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DOI: https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2023.72.12.17
How to Cite:
Morozov, O., Аnanin, O., Vasylenko, V., & Golubchyk, G. (2023). Historical evolution of civil service in Ukraine. Amazonia
Investiga, 12(72), 192-204. https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2023.72.12.17
Historical evolution of civil service in Ukraine
Історична Еволюція Державної Служби в Україні
Received: November 5, 2023 Accepted: December 29, 2023
Written by:
Oleh Morozov1
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3484-3570
Oleh Аnanin2
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8757-1663
Vitalii Vasylenko3
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5639-4131
Ganna Golubchyk4
https://orcid.org/0009-0005-0267-7212
Abstract
The article investigated the processes of
establishment, continuous development, and
transformation of the civil service in Ukraine
from the period of the establishment of Kyivan
Rus to the present-day Ukrainian state. The
historiographical components of the formation
and institution of the civil service were
identified, and the objective principles and
significant differences in its developmental
periodization were characterized. The
methodological framework of this research was
based on the institutional and structural methods,
normative-legal description of events, the
method of communicative support of historical
consequences and facts, the functional and
structural methods, and the professional and
cultural substantiation of historical and state-
building results. It was demonstrated that the
progressive and complex development of the
civil service system accompanied the physical
development of the state. The research confirmed
that the civil service and governance system
received a significant impetus during the period
of convergence and subsequent integration with
the Russian Empire. The article proves that
significant changes in the civil service system
were introduced by the Austro-Hungarian
1
Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, Department of History and Theory of State and Law, Institute of Law and International
Legal Relations, University of Customs and Finance, Dnipro, Ukraine. WoS Researcher ID: ADX-3587-2022
2
PhD in Technical Sciences, Senior Research Fellow, Office of Reforms, State Border Service of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine.
3
Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, Department of History and Political Theory, Institute of Human and Social Sciences, Dnipro
University of Technology, Dnipro, Ukraine. WoS Researcher ID: D-2857-2019
4
PhD in Historical Sciences, Associate Professor, Department of History and Political Theory, Institute of Human and Social Sciences,
Dnipro University of Technology, Dnipro, Ukraine.
Morozov, O., Аnanin, O., Vasylenko, V., Golubchyk, G. / Volume 12 - Issue 72: 192-204 / December, 2023
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Empire. It is determined that the institutional
framework of the civil service appeared in
Ukraine between 1917 and 1921 due to the
activities of Hetman Petro Skoropadskyi. The
authors substantiated the pathways and
prospective consequences of modernizing and
developing the civil service of independent
Ukraine.
Keywords: civil service institution, civil service,
public administration, society, government
system, reforms, state authorities,
historiography, historiographic process.
Introduction
Throughout history, the civil service has not been
an authentic creation of self-organization within
Ukrainian society. Along with the governance
system, it was brought in for the convenient and
efficient management of Ukrainian lands. Since
the first territorial settlements and the XVI
century, Ukrainian lands have had unstable but
quite modern state structures and civil service
models. Then, first on the Left Bank, and at the
end of the XVIII century on the Right Bank of
Ukraine, the self-government of the Polish gentry
(shliakhta) was replaced by a cruel, centralized
system of Russian Empire governance. This
system brought to the Ukrainian lands both
positive features (legislative framework and legal
regulation of the civil service, high level of
organization, system consistency, and retirement
benefits) and negative ones (corruption and
bribery, dependence, and insecurity of civil
servants - "civil service slaves," unnecessary
paperwork, etc.) (Averianov, 2006).
The creation and functioning of an effective
system of state governance and organization of
the civil service have always been the key
elements of Ukraine's state development. Today,
significant attention is given to the civil service
reforms. It is primarily due to the phenomena and
processes in our society and state since gaining
independence in 1991. The main tasks that are
currently being formed for Ukrainian society and
the power system include:
– creating conditions for the further
development of the civil service as an
effective institution for the functioning of
executive power and local self-government
(Friedman, & Laurison, 2019);
– ensuring the rights and freedoms of citizens;
– providing quality public and civil services
(Halay, 2019).
These tasks determine the relevance of this
research.
The success of achieving the set goals for the
development of the civil service in Ukraine
largely depends on the level of systematization
and scientific preparation of civil servants at all
levels of governance, as well as the creation and
implementation of scientific and information-
tolerant approaches to the institution of the civil
service (Kristalina, 2022). Successful
performance of its functions requires the civil
service to continue becoming a leading
institution that realizes the great essence of
public administration, shapes the nation's well-
being, and ensures that public administration
provides society with high-quality state services.
