Legacy of the State Socialism in the Political Culture of Ukrainian Society

Abstract

The author considers the case of Ukraine as the post-socialist transformative society, through the prism of political culture. The research question about the changes in political culture since 1991, under the institutional shifts resulted in introducing of market economy, private property and electoral democracy, is under scrutiny. The empirical analysis in comparative perspective based on a set of international and national research data allows proving the conclusion about persistence of post-socialist legacy in values and behavior models of post-socialist Ukrainian citizens. Other important hypothetic conclusion deals with understanding of principal role of the ‘cultural matrix’ of a society in definition of possible corridors for social changes.