DEPÓSITO LEGAL ZU2020000153  
Esta publicación científica en formato digital  
es continuidad de la revista impresa  
ISSN 0041-8811  
E-ISSN 2665-0428  
Revista  
de la  
Universidad  
del Zulia  
Fundada en 1947  
por el Dr. Jesús Enrique Lossada  
Ciencias  
Sociales  
y Arte  
Año 12 N° 34  
Septiembre - Diciembre 2021  
Tercera Época  
Maracaibo-Venezuela  
REVISTA DE LA UNIVERSIDAD DEL ZULIA. 3ª época. Año 12 N° 34, 2021  
Serhii O. Komnatnyi et al// The role of civil society institutions in ensuring social control… 341-360  
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46925//rdluz.34.20  
The role of civil society institutions in ensuring social control over  
political processes  
Serhii O. Komnatnyi *  
Hanna S. Buha **  
Anna M. Fedorova ***  
Valerii M. Horovyi ****  
Kateryna V. Bortniak *****  
ABSTRACT  
The purpose of the article is to investigate the importance and roles of civil society  
institutions in exercising social control over policy formulation and implementation  
processes, even in conditions of pandemic contingency. The study has used the methods of  
comparative analysis, temporal analysis, case study method, statistical data analysis and  
secondary research of the results of sociological studies. It has been established that civil  
society institutions play the role of efficient institutions of social control. They are able to  
mutually strengthen the intentions of the State to ensure the public interest, establish the  
collaboration of citizens and the cohesion of public efforts. In Ukraine, so far, civil society is  
at a stage of development and, along with the quantitative characteristics, does not have the  
appropriate qualitative characteristics. Social control is not authoritarian in nature, nor is it  
mandatory; it is carried out on behalf of its actors: civil society and citizens.  
KEYWORDS: Social control; Social participation; civil society; democracy; politics.  
*
Department of Civil Law Disciplines, National Academy of Internal Affairs, Kyiv, Ukraine.  
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2124-2047. E-mail: sergii02021983@gmail.com  
*
*Department of Administrative and Law Disciplines, Faculty #2, Donetsk law institute of MIA  
of Ukraine, Mariupol, Ukraine. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3957-7387. E-mail:  
kuzianna@ukr.net  
*
**Department of Public Administration and Innovation Management, Education and Research  
Institute of Continuing Education, National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of  
Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8833-6606. E-mail: 99849@i.ua  
*
***National Library of Ukraine named after V. I. Vernadsky, Kyiv, Ukraine. ORCID: 0000-  
https://orcid.org/0002-2644-5249. E-mail: valeriih177@gmail.com  
*
****Department of Public and Private Law, Kyiv V. I.Vernadsky Taurida National University,  
Kyiv, Ukraine. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2135-3820. E-mail: Tnu2019@meta.ua  
Recibido: 06/05/2021  
Aceptado: 02/07/2021  
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Serhii O. Komnatnyi et al// The role of civil society institutions in ensuring social control… 341-360  
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46925//rdluz.34.20  
El papel de las instituciones de la sociedad civil para garantizar el  
control social de los procesos políticos  
RESUMEN  
El propósito del artículo consiste en investigar la importancia y las funciones de las  
instituciones de la sociedad civil en el ejercicio del control social sobre los procesos de  
formulación e implementación de políticas, incluso en condiciones de contingencia  
pandémica. El estudio ha utilizado los métodos de análisis comparativo, análisis temporal,  
método de estudio de casos, análisis de datos estadísticos e investigación secundaria de los  
resultados de estudios sociológicos. Se ha establecido que las instituciones de la sociedad civil  
desempeñan el papel de instituciones eficientes de control social. Son capaces de fortalecer  
mutuamente las intenciones del Estado para velar por el interés público, establecer la  
colaboración de la ciudadanía y la cohesión de los esfuerzos públicos. En Ucrania, hasta  
ahora, la sociedad civil se encuentra en una etapa de desarrollo y, junto con las características  
cuantitativas, no tiene las características cualitativas adecuadas. El control social no es de  
naturaleza autoritaria, ni es obligatorio; se lleva a cabo en nombre de sus actores: la sociedad  
civil y los ciudadanos.  
PALABRAS CLAVE: Control social; participación social; sociedad civil; democracia; política.  
Introduction  
The issue of social control over political processes is particularly urgent in the context  
of downturn of the level of trust in State institutions, the growth of populist sentiments and  
the need to increase the quality of policy. The public discourse discusses the effectiveness of  
various mechanisms of such control, the possibility of involving more citizens of different  
ages in public consultations and constructive participation in the processes of development  
and implementation of public policy.  
Therefore, the purpose of this work is to investigate the importance and functions of  
civil society institutions in ensuring social control over the processes of development and  
implementation of public policies. In order to achieve that goal, it is necessary to solve the  
following research tasks: 1) analysis of the purpose and peculiarities of social control in  
modern conditions to ensure the quality of public policy; 2) identification of problems of  
active participation of civil society institutions in the processes of social control and  
development of recommendations for their solution in Ukraine.  
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Serhii O. Komnatnyi et al// The role of civil society institutions in ensuring social control… 341-360  
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46925//rdluz.34.20  
1
. Literary review  
Global democratization processes, the growing importance of self-organization of the  
population and participation of the general public in public policy-making are also  
strengthened by decentralization processes in public administration, which have become  
vectors in the countries currently undergoing secondary modernization. A lot of modern  
researchers in their works consider various aspects of ensuring social control by means of  
public organisations (Marañón et al, 2021).  
Leigh (2019) views this issue through the prism of the development of public spaces  
and modern urban planning. After all, materialized spaces and the availability of other  
resources to ensure them should be, among other things, an important condition for ensuring  
social control. The researcher analyses how social control affects the quality of public policy  
in the development of social infrastructure (Leigh, 2019). McHale (2019) focuses his research  
on the role of media in supporting social control, policy-making and policy implementation  
in modern democracies. The retrospective method, used in the researcher's works, is quite  
valuable, as it is used as an analytical lens, through which it is possible to determine the  
importance of media as a powerful means of social control. Media, as a civil society  
institution, have always played a constructive role in the development of public policy and  
its implementation. At the same time, McHale (2019) analyses the destructive effects from  
the influence of media, in particular the fact that social media contribute to the division of  
public discourse into opposing parties. The researcher analyses the cases of dissemination of  
discursive and, consequently, social chaos through disinformation campaigns, bringing us to  
the idea that the media is both a separating and a unifying force. However, the growth of  
social media and their susceptibility to manipulation constitutes a danger to social cohesion,  
effective public policy-making and implementation of State policy, which affects the lack of  
clarity in policy objectives and the quality of the political process.  
Another theorist Swain (2019) analyses the functions of public sports organizations in  
ensuring social control. Socio-historical analysis, performed by the author, is useful for  
understanding the role of sports initiatives in the public sector for the development of  
national social policy. It is possible to trace in the works of Swain (2019) how the methods  
of exercising public authority have changed from industrial times to post-industrial  
conditions. Currently, the definition of sports as a part of public culture in terms of the covid-  
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Serhii O. Komnatnyi et al// The role of civil society institutions in ensuring social control… 341-360  
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46925//rdluz.34.20  
1
9 pandemic helps in the implementation of policies to promote healthy lifestyle, motivation  
to physical activity and anti-ageism.  
The researchers Klein and Lee (2019) look into the processes of interrelation and  
collaboration between the civil society, the State, and the economy, where each agent shapes  
different engagement strategies. These strategies include, in particular, the policy of  
influence, the policy of substitution and the policy of occupation, which conform to the  
strategies of discursive impact, functional substitution and takeover of institutions,  
respectively. The scholars emphasize that either civil society can interfere in the actions of  
the State and the economy can react in response to the actions of the State, or the State and  
the economy can as well interfere with the activities of civil society.  