Literature review
As the subject of comprehensive and historical
research, the civil service occupies a prominent
place in a state and legal research due to its
functional purpose. In the studies by Fuenzalida
and Riccucci (2019), and Gregory et al., (2020),
it is stated and argued that "the civil service
ensures the progressive participation of the most
capable managers, the best citizens of society, in
addressing the tasks that society faces in its
development and expressed in the functions of
the state" (Bason & Austin, 2022; Schuster,
2017). The works by Boyle, O'Leary, & O'Neill
(2022), Zulkarnain & Prasojo (2021) suggest that
the "institution of civil service coordination"
represents a combination of organizational
elements (a system of state bodies, procedural
elements (rules and procedures established by
law for recruitment, progression, and
termination), and personnel components (a body
of individuals assigned ranks of civil servants).
Several researchers (Kobzeva & Mykhailovska,
2018; Makedon et al., 2020) note that the
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formation and establishment of the civil service
institution, including within the judicial authority
system, have been greatly influenced by its
history, legal traditions and peculiarities of
Ukrainian public administration. An alternative
scientific opinion should also be highlighted. It
states that the features of the formation and
functioning of the civil service in different
countries are largely determined by the historical
and cultural specifics of the country's internal
development.
Prudyus (2016) outlines the components that
influenced the choice and formation of a
particular model of the civil service, such as:
1) "the specifics of the historical development
of these countries (the emergence and
normative-legal regulation of the
professional civil service institution);"
2) "the specifics of the legal system (Anglo-
Saxon (Anglo-American legal system) or
Romano-Germanic legal systems);"
3) "the specifics of the political system
(whether the state is federal or unitary,
totalitarian or democratic)."
According to professional opinion (White et al.,
2014), "some progressive experience of the
world countries shows that effective organization
of the civil service is the key to a successful
implementation of the state policy since the civil
service is a way to implement the functions of the
state welfare through a combination of personal,
group and public interests. The modern states
that have achieved high levels of economic
development and social welfare while respecting
democratic standards, guarantees, and human
rights could not have achieved these goals
without consistent and effective development of
professional civil service" (Hong & Kim, 2019).
Several studies (Persson, 2021; Yavorsky et al.,
2019) suggest that by attracting and using
positive foreign experience in the civil service, a
certain increase in the level of professionalism
and professional discipline and compliance with
traditions in public administration can be
achieved.
Reeve (2009) and Shevchenko & Starostiuk
(2017) are among the researchers who have
studied the organization of civil servants work in
the courts of developed countries.
Thus, a detailed analysis of the theoretical,
methodological, and descriptive components of
the formation and organizational support of the
civil service institution becomes the basis for
further research on the building and development
of the civil service institution in Ukraine.
Aims
This study aims to comprehensively and
systematically substantiate the historical, legal,
cultural, and organizational components that
have contributed to the formation and
development of the civil service institution in
Ukraine.
The research goal shapes the circumstances for
the scientific analysis of public administration
and civil service concepts. The practice of public
administration and civil service strongly
demands considering the historical roots in the
development of political, economic, social, and
other development programs of Ukrainian
society while addressing the current management
tasks. The generalized historiographical
experience becomes an invaluable source of
professional knowledge about the organization
and functioning of the civil service.
Methods
The following methods and practices will
address the specifics of this study:
1) The method of institutional structure
involves the set of public governance bodies
and positions in the staffing table of state and
municipal authorities. They are created on
the legislative basis of the country, the
administrative apparatus, and all defined
levels of government administration. The
institutional structure includes the
administrative machinery and civil service
that performs the functions of state and
municipal authorities. It also encompasses
state and municipal management
institutions: the Office of the President of
Ukraine, the apparatus and structure of the
Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, ministries, and
other executive bodies. At the regional level,
the institutional subsystem includes local
self-government bodies. The method of
institutional structure allows for determining
who directly holds the governing powers,
implements executive power, ensures the
implementation of official state decisions,
and provides control.
2) The normative-legal method is formed as a
set of administrative and constitutional law
norms based on which the institutional
subsystem is built and functions. The
activities of state institutions are more
regulated than the activities of private
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individuals. The normative-legal component
of the civil service consists of constitutional
and legislative norms, as well as
administrative-legal decisions of higher
management bodies - at the "input" level of
the system, and administrative-legal acts,
management decisions addressed to the
public (external) environment - at the
"output" level, the effect of the state-
administrative management system itself.
3) The method of communicative support. Its
defining feature is the predominance of
unequal, subject-object, and subordinate
relations in the communication and
interaction system of government
institutions and "officials." Alongside
official connections between management
subjects regulated by provisions, statutes,
regulations, and job instructions, there are
also horizontal unofficial (business and
informal) relations as balanced and
discretionary interactions. Established
communication within a government
institution ensures results and efficiency of
administrative activities as collective work
of officials in preparing and implementing
organizational and managerial decisions.
