ETHNO-NATIONAL FACTOR OF TRANSFROMING PROCESS IN UKRAINE AND PUBLIC OFFICIALS TRAINING TO BE ABLE TO FUNCTION IN MULTIETHNIC ENVIRONMENT
Petro Nadolishniy, Doctor on Public Administration, Prof. of Public Administration and Local Self-Government Chair of the Odessa Regional Institute of Public Administration of NationalAcademy of Public Administration, Office of the President of Ukraine, Odessa, Ukraine
Mylyena Pashkova, MPA, main specialist of International Relations Department of the Odessa Regional Institute of Public Administration of National Academy of Public Administration, Office of the President of Ukraine, Odessa, Ukraine.
“Civilization is universal for everyone; it can be created and removed. National culture is growth as a tree. It is not possible to create a tree. Civilization is bringing people together, but national cultures make people different. From one side, it is mutual understanding, and from the other side it is a beauty of diversity”[1]
Chapter 1. The Features of Public Administration Relations in the Ethno-National Sphere. Statements and Definitions
Ukraine is on the way to the open civil society building process. The formation of the public administration and the local self-government system has occurred because of the renaissance of Ukrainian nation and explosion of active self-organizational processes within thenative population and ethnic minority environment.
That is why the content of public administrative relations, the organizational and functional structure of public administrative mechanisms and administrative technologies are largely determined by the process of building the Ukrainian national state and its ethno-national policy.State administration, as an administrative sub-system of public (civil) self-regulated system, has its own rules and functional logic. It means that state administration has certain autonomy within the public system. Public administration as an open system inheres to the process of self-organization. In other words, public administration is adaptable system to the internal environment in order to function effectively.
Feedback comes through the influence of non-governmental institutions on state policy, making changes to it, or correcting it and lately, bringing it into accordance with the new tasks.
This principle is the most completely realized in the self-government system.
The algorithm of public body function is guaranteed by thedevelopment of socialrules, mastering of the forms and methods of public administration activity.In other words, the keyrole in the processes of organizing and administrating in a civil society belongs to the system of self-organization and the active participation of a civil system segment which provide development and vitality.
The “ethnic” (ethno-national) interest” is the perception byethnic and national societiesof the needs, which reflect an understanding of the requirements thatare necessary for its self-preservation and development. The “ethno-national interests” are not the “pure” product of the ethnic and national self-consciousness. If “demands” are an expression of the real necessity in “something”, then “interests” are the understanding of this necessity by the ethno-national community.Ethno-national interests are not the simple sum of needs of different people, social groups and communities, who compose the ethnic community. They are the generalized expression of the real needs of community as itself.
Ethno-national interest, as any other kind of interest, is a motivation for action and reflects the subjective side of the social process.
This interest transforms the requirements of social laws into the stimulus and determines with the help of both interests and stimulus the tendency of social behavior of people. In this case, the interest, as a unique formula of social relations and social processes development, encourages an individual or an ethnic group to act. But it is not every kind of understanding of needs that turns a motive for action.
The ethno-national factor is the internal potential of an ethnic community, which was set into the action, and directly or in-directly influence to the development of social processes. This factor is the cause that determines its character, or its individual features.[2]
The definition of “ethno-national” logically comes from “ethno-nation”. This definition divides thewidespread meaning of “nation” into two parts.
The features of public administrative relations in the ethno-social sphere are caused by peculiarity of the members of these relations as well as by specifics of ethno-national processes as the object for regulation.
The economical aspect of ethno-national factor has not been sufficiently clarified yet.Theethno-national factor reveals at different levels of the economy: state, regional (trans-oblast and oblast) and sub-regional levels.It is necessary to distinguish national problems at sub-levels of branches of industry single enterprises and even work places. At the same time, it is necessary to set apart the two aspects, namely internal and external ones.
An internal aspect is ethno-cultural characteristics of certain employees. An external aspect is the ratio between the two following components: first is ethnic composition of labor force within a certain branch of economy, and second is ethnic composition of population within a certain territory. The external aspect includes ratio of ethnic labor component to the ethnic population component. It should be the influence of productionmanagement on the local ecology (natured and social environment). We can agree that inter-ethnic and ethno-political conflicts arise when the ethnic interests are oppressed or when a real or envisioned threat to theethno-culture development of appears. This threat can come because of predominate ethnic group’s pressure, or as a reaction to the technical progress. The reliable mechanisms for predicting the discrimination have not been created yet. And this is a cause for a “national complex” and an urgent intention to find survival and self-affirmation within the national idea.
1.1 The conceptions of “ethnos”, “ethnic elite” and “ethno-policy”
The interpretations of key statements on ethnology, ethno-policy and ethno-nation studies can be made on the base of researches of Ukrainian and foreign scientists, and the knowledge of the material and spiritual claims of society.
