resulted in a conflict between the black population mainly in the south of the country and the traditionally Berber Arabs living in the northern regions, whose representatives held leading state posts. Each new head of state who came to power in post-colonial Mauritania, among the main tasks of domestic development, set the task of uniting various ethnic groups. Despite the obvious difficulties in solving this issue, the main tasks of the country’s leadership in the field of domestic policy are strict compliance with the current legislation in order to restore public confidence in state institutions and psychological restructuring of the consciousness of the vast majority of the population, aimed at developing a new attitude to domestic political life. In the 1980s, the country began a movement for the right of women to participate in the socio-economic sphere. But only in the 21st century did they gain the right to hold political office, although they are still required to live under Sharia law. At the level of public consciousness, the participation of women in politics and in other spheres of public activity is not approved. Traditional slavery is a special problem of socio-political development.

Правореалізація та правовідносини: лінії взаємозв’язку

The article addresses to analyze of the theoretical and legal issues of legal norms implementation. The implementation of regulations contained in laws and other regulations means the implementation in public relations, the behavior of citizens, the will of the legislator and other interrelation subjects. In science, there is an opinion that the concept of action of law is along with the concept of realization of law. Law implementation of the concept is multifaceted. Its condition is influenced by the norms quality, the mechanism of their action, material security, level of public consciousness, professional training of those persons who carry out law enforcement activities. The legal norms implementation is a consistent concretization and translation of objective possibilities through their subjective awareness and expression of will in the real behavior of the subjects. The consequence of the legal norms implementation is legal behavior. Legal behavior may be lawful or unlawful. Analysis of the scientists` views shows that the concept of legal behavior is different. Specialists in the field of theoretical and legal science nowadays distinguish such forms of implementation of legal norms as compliance, implementation, use and application. Each specific form depends on the nature of the subjects` actions. The first three forms are called forms of direct realization of the law, since they are implemented by the direct actions of the subjects of certain legal relations. But where these forms are insufficient to ensure a certain implementation of legal norms, the necessary intervention in the process of the authorities, there is a special form of application. Appropriate legal relations are required for the legal norms implementation. Considering the legal relations signs, it should be noted that the approaches of each of the scientists to this issue are different. Implementation is manifested through the content of legal relations, which primarily includes subjects who must have legal personality, to have the ability to be the bearer of rights and responsibilities, exercise them and be responsible for behavior that is contrary to the legal norms. Considering the above mentioned we can draw the following conclusions, in particular: legal behavior is the basis for the emergence of legal relations and the realization of subjective rights of citizens, it is covered by the possibility and validity of legal regulation; law implementation is a legal mechanism that includes the behavior itself, its implementation in appropriate legal forms and in legal relations; law implementation can be carried out both within specific and general legal relations; legal relations have their own structure and requires a certain type of legal behavior. Key words: law implementation, norms of law, legal behavior, forms of implementation, legal relations, structure of legal relations, legal facts.

Philosophical and Legal Interpretations of the Deformations of Legal Awareness in the XX - Early XXI Century

It has been stressed that the topic of philosophical and legal interpretations of the deformations of legal awareness in the XX – early XXI century is actively developed by scholars of the countries of the post-Soviet space. Emphasis has been placed on the development of the doctrine on legal nihilism that has been developed in Western European philosophical and legal thought, as well as on the problem of totalitarian legal awareness that has emerged in Soviet society.
 It has been revealed that the foundation of the concept of the deformations of legal awareness in Ukrainian philosophical and legal science was laid by the great household names of the past – P. I. Novgorodtsev, I. A. Il`in, M. M. Alekseev, L. I. Petrazhitskii, B. I. Kistiakivskyi and others. There is not so much in the world scientific thought about the deformations of legal awareness, where the concept of legal nihilism is the exception. The foundations of the doctrine of nihilism were laid by such outstanding thinkers as F. Nietzsche, A. Schopenhauer, M. Heidegger, F. H. Jacobi. Therefore, nowadays the doctrine of legal nihilism is the most developed in relation to the types of the deformations of legal awareness.
 It has been determined that the “golden age” of this extremely negative social phenomenon occurred at the beginning of the XX century, after the formation of the USSR. Totalitarian propaganda machines, the Soviet Union in particular, tried to transform society into a governed crowd, brainwashed by a certain ideology that led to a degeneration of legal awareness into a totalitarian consciousness and, as a consequence, to the widespread deformation of legal awareness. However, the deformations of legal awareness were not discussed at theoretical level, because they were considered a vestige of bourgeois times.
 Discussion about the deformation of legal awareness was initiated by the prominent Soviet legal scholar E. A. Lukasheva in her work “Socialist Legal Awareness and Legality”, where she characterized that the legal awareness of a particular individual can be defective, limited, and backward from the general level of public consciousness, can contain harmful installations and defective assessments of legal phenomena.