4) The functional-structural method is a
fundamental component in the organization
of the civil service institution. The state
institutions differ in their management
functions regarding the subject matter
(content), scope, and methods of influence.
It allows not only describing the types of
activities of state institutions but also
analyzing the distribution of functions
between management bodies vertically and
horizontally within the pyramid and within a
state institution itself. Based on this analysis,
the optimal structure of a state institution and
its subdivisions can be determined, and a
methodology for organizational changes can
be proposed. The optimal functional-
structural arrangement of a specific
management body or the entire public
administration system can also become a
subject of scientific research and lead to
socially significant results.
5) The method of professional-cultural
description and substantiation. Its goal is to
present public administration as a social
phenomenon, which cannot be adequately
developed without emphasizing its
component, such as the professional-cultural
subsystem. The culture of management and
organization (governing body) largely
determines the integrity and maturity of
public institutions. The professional-
administrative culture is a subjective factor
in management, a fusion, and
materialization of civil servants and state
organizations' intellect and actions. It
includes legal, political, and professional-
qualitative culture: culture of
communication, decision-making culture
(management technologization),
motivational and informational culture, etc.
Results
The study results will be based on the
historiographic principle, highlighting the
historical stages of formation and sophistication
of the civil service mechanism in Ukraine.
Public administration in Ancient Kyivan Rus
The ancient Ukrainian state went through three
stages in its development:
The prerequisites matured during the first stage
of the formation of the Ancient Ukrainian state
(from the VIII to mid-IX century), and inter-
tribal alliances and their centers, known as
principalities (princedoms), were established, as
mentioned by the Eastern authors. By the IX
century, the system of "poliudie" emerged. It
involved collecting tribute from the community
members to benefit the Knyaz. At that time, this
tribute was still voluntary and perceived as
compensation for military and administrative
services. The formation of the Ancient Ukrainian
state is associated with establishing the Kyivan
state, a long and complex process that united
various Eastern Slavic tribes.
When the Ancient Ukrainian state was formed,
there were already several large cities, including
Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Pereyaslav. In the IX
century, there were 25 major cities in Kyivan
Rus. At the same time, the consolidation of three
major Slavic tribal alliances occurred:
– Kujawy - the lands around the city of Kyiv;
– Slavia - the area of Lake Ilmen with the
center at Novgorod;
– Arthania - the exact area is not defined by
historians but is called the Baltic States, the
Carpathians, and Northeastern Rus.
Thus, a unified state was formed in the first half
of the IX century. This period represents the
earliest stage of the Ukrainian state and civil
service development.
The second stage (2nd half of the IX–mid-X
century) of state formation accelerated mainly
due to the active intervention of external forces -
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the Khazars and the Normans (Varangians -
Vikings). Currently, many scientists point to a
long, unbiased process of state formation and a
secondary, biased factor. Today, the failure of the
"Norman theory" based on the thesis that it is
possible to "teach a state" is quite apparent. In
contrast, any state emerges only through long-
term internal development and society's
complexity. However, this statement does not
deny the role of the Varangians and
Scandinavians in contributing to the creation of
the Kyivan Rus. Today we can assume that the
chronicle story about the "calling up of the
Varangians" led by Rurik accurately reflects the
real events. The Varangian origin of the first
Kyivan rulers is undeniable: Rurik, Oleh, Ihor,
Olha, and Askold are Scandinavian names. Also,
there are dozens of Scandinavian graves found in
Eastern Europe.
It should be noted that the Scandinavians actively
participated in the creation of the Ancient
Ukrainian state, providing it with a ruling
dynasty. However, they quickly dissolved among
the local Slavic population: for example, Ihor and
Olha's son bore the Slavic name Sviatoslav.
Modern researchers, overcoming the extremes of
the Normanist and Anti-Normanist theories, have
reached the following conclusions:
– the process of state and civil service
formation began before the Varangians;
– the fact of their invitation to rule indicates
that this form of power was already familiar
to the Slavs.
Simultaneously, there was a consolidation of the
local ruling-warrior elite, their integration with
the Varangian warriors, and the Slavicization of
the Varangians themselves. Oleh, who united the
Novgorod and Kyiv lands and paved the trade
route "from the Varangians to the Greeks," laid
the economic base for the emerging state.
The third and final stage of state formation
begins with the reforms of Kniahynia Olha (Olha
of Kyiv). Seeking revenge against the Drevlyans
for the death of her husband, she establishes a
fixed tribute norm and sets up "tsvynitary"
(outposts) for its collection, which became the
backbone of Knyaz authority at the local level.
The policies of her son, Sviatoslav (964-972),
who gained fame for his victory over Khazaria
and campaigns on the Danube that failed,
required the mobilization of significant forces for
external conquests. It slightly delayed the
internal development of Kyivan Rus. During the
reign of Volodymyr the Great (980-1015), the
complete elimination of tribal principalities took
place. In 981, continuing the policy of expanding
the territory of the intertribal federation, he
annexed the southwestern and western lands to it.
