DOI: 10.46340/eppd.2025.12.1.2
Anastasia Kravets, D.Sc. in Political Science
National Technical University, Dnipro, Ukraine
Oleg Tupytsia, D.Sc. in Political Science
Dnipro City Council, Dnipro, Ukraine
Artem Hmelnykov
Taras Shevchenko National University, Kyiv, Ukraine
How to cite: Kravets, A., Tupytsia, O., & Hmelnykov, A. (2025). The Role of Non-Governmental Organizations in a Social and Political Life: International, National and Local Levels. Evropský politický a právní diskurz, 12, 1, 13-21. https://doi.org/10.46340/eppd.2025.12.1.2
Abstract
Non-governmental organizations play an extremely important role in the social and political life of democratic countries of the world. They involve broad segments of the population in state-building activities. Public organizations are a link of communication between the authorities and society. Many studies and scientific publications by leading Ukrainian and foreign researchers are devoted to analyzing public organizations in the context of management, ideology, economic role, etc. This article focuses on the practical aspect of research: how different non-governmental organizations influence / should influence political life on the international, national, and local levels. Similar foreign experience is taken into account, where non-governmental organizations are powerful tools for influencing managerial decision-making. They can accumulate, articulate, protect, and lobby the interests of their members. However, in today’s Ukrainian realities, they only have potential. To effectively represent their interests, public organizations must cooperate with political parties or join public councils under executive bodies. Thus, they lose both self-government and non-governmental character. Moreover, the criteria for selecting organizations to participate in public councils under Ukrainian executive bodies remain unclear. Currently, Ukraine hosts thousands of public organizations, but they lack real political influence. Nonetheless, foreign experience, active collaboration with influential international organizations, and a thorough examination of the mechanisms through which foreign non-governmental organizations shape social and political life could offer valuable insights. The theoretical foundation for this analysis is drawn from the scientific works of leading foreign and Ukrainian researchers.
Keywords: non-governmental organizations, public organizations, international, national and local level, social and political life, political parties, state institutions, democratic countries.
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