On the Political Aspects of Development of the System of State and Municipal Management in Ukraine

The article examines the history of the formation and reform of the system of state and municipal administration in Ukraine. In the conditions when the socio-political space of Ukraine is characterized by pronounced regionalism, and the issue of transition to a federal state system is excluded from the real political agenda, the nature of the development of the system of state and municipal administration can serve as a reflection of the ratio of centrifugal and centripetal trends in the internal political development of Ukraine. The article presents an analysis of the factors of internal political development of Ukraine that most influenced the formation of a centralized system of territorial administration in the country in the post- Soviet period and predetermined the weakness of local self-government, as well as the reasons for the failure of several attempts at reforms. Special attention is paid to the implementation of the decentralization policy after 2014. The article reveals the connection of the concept of modern administrative-territorial reform in Ukraine with the settlement process in the Donbas, as well as with the approaches in Western political science, according to which decentralization is considered as a tool for neutralizing the political potential of regionalism and countering regional separatism. The results and political orientation of decentralization in the context of the acute socio- economic crisis in Ukraine are evaluated.