The lands of the Vyatichs (the Oka River) were
also incorporated into the Ancient Ukrainian
state. The authority of Kyivan Rus extended
further to the east.
Public administration in Kyivan Rus during the
Mongol-Tatar invasion
The Golden Horde was a symbiosis of nomadic
governance and traditional law institutions with
the Islamic state-legal paradigm. At the same
time, the Rus statehood was the
institutionalization of an agricultural society and
an Orthodox understanding of power and law.
The formation of a unified Orthodox Kyivan
State occurred in conditions of mobilizational
development. It led to the preservation of
military polygenesis and a shift from a
polycentric system of governance to
authoritarian rule by the Grand Knyaz and
gradually increased centralization. An essential
central governing body became the Knyaz and
the council, whose activities were based on the
principles of vassalage and functional
differentiation. The administrative-territorial
division and local governance were unified,
aiming to centralize state administration
(Melnychuk, 2021).
In terms of civilization, the synthesis of two
qualitatively different spiritual, ethnocultural,
and political systems was impossible. It is
confirmed by specific historical studies that do
not reveal any Horde traditions in Kyiv's state
governance system and legal culture. The
attempts to link the emergence of the feudal
estates, Zemsky Sobor's (councils, parliament),
and autocracy, based on certain analogies
(sometimes far-fetched), with similar
phenomena in the Mongol khanates are
extremely unconvincing, if not ridiculous. These
institutions' roots and evolution are clearly
visible in Rus history. They find more
straightforward explanations in national-
Orthodox notions of statehood, property, etc. The
borrowings were (as always during the
interaction of different civilizations) of a purely
technical nature - elements of military art, the tax
system, the yam postal service (Mongolian postal
service, “yam” means the “road”), etc. Another
thing is that the Golden Horde, as one of the
powerful foreign policy factors in the
reorganization of the Ukrainian state, had no way
of not influencing the pace and nature of
Ukrainian political genesis.
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Public administration in the XVI-XVII
centuries
At the turn of the XV and XVI centuries, the
process of unifying Ukrainian lands around
Moscow was completed. Kyiv lost its leadership
in terms of state, cultural, and economic
positions. The consolidation of lands also
implied the creation of a centralized governance
system. However, several factors prevented
characterizing Ukraine's formed system of
governance as centralized. These factors
included:
– Underdevelopment of centralized state
authorities.
– Central governing bodies lacked
representation at the local level and were not
duplicated.
There were also remnants of feudal
disintegration, such as (Kobzeva, &
Mykhailovska, 2018):
– feudal dominions;
– "hoduvannia" (lit. - "feeding" - a system of
rewarding by the great and local lords of
their viceroys or governors, who performed
judicial and administrative functions and
received the right to collect taxes, duties,
etc., in their favor);
– the principle of patronage and localism in
appointing to state positions;
– the relative autonomy of the church.
The Sobornoe Ulozhenie in 1649 (lit.- the
"Council Code") solidified and propelled the
further development of the administrative
command system in governance. In the 1640s,
there was a change in the generations of diaks
(clerks), and the image of the clerical rank
changed due to the arrival of people whose
careers developed under the new dynasty.
Among the prikaz judges (administrative,
judicial, territorial, or executive offices), the
number of nobles decreased. However, their role
became more critical as the boyars, particularly
close to the tsar, concentrated the leadership over
several offices. By the middle of the XVII
century, the civil service was separated from the
service in general, which was predominantly
military. These changes were reflected in the
oaths of the officers, which were sworn during a
change of tsar by the whole population and
certain persons when taking office or being
promoted.
At the end of the XVII century, the state
monarchy's public administration system entered
a problematic stage of modernization of the
country's entire political system. It's institutions
and administrative apparatus borrowed elements
of European experience and rationalism but
generally used its own civilizational basis. With
its contradictions, the pace of this modernization
did not keep up with the growing complexity of
governance tasks, territory expansion, the
process of estate transformation in society, and
new geopolitical challenges. The urgent issue
was a fundamental reorganization of the entire
central and local governance system, which
would determine the final choice between
developing autocracy as an expression of estate
interests and establishing absolutism.
Public administration and civil service in the
XVIII century
The emergence of absolutism as a form of
governance is determined by the genesis of
bourgeois relations. In transitioning from a
feudal, class-based society to a capitalistic civic
one, the state authorities gain significant
independence over different social groups. The
decline of estate-representative institutions,
which to some extent limited the monarch's
power, occurs. The main features of absolutism
include the following:
– The concentration of legislative, executive,
and judicial powers in the hands of the
hereditary monarch.
