The Factor of Democracy and Prosperity and the Formation of the Nation State in the Example of Ukraine: Pre-War Picture

Ukraine is currently facing an armed onslaught, the likes of which no European country has struggled with since the Second World War, and it will probably take years to repair the country physically and the population mentally. However, to ensure that the future recovery process does not begin with a return to the past, a thorough analysis of the state of affairs before the intensification of the Russian onslaught in 2022, which began in 2014, is needed. The primary purpose of writing the article is to show, with real examples, the ineffectiveness of the pre-war state-forming function in Ukraine. This analysis indicates why most of the reforms were nullified and which steps must be taken to avoid these problems for the country’s correct economic, cultural, and political evolution. Using the Cobb-Douglas function, the relationship between intra-system factors of state formation and the standard of living of the country’s population is also established. It is proposed to shape the national concept of the modernisation of the public administration system and its new paradigm and to develop its state-forming model, which will be adequate with regard to Ukrainian realities (including the state post-war) and global trends. Thus, the relevance of the research topic stems from the need to provide practical recommendations for the future, post-war modernisation of the state-forming system in the context of the socio-political and economic development of the country, as well as civil society.