Historical evolution of civil service in Ukraine

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 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.