«EXTRA-SYSTEMIC» PUBLIC SERVICE IN UKRAINE: CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31470/2786-6246-2026-15-61-68Keywords:
civil service, public service, civil servant, extra-system statuses, deinstitutionalization, heads of local state administrationsAbstract
The article is devoted to the analysis of the processes of fragmentation and deinstitutionalization of the civil service in Ukraine, the consequences of which are the formation of extra-systemic legal statuses for certain positions. It is shown that the civil service reform of 2015, aimed at the introduction of the principles of professionalism, patriotism, integrity, efficiency, stability, political impartiality, and the merit system, subsequently underwent a significant deviation from these basic principles due to the practice of point-based exclusion of certain positions from the scope of application of the Law of Ukraine “On Civil Service”.
Using the example of a change in the legal status of the heads of local state administrations, who were removed from the senior civil service corps, the process of forming a hybrid model is shown, under which positions that are administrative by their functional nature are subordinated to political principles of service, which contradicts the principles of the EU public service.
It is substantiated that the creation of extra-system statuses causes the destruction of the unity and uniformity of the civil service institution, neutralizes career mechanisms, strengthens the political dependence of officials, and reproduces the features of a neo-patrimonial system. Material and social factors are analyzed separately as reasons why certain state bodies depart from the unified model of remuneration for civil servants to obtain special preferences.
The study concludes that granting officials «extra-systemic» status created opportunities to establish more flexible and higher pay scales, alongside autonomous incentive mechanisms for their staff. This occurred despite the fact that creating privileged service regimes within specific government bodies contradicts the principles of unity, fairness, and transparency in public service. Collectively, this practice has fostered institutional asymmetry within the civil service and undermined its systemic integrity as a unified public law institution. Future research should focus on developing effective policy and legal mechanisms to overcome this «extra-systemic» nature of public service in Ukraine and to restore the principle of its institutional unity.
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