– The monarch's right to control state finances
and establish taxes.
– The existence of a large, extensive
bureaucratic apparatus that carries out
administrative functions on behalf of the
monarch.
– Centralization and unification of state and
local governance, territorial division.
– The establishment of regular army and
police.
– The regulation of the service and private life
of the classes.
The affirmation of absolutism in the Russian
Empire had several peculiarities. It arose under
the complete domination of feudal bondholders
and the absence of developed bourgeois
relations, Russia's significant lagging behind the
leading European countries, and the significant
influence of oriental, or despotic, traditions on
the state's political system. Unlike Western
European countries, absolutism's social basis was
the nobility's alliance with the towns. Absolutism
relied on feudal bondholders and civil servants.
Another characteristic feature of absolutism was
a wide external expansion, which was a
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necessary condition for the accelerated
modernization of the country and was often
carried out by force. In the second half of the
XVII century, estate-representative bodies at the
center (Zemsky Sobor) and regions (gubernia
and zemstvo institutions) were either abolished
or deprived of autonomy. In 1700, the
Patriarchate was actually canceled.
Peter I implemented the second reform of the
central state apparatus. The Swedish state
structure model was taken as an example during
its implementation. The Swedish state system
was based on the principles of cameralism - the
doctrine of bureaucratic administration popular
in Europe in the XVI-XVII centuries. The
principles of cameralism include:
– functionalism, which provided for the
creation of institutions specializing in any
field (finance, justice, military
administration);
– the structure of the institution based on
collegiality;
– clear regulation of duties; specialization of
clerical work;
– establishment of standardized departments
and salaries (Dinca, 2021).
As a result of this reform, the vast majority of
prikaz councils were canceled, and the
collegiums were established.
In 1722, the Collegium of Little Russia was
formed, which took over the functions of the
Little Russia Prikaz. It was the only collegium
formed not on a functional but on a territorial
principle and dealt with affairs in Ukraine. The
Little Russian Collegium was located in the same
place, under the supervision of the Ukrainian
Hetman, in the city of Hlukhiv. The system of
collegiums was formed step by step: during the
first half of the XVIII century, new institutions
kept emerging or reorganizing the existing ones.
Several collegiums have developed a system of
local branch institutions. The local bodies'
apparatus included the Collegium of Mining and
the Collegium of Manufacturing
(commissariats), the Collegium of Justice (courts
of justice), the Collegium of State Income
(chambers and regional collectors), the
Collegium of War (governors), and the
Collegium of State Expenses (treasurers). The
Collegiums sent decrees to the subordinate
institutions, and the Senate received "reports"
from them (Havryltsiv & Lukianova, 2019).
Public administration in Ukraine in the XIX
century
In the first half of the XIX century, the problem
of reorganizing the management system became
increasingly acute. The growing complexity of
social life demanded the creation of a well-
adjusted, efficiently functioning mechanism that
would allow the emperor to rely on the collective
intellect of the bureaucratic elite, reducing the
likelihood of the monarch making wrong
decisions (Bach & Veit, 2018). People's opinions
developed three approaches to public
administration reform, namely:
– The first is the traditionalist approach.
– The second is the liberal approach.
– The third is the radical approach.
The reform of the Senate, conceived by
Alexander I, was intended to strengthen legality
in public administration. At the beginning of the
XIX century, the Senate lost its former grandeur
bestowed upon it by Peter I and had a
cumbersome structure with a weak operating
apparatus.
The most significant changes during Alexander
I's reign occurred in the central governance
system. The collegial principle no longer met the
demands of the new era. There was a need for a
more efficient and centralized executive
administration, which led to establishment of a
ministerial system. The Ministry's system of
governance had several undeniable advantages
over the system of collegiums. This system was
characterized by sole authority, personal
responsibility, diligence, strict vertical
departmental subordination, a clear framework
of sectoral management, and the specificity of
functions (Prudyus, 2016). As a result, the
ministerial system proved to be viable and easily
adaptable to changing circumstances.
The trend toward centralizing state
administration found its embodiment in the
activities of the Emperor's Chancellery. It was
established by Alexander I in 1812. Initially, the
Chancellery was engaged in correspondence with
the Supreme Commander, the placement of war
prisoners, and the recruitment and housing of the
army. With the center consolidating
administrative and executive powers, the
Chancellery's role increased. It became the
institution that connected the emperor with all
government bodies on important political
matters. In fact, from the mid-1820s, it became
the institution that headed the entire public
administration system.
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The structure of the Chancellery corresponded to
its functions and became more complex
alongside its expansion. There were six branches,
each of which was headed by a governor
responsible to the emperor, had its own staff, and
kept its own paperwork.