-Ethnos is a bio-social phenomenon, which is complexly organized as a dynamic natural
system. Ethnos has an internal source of development and lives according to global and universal laws.[3]All ethnic communities have equal rights and opportunities for development. It is the way how ethnic communities exercise their rights that reveal either historical expediency or moral law of historical reality;
-the concept of assimilation is defeated. Ethno-national renascence means theestablishment of ethnic
expanses on the territory of the USSR. This process has deep roots and certain logic.It demonstrates the significance of social and cultural institute, and the necessity to change ideas about substance and role of the ethno-social sub-system of the society;
-official ideology of most newly independent states is based upon the national ideology background. It
encourages the process of non-title nation’s solidarity and their progress toward development from the passive cultural community to the active andself-determined political nation;
-the process of non-title ethnic communities consolidation (or “politicalization”) is oftenconsidered as the
one which threatens the further development of national states. We should take into account that ethnic solidarity in the multi-ethnic societies can be a unique tool of conflict regulation, if the conflict situation is caused by social stratification. On the post-soviet territory the ethnicity, as an institution of regulation and control, gradually is replacing a post-soviet ideology;
- the enhancement of the role of ethno-national factor became a global tendency of
civilizationand the world tendency as well. The global character of the ethno-national processes means that these processes will designate the world restructuring in the future. The previous form of integration will be replaced by a new one. The subject of social and historical process has such an important feature as the degree of its internal structuring. From this point of view the issues of “ethnic elite” and “national elite” is the most significant.
The development of the Ukrainian society put into scientific agenda the issue about elite. The elite is a normative and valuable group, which defines certain models of behavior, life and way of thinking in the social sphere. Also, the elite initiates and regulates social changes. In perspective researches should integrate the models of social changes that are based on the principle of self-organizational.[4]
The “ethnic elite”is considered as a part of ethnic group, which undertook the role of a leader and political guide. At different historical stages of development and dependingupon circumstances, the role of ethnic leaders (or political entrepreneurs) belonged to representatives from different social levels. At the beginning of modernization the ethnic elite included middle class representatives. A special place had been given to humanitarian intelligentsia.This particular group encourages “its” ethnic group to act by appealing to history, national fillings and by forming an appropriate psychological atmosphere.
The “national elite” definition considered on the base of the following positions – nation is the ethnic community, which build the state, and national idea is the official idea. National elite is a leading power in the society that defends the ethnic interests. And, unlike the “social elite”, the national elite is formattedupon spiritual, ideological principles and “national idea” cultural, political and state-building power. Its task is to integrate a society spiritually and politically in order to solve the national and state-building problems.[5]
At the same time, the national elite is a part of the intelligentsia, which maintains and generates ethnic values as well as preserves theidea of ethnic vitality. The question is if there exists the “critical mass” of national elite/“national aristocracy”, which defines the level of statuteelite. In Ukraine, there is not an appropriate “critical mass” of national elite (first of all, Ukrainian one). This fact directly influences on values of statuteelite’s. Statute elites (political and administrative ones), causes extraverted behavior and quasi-level of the latter and impedes the process of state building.
The first steps of the newly independent states in the sphere of ethno-national policy were made by process of trial and error. Throughout the post-soviet region,ethno-political and inter-ethnic conflicts began to emerge again and again. These conflicts made multitude refugees look for other places. The internal ethno-political tension caused a strain on international relations and anxiety on the part of the world. In other words, across the post-soviet area, the conflicts based on ethnic and national ground were caused not only by the elements inherited from the Soviet Union. They emerged as a result of unequal internal and external policy of the newly independent states. And these statesrose on the spirit of ethnic revival and democratization.
At the same time, most of the newly independent states have adopted legislative documents which regulate the minority’s rights and status. These documents were basically adopted for two main reasons:
-internal case- the intention of title nation to achieve state independence, andthe understanding of the
significance of support from ethnic minority groups;
-external case – the world community attention to the implementation of human rights and rights of
national, religious, and language minorities.
In Ukraine the legislative base for ethno-national policy implementation is the Ukrainian Constitution. There are many other legislative documents, concerns on ethnic minorities and ethnic groups’ issues. Here is the list of these documents: The Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine, The Statement Declaration of Ukraine Independence, Declaration on Human Rights, Law of Ukraine “About Citizenship in Ukraine”, Law of Ukraine “About Education in Ukraine”, Law of Ukraine “About Information”, Law of Ukraine “About Freedom of Speech and Religious Organizations”, Law of Ukraine “About Citizens Associations”, Law of Ukraine “About National Minorities in Ukraine” (adopted in 1992). Also, the ethno-national policy of Ukraine is regulated by the certain legislative documents, like The Concept of National Minorities Cultural Development, State Program of Revival and Education Development of Ethnic Minorities in Ukraine” and other.[6]
The realization of current legislative regulations promotes the creative process of national cultural associations in Ukraine. The Central executive body has been established– it is the Ukraine State Committee on Nations and Migration. This Committee isresponsible for the public policy formation and realization in the sphere of international relations and minority rights.
The ethno-political situation in Ukraine significantly differed from other newly independent states at the beginning of 1990-s. That situation caused the only serious statute conflict. It is the intention of the Crimea to achieve autonomy. Even this conflict was managed through dialog. The problem of national minorities was realized at proper time. This problem became the central one for the public policy in the sphere of ethnic relations.