ON THE THRESHOLD OF TECHNOLOGICAL SINGULARITY: HUMAN READINESS TO THE NEW STAGE OF EVOLUTION

Purpose. The study is aimed at a philosophical analysis of the state of humanity’s readiness for technological singularity, the definition of the concept of postbiology and the investigation of ways to bring the population (in particular, the Ukrainian one) to a new, qualitatively higher level of existence. Theoretical basis. The author analyzes the level of public consciousness and the features of its cooperation with technological world. Due to the inability of most modern people to cope with changes effectively, the author questions humanity’s readiness for the postbiological stage of evolution of our species. Based on the analysis of the ideas of authoritative futurists of our time, the author explores the prospects of Ukrainian society in the postbiological future. Originality. The author not only analyzes the challenges that humanity faces during its transition to a new type of civilization, but also explores the obstacles that hinder this process directly in the Ukrainian society. The author proves that the ideas of transhumanism and going beyond the human biology should not be postulated without a moral context. In addition, the scientific study proposes a number of projects designed to improve the educational institutions that are responsible for the intellectual and spiritual development of the individual. Conclusions. Postbiology can become both, a new qualitatively higher stage of the human species evolution and the collapse of humaneness. Along with overcoming human biology, there will be the destruction of moral guidelines, social and legal systems. In order to prevent total chaos and catastrophe, technological development must be complemented by appropriate developments of new norms that can balance society.

FINANCIAL SECURITY OF TERRITORIAL COMMUNITIES IN UKRAINE: CONTENT, COMPONENTS, THREATS

Introduction. The process of fiscal decentralization contributes to the transformation of territorial communities and local authorities into full-fledged members of the system of financial inter-connections. Territorial communities have individual financial interests. The need to protect them is at the heart of creating a safe environment for the functioning of territorial communities. However, financial security of territorial communities as separate economic units is not given enough attention to Ukraine. Instead, a more general notion is explored which isfinancial security of the regions. Purpose– theoretical substantiation of author's view on the content and structural components of the financial security of territorial communities, its place in the system of financial security of territories and the state as well as systematization of main threats to the financial security of communities in the context of implementing the budget decentralization policy. Results. The definition of financial security of territorial communities is substantiated. It is based on the protection of the financial interests of territorial communities. The features of financial interests of territorial communities are derived. Components of financial security of territorial communities are characterized. These include budget, tax, debt and investment security. The main threats to the financial security of territorial communities are analyzed and systematized. They are a result of imperfect institutional environment for local self-governments and the integration of territorial communities as subjects of a single (national) economic system. Furthermore, the threats are connected to the peculiarities of the territorial economy, communal infrastructure, the level of public consciousness and financial responsibility of heads of local self-overnment bodies. Conclusions.The financial security of territorial communities should be investigated as a part of the financial security of regions. Achieving a desirable state in practice requires synergy with the financial security of households and business entities located on the territory concerned. It is also necessary to seek coordination of financial interests of various territorial ommunities and the state as a whole.Local governments and central authorities are responsible for creating a safe financial environment for the functioning of territorial communities during budget decentralization. It is necessary to improve the mechanism of inter-territorial redistribution of financial resources.The list of potential threats to the financial security of territorial communities should be identified in the process of strategic development of territories and the use the SWOT-analysis for this purpose.

On violation and protection of the information ecosystem in national encyclopedias (review of the report on national online encyclopedias in Europe by the European Parliamentary Research Service)

The research is devoted to issues of the ecosystem of encyclopedic knowledge. The fact is that a reference information is now increasingly used as means of media manipulation in level of public consciousness (for political, ideological, and economic reasons). This is well traced on the example of online encyclopedias with free access to editing of posted information such as Wikipedia. This article is based on the description of the online analytical report on encyclopedias in Europe written by experts of the European Parliament.

SOCIAL AND COGNITIVE INTARACTION OF MYTH AND SCIENSE AS THE ACTUALIZATIONG OF THE REMYTHOLOGIZATION

In this article there are described and analyzed the mechanisms of myth and science interaction. They are taken as the languages, as the forms of social activity and the forms of knowledge. Their interaction takes place in the modern society under the influence of the mass extending processes of a remifologization generated. Purpose. To analyze the social and cultural bases of spontaneous and the organized interaction of the myth and the science at the level of public consciousness. Methodology. The research of the social reality, the myth and science as its parts busing the phenomenological method. Results. The interaction of the myth and the science is the natural process and it has some deep cognitive roots. Their interaction happens in social reality and there are mainly the negative consequences of it as for the science as for the society. The research of different aspects of the remythologization (including the remythologization in the science sphere) shows that these processes are perspective for the further analysis. The research of the cognitive bases of the myth and science interaction allows to explain the social role of this process and to open mechanisms of its existing in various spheres of culture. Practical implications. The conclusions can be used for the further analysis of problems of the myth and science sociology and the possibility of their interaction with the other forms of culture and the other spheres of social life. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.12731/2218-7405-2013-10-4

Marital Violence and the Criminal Process: Neither Justice nor Peace

Except when it occasionally results in a murder sufficiently bizarre to engender a front-page headline, marital violence has remained below the level of public consciousness. The iceberg quality of this problem is certainly related to the fact that middleand upper-class spouses tend to vent their aggressive impulses on one another through a buffer zone of separation agreements, eviction proceedings, divorce, custody battles over children, alimony payments, or any of a number of legal but expensive means of expressing the inability of two people to solve their differences within the same household. Violent public displays of marital discord occur with a frequency that should make the problem a major source of national concern and the object of carefully considered policies aimed at prevention, but they involve almost exclusively the very poor, and, niost acutely, the urban poor. The discrimination, poverty, and violence that illuminate the failures of our social policies find as significant and upsetting an expression in the steady stream of calls to police headquarters reporting acts of marital violence as in the more spectacular but ultimately less costly and more sporadic incidents of mass uprising. Social-policy makers and those in the helping professions have managed to avoid recognition of the need for intelligent social policies and services designed to cope constructively with the problems of marital discord. They merely dismiss the eruption of marital violence as criminal and do not notice that its causes and nature