Public administration of the Russian Empire in
the late XIX – early XX century
By the end of the XIX century, autocracy seemed
to be firmly established and unshakable. All
higher branches of power (legislative, executive,
and judicial) were concentrated in the hands of
the emperor, but their implementation was
carried out through a system of state institutions.
The State Council remained the highest
legislative body, endowed with advisory powers
as before. It consisted of individuals appointed
by the tsar and ministers. Mostly, these were
well-known courtiers and officials, many of
whom were very old, which allowed the public to
refer to them as "elder statesmen." The State
Council did not have a legislative initiative. Its
meetings only discussed the proposals submitted
by the monarch but drafted by the ministries. The
Committee of Ministers served as the central
executive body. It was headed by the Chairman,
whose functions were very limited. The emperor
was considered the head of the judiciary and the
judicial administration, and all trials were
conducted in his name. The specific judicial
proceedings were not within the competence of
the monarch; his role was that of the supreme and
final arbiter (Ishchenko et al., 2019).
In administrative terms, Russia was divided into
78 provinces (gubernias), 18 regions, and the
Sakhalin Island. There were administrative units
that included several provinces, and general
governments, usually located on the edges of the
empire. The tsar appointed the governor upon the
recommendation of the Minister of Internal
Affairs. The cities had self-government in the
form of city councils and administrations. They
were responsible for administrative and
economic tasks, such as transportation, lighting,
heating, sewage, water supply, and maintenance
of bridges, sidewalks, embankments, and public
buildings, as well as overseeing educational and
charitable affairs, local trade, industry, and
credit. The right to participate in a city election
was determined by property qualification. By the
end of the XIX century, local self-government
was introduced in 34 provinces of the European
part of Russia (including Ukraine). Meanwhile,
in other districts, government authorities carried
out the administration. The local bodies mainly
dealt with economic matters, such as
constructing and maintaining local roads,
schools, hospitals, charitable institutions,
statistics, the handicraft industry, and organizing
land credits (Solonar, 2014).
At the beginning of the XX century, the Russian
Empire maintained a system of government
characterized by significant bureaucratization.
The State Council held the highest position
among the country's higher state institutions. The
tsar appointed the members and chairman of the
Council, and the ministers were selected
according to their rank. Before its reorganization
in 1906, the Council was the supreme legislative
body. The preliminary discussion of legislation
introduced at the tsar's will took place in
departments that played the role of preparatory
commissions. Then the considered proposals
were submitted to the general meeting of the
State Council. If the State Council did not come
to a consensus, different views were presented to
the monarch. The monarch alone decided on
them, and he could take the side of the minority
(Ishchenko et al., 2019).
Public administration in the USSR from 1917 to
the 1980s
The Soviet Union existed from February 1917
until the end of 1991 and is associated with the
formation of the Soviet statehood basics during
the revolutionary transformation of Imperial
Russia into the Russian Republic. At the
beginning of 1918, the old authorities and
governments were liquidated, and the People's
Commissariats were formed instead. On
December 2, 1917, the Supreme Council of
National Economy (SCNE) was established
under the revolutionary committees to manage
the country's economic life. In the first three
years of Soviet rule, the size of the administrative
apparatus increased almost fivefold. The Soviet
state governance was restructured after a foreign
military intervention and the civil war, based on
the restoration and development of the principles
of the Constitution of the RSFSR, considering
the deep systemic crisis in power and society.
The experience of 1917-1920 proved the urgent
need to accelerate the formation of new
fundamental principles of state administration in
the economic, social, political, and spiritual
spheres based on the people's creativity. The
authorities had to develop and organize this
creativity as a decisive factor in reality to achieve
values that were close and understandable to
everyone.
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The state administration had long-term goals: to
restore, develop, and transform the economy
based on the state system, making it the basis for
strengthening economic and political freedom.
The administration system was united under the
new approaches to its objects. The ideas of both
total and stateless or weakened state governance
and only public self-government were rejected.
Russian state governance acquired new aspects
in connection with the deepening integration of
Soviet states (including Ukraine). However, the
governance apparatus remained essentially the
same, slightly "tainted by the Soviet world," and
some of its branches worked against the
authorities (Stets, 2020). The conceptual
proposals aimed to radically adjust the state
system and governance by strengthening the
party's role.
The public administration functioned in a special
way during 1939-1945 due to World War II, and
in the post-war years. Each of the three periods
manifested both the main features inherent in
Soviet public administration and the peculiarities
caused by the unusual and rapidly changing
specific historical situation. The system of civil
service governance, which was in the process of
formation based on the 1936 Constitution of the
USSR, needed to withstand the test of viability,
the ability to adapt and function following the
international and domestic situation. World War
II qualitatively changed the activity conditions
for the Soviet Union's governance bodies (Klenk
& Reiter, 2019).
The concerns of governance were focused on
strengthening labor and production discipline.
The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the
USSR issued a series of decrees aimed at
organizing the work of commissariats, all state
institutions, and industrial enterprises and
strengthening the accountability of officials,
workers, and managers of institutions and
enterprises for the quality of work and
compliance with the discipline (Bryman, 2016).
State governance acquired specific
characteristics such as militarism, extremity,
extraordinariness, directive nature, etc.
Public administration in Ukraine from 1991 to
the present
At present, Ukraine is strengthening its unified
state service based on organizational, normative,
legal, personnel, and informational foundations.
The civil service should be regarded as a system
of social connections and relationships rather
than a mere aggregation of officials and
institutions. Currently, several approaches to
civil service exist in global practice. The term
"civil service" was first legalized by the effective
Law of Ukraine, "On Civil Service," in 1993. The
civil service in Ukraine involves the professional
activities of individuals holding positions in state
bodies and their apparatus, who practically fulfill
the tasks and functions of the state and receive
remuneration from the state. The individuals
performing these services are civil servants and
possess corresponding official authority
(Korchak, 2017).
As practice has shown, the definition of civil
service formulated in the aforementioned Law
allows for ambiguous interpretation. It is mainly
due to the complex concepts used in its meaning,
such as "professional activities," "positions in
state bodies and their apparatus," and "fulfillment
of tasks and functions of the state" (Law of
Ukraine No. 117-IX, 2019).
The civil service is the activity of professional
civil servants who serve in state bodies or their
apparatus, engaging in the practical
implementation of the tasks and functions of
these bodies in state governance and regulation.
The Constitution of Ukraine, laws, and other
regulatory acts provide the basis for classifying
the civil service of Ukraine as a traditional
bureaucratic system, as it is based on legislation
and bears many similarities to the European civil
services. Conceptually, the main goals and
purposes of the civil service are the following:
– to protect the constitutional order;
– to create conditions for the development of
an open society;
– to protect human and civil rights;
– to ensure the effective operation of state
bodies under their powers and competence
by providing professional management
services to the political leadership of these
bodies and the public (Havryltsiv &
Lukianova, 2019).
The civil service must be built on certain core
principles to achieve specific goals and tasks
successfully. The legal establishment of the
principles of the civil service determines the
functioning of state bodies, the activities of civil
servants (personnel), the stability of the state's
legal regulation of civil service relations, and the
justification of trends in developing legislation
on civil service.
The principles of the civil service are determined
by the existence of principles of state
functioning, state bodies, and public
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administration, which are largely carried out by
legal subjects such as civil servants, and reflect
the most essential aspects of the organization and
functioning not only of the civil service itself but
also of the system of state bodies that define the
content of complex relationships within this
system. Thus, the principles of the civil service
can be defined as follows:
– the fundamental ideas and establishments
that express objective regularities and
determine scientifically substantiated
directions for the implementation of state
functions;
– the powers of civil servants act within the
system of state power, particularly the civil
service (OECD, 2022).
The principles of the civil service establish the
most essential regularities in the system of
organization and functioning, reflecting the
objective connections within the system of civil
service relations. Therefore, the formulation and
establishment of legislative principles of the civil
service depend on the chosen model of this
service and the adequacy of understanding the
internal regularities of social relations and legal
regulation. On the other hand, these principles
represent an active and vibrant beginning, as they
determine the legal model of the civil service
established by the legislator (Tyler, 2020).
Ukraine's civil service institution has
successfully survived the empire and the Soviet
Union, adapting to the requirements of the
command-administrative system. Undergoing
"cosmetic" changes, unfortunately, it still
functions successfully with the same drawbacks
as it had two or three hundred years ago. The
current management structure in Ukraine was
established on a bureaucratic basis. Also,
communication was established during the
Russian Empire and solidified during the Soviet
era. Even now, administrative offices still value
loyalty, stability, and total management control
and await a command from the highest level
(Wilson et al., 2021).
The accumulated experience in Ukraine of
implementing reforms and changes in the
organization and functioning of state authorities
underscores the necessity of serious attention to
the study of the past civil service of various state-
political formations that existed on Ukrainian
lands. The effectiveness of modern public
administration depends to a large extent on how
dialectically European standards and the
historical experience of the Ukrainian people are
combined (Hryshchuk, 2018). Therefore, the
analysis of the evolution of the Ukrainian civil
service in different periods of our state's
development becomes particularly important, as
it allows for the identification, among other
important issues, of the characteristics of the
mentality of civil servants and the understanding
of specific features inherent in the modern
management mechanism. The radical political,
socio-economic, and other transformations in
Ukraine at the turn of the XX-XXI centuries and
the modernization of Ukrainian statehood
according to the conditions and requirements of
the modern period, nevertheless, did not wholly
destroy the elements of the recent past in public
administration and civil service, and certain
features of certain historical epochs (Serbyn et
al., 2020).
The modern Ukrainian civil service has inherited
an ambiguous legacy that deserves a serious
analytical "inventory." The Russian Empire had
a complex, well-organized bureaucratic
administrative system with tens of thousands of
officials. It combined elements of autocracy,
collegiality, and popular representation. Similar
systems were formed in other European
countries. They served as a model for Max
Weber's theory of "rational" bureaucracy, which
still serves as the theoretical foundation of the
sociology of public administration.
Today, we must change the centuries-old Russian
tradition of state domination over society and the
worship of ranks (posts) with pervasive
corruption of all government bodies. We should
create a civil service that is accountable not to a
party, not to a "master," even if democratically
elected, but to the society that sustains it and to
address its needs (rather than their own or
corporate interests). It cannot be done quickly,
and the statements of even the highest officials
are not enough.
Discussion
The practice of defining goals, tasks, and
principles of organizing the civil service of
Ukraine, as well as the processes of its formation
and evolution of its organizational institutions,
should be considered among the pressing issues
of modern Ukraine. It is equally important to
generalize the experience of forming a corps of
civil servants and improving the efficiency of this
institution. A detailed analysis of the forms and
methods of governing processes in the Ukrainian
civil service system, understanding the main
trends and the positive and negative aspects of its
genesis, provide an excellent benefit for this
purpose. All of this constitutes a great scientific
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and practical interest in the establishment and
development of the modern civil service of
Ukraine and in creating an optimal model for its
staffing and improvement.
The contemporary practices and global
experience in state-building processes cannot be
the sole basis for generalizations and addressing
many practical issues within the institution of
public administration.
Given the fact that although the state mechanism
was the main link in the structure of power, there
was no special legislation in the Soviet Union on
the status and legal position of state apparatus
employees. All legal relations were regulated per
labor legislation and differed from the legal
relations of other officials in state institutions,
enterprises, and procurement organizations.
Therefore, when developing the institutional
framework of the civil service in Ukraine, based
on global experience and achievements, it is
appropriate to utilize the historical background of
organizing the establishment and development of
the civil service, considering all the periods
identified by the authors.
Conclusion
The authors have determined that building an
effective public administration system and civil
service institution development requires
elaborating a Ukrainian development strategy at
the state level (in the full sense of the word). This
thesis is confirmed by the historical experience
of Kyivan Rus, the existence of Ukraine as part
of the Russian Empire, the role of Ukraine in the
USSR, and the experience of the more recent
past. All elements of the civil service
organization in Ukraine in the historiographical
context contain both positive and controversial
experiences and deserve to be studied closely in
the light of further development of the modern
Ukrainian civil service. It may sound
paradoxical, but many features of the civil
service have been borrowed from the past.
The authors proved that the development of a
comprehensive historical and organizational
framework for legal relations related to public
administration and the functioning of the civil
service demonstrates the importance of these
legal institutions for the Ukrainian historical
heritage. In the XVIII-XIX centuries, the
supreme authorities had active legislative
activity, and the highest authorities created many
laws and regulations. As a result of
systematization, the vast majority of them were
collected and then formed an authentic model of
the civil service institution of Ukraine.
The study has shown that the development of the
administrative machinery, the growing number
of civil servants, and the complex civil service
system required the development and legislative
approval of the principles of civil service
organization.
The legislative acts of the XVIII-XIX centuries
concerning the formation and functioning of the
civil service defined the most essential principles
of its organization, such as compliance of the
activities of officials at all levels with the laws of
the Russian Empire, centralism in the
management of the main spheres of state life,
binding decisions of higher institutions and
officials, control over the governing institutions,
the responsibility of the personnel of state
structures for the assigned area of work,
conscientious performance of their duties, etc.
The legislation of the Russian Empire imposed
many requirements on candidates for positions in
state institutions and authorities, thus seeking to
form a highly professional, dedicated staff of
management structures from intellectuals. In the
Russian Empire, a civil servant's career was
greatly influenced by the aristocratic origin, age,
and education level, which varied depending on
the type of educational institution and the level of
knowledge of the educational material.
In addition, the authors show that a large group
of charters, regulations, and other documents
defined the principles of staffing the civil servant
corps, the rules for admission to public
administration institutions, the procedure for
appointment to positions, and the conditions for
career development and promotion. The
following aspects are of interest, namely:
– the oath-taking upon entry into civil service;
– the practice of probation periods and the
implementation of specialized examinations
in specific departments before an official
appointment;
– the establishment of a candidates’ institute
for posts and their study of the future
management sphere;
– the compulsory work through all stages of
the bureaucratic hierarchy;
– the termination of employment.
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