“The “ethno-policy” is a sphere of public life in multiethnic states. Ethno-policy consists of two components: first, the political relations between state nation (“nation-state”) and ethnic groups, and second, the relations ofethnic groups among themselves.The clash of interests of these main subjects of ethno-policy is concentrated around the issue of distribution of power and social and material benefits, in addition topreservation of ethnic identity. Ethno-policy means ethnic politicization, in other words, it is about stimulating the ethnic groups activity and transferring their requirements from cultural to the political ones”.[7]
But, from our point of view another approach is more constructive. According to this approach, the ethno-national public policy is a system of conceptual programs and organizational events in the sphere of ethno-social, ethno-cultural and ethno-political development of society. The goal of the public ethno-national policy is to promote free social, economical, cultural and intellectual development; it must be done on the basis of considering of ethnic groups’ (communities) mutual interests. The task of this ethno-national policy is to create the legislative, economical, political and other conditions for its development. This is about the stimulation of ethnic, national self-consciousness and the statement of honor and dignity.
Thus, public ethno-social policy is a promotion to create a natural environment for ethno- and nation-genesis of the ethnic components of society. This policy must consist of agreements between ethno-national interests and ethnic life regulation. Public policy should reject theintention to reduce ethnic and ethno-national interests to the cultural ones. Public ethno-policy should be developed on the following four levels: national, regional local (rayons, cities), supra-regional and sub-regional (the natural habitats of ethnic communities) levels. The process of social policy implementation consists of two components: first, the creation of economic ground for the stable and dynamic development of society; and second, the reformation of those spheres, which have a direct influence on the spiritual potential of ethnic individuals.[8]
Chapter 2. The Features of the Multiethnic Map of Southern Ukraine
It is not a real democracy if it is does not work for everybody, if it is works for limited part of population, or within limited spheres. Ethnic, ethnic groups, sub-ethnos are all part of a large domain of ethnics, who understand their unity and are able to organize themselves. They are the “segments” of Ukrainian multiethnic society, and a real democracy cannot be implemented beyond them. Ethnic movements,which according to their platform are similar to political parties, ethnic parties and other public associations represent the interests of the Ukrainians, the Crimea Tatars and other minorities such as the Russians, the Polish, the Bulgarian, the German and other.
The restructuring process of Ukrainian society is a dynamic process. Ukraine is diverse according to quantitative and ethnic composition of population and administrative and territorial constituents.
Ukrainian multiculturalism is significantly reflected on the regional level. On the territory of Ukraine, in particular in the West, South-Eastern regions and UkrainianBlack SeaCoast, this multicultural aspect has become a variety of Ukrainian identity.
According to the State Committee of Statistics (national census data, 2001) in Ukraine there are 10, 900, 00 representatives of 134 nationalities. The largest minority group is the Russian – 8, 300, 00 people (17, 3%). The other minority groups consist of the following: Belarusian minority - 275,69 (0,6%); Moldavian minority – 258,6 (0,5%); Crimea Tatar population – 248,2 (0,4%); Bulgarian minority - 204,6 (0,4 %); Hungarian minority – 156,6 (0,3%); Romanian minority – 151,0 (0,3%); Polish minority – 144,1 – (0,3%); Jewish minority – 103,6 (0,25); Armenian minority – 99,9 (0,2%); Greek minority – 91,5 (0,2%); Tatar minority – 73,3 (0,2%); Roma – 47,6 (0,1%); Azerbaijan minority – 45,2 (0,1%); Georgian minority – 34,2 (0,1%); German minority – 33,3 (0,1%); Gagauz minority -31,9 (0,1%).
Тable 1. Number of administrative and territorial units in Ukraine
(Southern Region)[9]
(information dated on the 1st of January, 2006)
№ / Oblasts (territorial units with the special status) / Rayons of Oblast / Cities / Towns1 / АRC / 14 / 16 / 56
2 / Vinnitsa oblast / 27 / 18 / 29
3 / Мykolaiv oblast / 19 / 9 / 17
4 / Оdessa oblast / 26 / 19 / 33
5 / Kherson oblast / 18 / 9 / 30
6 / Sebastopol city / - / 2 / 1
Ukraine / 490 / 456 / 885
In so far as ethnic composition, Odessa oblast is significantly different from other Ukrainian regions. More than 100 nationalities live here. 45% of theOdessa oblast population belongs to a non-native nationality (for Ukraine, as a whole, this number is 24%). In addition, Odessa oblast has the greatest diversity of ethnic groups.
According to State Statistics Committee of Ukraine dates the numbers of ethnic minorities in the Odessa oblast are:
Table 2. The number of ethnic minorities in Odessa oblast[10]
№ / Registered in Ukraine (in 1000’s) / Registered in Odessa oblast (in 1000) / Correlation (%)1 / Gagauz / 31,9 / 27,6 / 86,5%
2 / Bulgarian / 204,6 / 150,6 / 73,6%
3 / Moldavian / 258,6 / 123,7 / 47%
4 / Russian / 8,334,1 / 1542,3 / 18%
We can find a similar situation in other regions of Southern Ukraine: