Civil society as one of the main elements of anti-corruption

Abstract

At the present stage of development of Ukraine as a democratic, social and legal state, taking into account the global changes that have occurred in recent years, the development of civil society and anti-corruption activities of public administration are among the priorities of state policy. In his Address to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine “about the internal and external situation of Ukraine”, the President of Ukraine noted: “the fight against corruption is not only a matter of justice and the rule of law. The investment climate, economic situation and progress in solving social issues depend on its success or, on the contrary, on its success”.

Ukrainian corruption has features, in comparison with corruption of the developed countries of the world. Corruption in Ukraine is a corruption of crisis type which is generated by crisis of modern domestic society, is capable to deepen this crisis, having property to level all reforms. Crisis-type corruption is the basis of a large part of the population, without proper morality and political, economic and legal culture. Such corruption is a real main threat to the development of the public political elite of modern Ukraine.

According to studies, corruption is one of the reasons that led to mass protests in Ukraine in late 2013 - early 2014. According to the results of the Global Corruption Barometer, conducted by the international organization Transparency International in 2013, 36 percent of Ukrainians were ready to go out to protest against corruption. According to the results of the international Foundation for electoral systems (IFES) public opinion survey at the end of 2017, corruption was already included in the list of the biggest problems of the population and caused particular concern among 47 percent of citizens. According to the research of corruption perception index conducted by Transparency International, Ukrainians consider their country one of the most corrupt in the world. The corruption perceptions index is a composite indicator based on data from expert sources provided by international organizations. All sources measure the overall prevalence of corruption (frequency and/or volume of bribes) in the public and economic sectors and include estimates of multiple countries.

According to the study, "Corruption Perception Index (CPI) - 2017", CPI in Ukraine is 30 points. Currently, Ukraine is in 130th place out of 180 countries [2].

The article investigates the concept of "corruption" and "civil society". It was found out that the main goal facing civil society is to eliminate the conditions and prerequisites for the emergence of corruption, because in order to resist corruption as a systemic phenomenon, it is necessary to form and implement a system of anti-corruption measures created jointly by the government and civil society. The forms of citizens' participation in the systemic anti-corruption measures are considered and summarized. Outlined a number of issues that prevent or hinder the public participation in the activities of combating corruption. The tools of formation of intolerant attitude of citizens and society in General to corruption manifestations are found out. Corruption as a socio-economic category is considered. It is found that one of the main problems today is that in the minds of the majority of Ukrainians corruption has become commonplace.