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Characteristics of the Borderland Legal Conscience: the Ukrainian Variant of the Idea of Federalism
Consequently, the problem of the federal structure and national autonomy found its
roots in the problem of different understanding of the bases for sociopolitical solidarity
of Russian and Ukrainian liberals.
The former insisted on the formation of society culture within the limits of the all-
Russian culture, neglecting the right to national self-determination, the latter preferred to
form society culture within the limits of the national Ukrainian culture. The position of
the latter to a greater degree satisfied the conditions of that time as the Ukrainian nation
faced the problem of the joining of Western and Eastern lands.
We can state that the liberal approach to the problem of the federal state system and
national autonomy was based on the vision of the principle connection between the free-
dom of an individual choice and the necessity to preserve the variety of choices of the self-
identification model. Federal structure and national autonomy were accepted by liberals
at the beginning of the XX century as a step towards the protection of rights of differenti-
ated cultural-ethnic groups. Respect of the right of choice of a person, a group, “a social
union” or a party was a major principle of the liberal model of the state. The essence of
the major principle of public administration specified by B.A. Kistjakovsky is not the will
that submits, but the will which subordinates
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. B.A. Kistjakovsky brings to our attention
the central thesis of the concept of public behavior with it being the content of any social
phenomenon, a cumulative vector of subjective liberties, namely members of community.
The phenomenon of state power acquires features of social-psychological character and
to the full coincides with the views of M.K. Mihajlovsky, G.Tard, G. Zimmel’.
As it has already been mentioned, a certain structure, the system of public relations,
legal order, etc. will always be viewed as an instrument of social transformations but not
as the end in itself. This is a specific feature of liberalism as social-political ideology and
political-legal doctrine. At the same time the idea of national autonomy and federalism is
no other than a stage of removal of limitations of personal freedom. The idea of national
autonomy in the structure of federation and then the idea of national sovereignty are
steps needed to limit the power of the state and attempts to preserve liberty as the main
value for the legal conscience of the Borderland.
Liberal values of modern civilization became the result of development of society
clamped within the limits of “enlightened neighbors”, “state foundations”, and “legal sys-
tem”. Theorists of liberalism of the XVII -XVIII centuries considered the condition of “war
against everybody” and the stage of public contract to be speculative constructions, just
like “ideal gas” in physics. None of them could even assume that they actually described
real historical conditions which developed in Europe on the border of the Wild Fields and
Rzechpospolita. The Eastern European Borderland in the XVII-XVIII centuries became an
arena for those processes of state development the possibility of which had been assumed
only theoretically. The situation of “the neutral ground”, liberty as absence of any state
regulation, spontaneous territorial-military unions is the social experience of the Border-
land which for many years was not paid any attention to either by European or domestic
historians of law.
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Andrey Artemenko
Nevertheless, it would be naive to assume, that the presence of such social experience
in not so remote historical past did not affect the formation of the legal conscience of
the Ukrainian people. A peculiar feature of Little Russia identity is its complexity as a sys-
tem of tolerances and loyalties. This system is the product of the Borderland experience.
A Ukrainian was compelled to define himself through structures which he perceived as
“alien”, but at the same time political, class or economic interests forced him to be loyal
to “the other”.
For a person living in the Borderland the perception of the state is always accompa-
nied by a complex dilemma of preservation of one’s own individuality and freedom as
well as the desire to join the system of benefits of global civilization guaranteed by being
a part of a big state association, whether it is the Russian empire or the modern European
Union. In this particular case the only acceptable solution is to use the model of federation
yielding some part of the rights in exchange for access to more ample opportunities.
The beginning of the article stated that federalism is the future of Ukraine. The pros-
pect of joining the European Union is put forward as a program position of several Ukrai-
nian political parties present in the Supreme Rada. Implementation of these provisions in
reality entails a voluntary renunciation of some rights of a sovereign state. Any union is a
product of tolerance and compromise. The entry into the European Union presupposes
the change of the national legislation to make it conform to the norms of the Union,
coordinating manufacture, trade and foreign policy with the general principles of the Eu-
ropean community. Such concessions transform Ukraine into an equal partner, a member
of the uniform economic and political space. Thus, it is the prospect of the second model
of federalism which allows to use benefits of global civilization. However, it can also be
interpreted as a display of civilization compensatoriness: the renunciation of a part of
sovereignty is compensated by access to globality.
Even if the joining the European Union is postponed for any reason for a long time or
becomes impossible, then the problem of federalism will not lose its urgency as the devel-
opment of the system of local self-government is stipulated within the framework of the
same second model of federalism. The right to solve problems of the regional character is
transferred to local communities. The fundamental condition of this model is the precise
regulation of administrative functions and powers of local self-government. At the same
time local state services rendered by local self-government institutions, are looked at as a
part of national services.
Finally we can ascertain that as a result of local self-government reform in Ukraine the
territorial community will receive a rather high level of autonomy from central authority
that will allow to bring its status as close as possible to the status of the subject of federa-
tion.
Why is the idea of federalism so persistent in the legal conscience of the Borderland
peoples in general and of Ukrainians in particular?
The Borderland assumes openness to the world. To be in between is an opportunity
to represent a lot simultaneously, to combine different qualities and in this variety to feel
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