Antje and Dieter (2019) have researched the application of well-established notions of  
civil society in new democracies. The scientists highlight the special cases of third world  
countries and low efficiency of secondary modernization in African countries. With regard  
to the analysis of social control, the scientists have found out interesting consequences of the  
improvement of the quality of policy as a result of active efforts of civil society institutions  
(
Antje & Dieter, 2019). In this discussion, Cooper (2018) stresses that civil society groups are  
becoming more technologically literate using social media platforms. Jezard (2018), in turn,  
adds to such platforms new technological tools, used by civil society institutions in order to  
increase the efficiency of their work. For example, the World Wildlife Fund uses drone  
technologies, animal tracking devices and infrared cameras to combat poaching of  
endangered species (Jezard, 2018). The UNICEF U-Report bot is a free tool for social  
monitoring. Thanks to the bot, according to Jezard (2018), it became possible to uncover a  
scandal over exploitation of children by their teachers in Liberia. In less than a day, 13,000  
people were involved in the public debate and, as soon as the problem went public, a support  
service was established and advisory services were appointed (Jezard, 2018).  
Social control as an anti-corruption practice was analysed by Langseth (2001). In cases  
where institutions, designed to ensure respect for human rights, are treated by the citizens  
as the most corrupted ones, the social consequences of such a process have destructive  
impact on socio-political processes. Systemic corruption undermines the legitimacy of the  
State and the democracy itself. Langseth (2001) justifies the importance of systematic,  
reliable and transparent monitoring of the levels, types, localization, causes of corruption and  
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Serhii O. Komnatnyi et al// The role of civil society institutions in ensuring social control… 341-360  
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46925//rdluz.34.20  
anti-corruption strategies. According to the researcher, this is possible by improving access  
to reliable mechanisms of social control by civil society institutions, which will significantly  
strengthen the anti-corruption approach, aimed at the collection of empirical data.  
The scholar Lorch (2017a; 2017b) emphasizes in her works that the concept of civil  
society should be systematically contextualized. The theorist Howell (2019) analyses  
temporal cases of complex policies, developed through the pluralisation of public discourse  
in transition countries, the development of a mechanism of social control through the  
involvement of civil society institutions.  
Particularly noteworthy among the latest works is the work of Brechenmacher et al.  
(
2020), which identifies the challenges of the activities of civil society organizations in times  
of economic crisis. Despite the sufficient coverage of the topic of social control of civil society  
institutions in various aspects by modern theorists, the scholars have not yet developed  
common position on the clear distinction between the definitions of “civil control” and  
“
social control”. It is necessary to give integrated assessment of the opportunities and  
development of capabilities for social control in modern conditions. In view of the aforesaid,  
we will try to reveal the indicated inconsistencies in this work.  
2
. Methods  
The research procedure comprised the preparatory phase and the field survey phase.  
The preparatory phase included content analysis of scientific literature on the topic, analysis  
of analytical reports of international organizations, international projects, content of sites  
and information portals of the public authorities and civil society institutions. The field  
survey phase involved carrying out qualitative sociological studies.  
The article uses qualitative methodology with the combination of two methods: in-  
depth interviews and focused in-depth interviews. Combination of the two methods of  
qualitative research allowed to obtain the widest range of opinions and to create group  
dynamics in order to update and problematize the issues, related to social control in Ukraine,  
by different target groups.  
Transcripts of 15 in-depth interviews and 5 focus groups were obtained based on the  
results of the field survey phase.  
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Serhii O. Komnatnyi et al// The role of civil society institutions in ensuring social control… 341-360  
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46925//rdluz.34.20  
The in-depth interview method involves individual meetings with the representatives  
of certain target groups in order to study their views on social control in Ukraine and their  
attitude to it. Such an interview is conducted using open-ended questions and may not be  
clearly structured. It allows you to identify the subconscious attitude of the target audience  
to the problematic issues, namely: thoughts, motives, feelings, ideas, views of the  
respondents.  
The procedure for the organization and conduct of an in-depth interview included the  
following stages: drawing up an in-depth interview plan for each of the identified target  
groups; the process of planning and preparing for an interview; organizing and conducting  
an interview; processing and analysis of the obtained results; report preparation.  
In-depth interviews were aimed at identifying the peculiarities of perception of  
functions and means by various groups of the public concerned (the representatives of civic  
organizations, local government officials, local youth, local executive authorities, local media,  
active citizens, social workers (teachers, doctors).  
The planning and preparation phase for the interview involved establishing contacts  
with active public organisations in the regions of Ukraine. After that, the “snow-ball method”  
was used to search for respondents. The main criteria, which were used for selecting  
respondents for in-depth interviews, included: 1) belonging to one of the target groups; 2)  
accessibility and motivation to participate (based on the results of a preliminary interview),  
the ability to provide qualitative, detailed and reliable information on the process of social  
control; 3) adherence to gender balance in the selection of participants (Brick, 2018).  
In the implementation phase, there were used various questions from the guide-book,  
including open-ended questions, game elements and techniques which helped to reduce  
emotional tension and to establish friendly and partnership relations with the respondents,  
the techniques that stimulated the story-telling or, vice-versa, helped to “cut off” spin-off  
topics, irrelevant to the study.  
Three people were trained and participated in interviewers. A total of 15 in-depth  
interviews were conducted with the representatives of 7 target groups.  
The peculiarities of organizing and conducting focus group interviews as a method of  
obtaining quality information are as follows.  
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Serhii O. Komnatnyi et al// The role of civil society institutions in ensuring social control… 341-360  
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46925//rdluz.34.20  
A focus group interview is a square talk of a group of strangers or a group of people  
who hardly know each other, in a comfortable setting. The method allows to obtain the most  
complete picture of public opinion from a certain audience, revealing the obvious and hidden  
motives of behavior, factors shaping judgments and attitudes.  
Key selection criteria for each focus group are as follows:  
1
. Preliminary interview with each participant in order to determine the socio-  
economic characteristics so as to balance gender, age and status;  
. The participants of adult groups should not be the representatives of one working  
2
group;  
3. Students and schoolchildren (students of vocational (professional and technical)  
education institutions, college students, school students) may be the representatives of one  
school, but there should be no more than 3 people from the same class.  
Recruitment of participants is targeted selection of respondents in different regions of  
Ukraine regarding their geographical location and other defined criteria. A total of 5 focus  
group interviews were conducted with the representatives of civic organizations, local  
government officials, local media, active citizens, social workers (teachers, doctors).  
It is important to emphasize that all working meetings, without any exceptions, took  
place online in view of the pandemic.  
The study has also used the method of secondary research of the results of sociological  
studies. Sociological polls, which can be defined as mass sociological surveys, were  
conducted by the sampling method. The sampling, built on the principle of stratification,  
was representative of the whole of Ukraine, as the stratum were the respondents from all  
regions of Ukraine. The confidence figure (accuracy) in the study was 95%, the measure of  
inaccuracy can count to 2-3%.  
The methodology for the analysis of social control, used in the study, is aimed at  
reflecting different positions of all the participants and all the parties concerned. The  
relativistic approach, that connects civil society with the context of its actions and activities,  
has proved to be a fruitful approach to the analysis of social control.  
The method of secondary research of the results of sociological studies was used to  
justify the degree of legitimacy of social control over civil society institutions. The study  
analysed mass sociological surveys with the representative sample by gender, age, and  
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Serhii O. Komnatnyi et al// The role of civil society institutions in ensuring social control… 341-360  
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46925//rdluz.34.20  
territorial characteristics. The total respondent population in such studies was over 2,000  
people, with the measure of inaccuracy no more than 2.5%. The study also used such type of  
comparative methods as the binary method in the analysis of a number of quantitative  
characteristics of civil society in different countries.  
3. Results  
According to the results of focus group surveys, 80% of representatives of public  
organisations are almost or fully prepared to exercise social control over the activities of  
public authorities. But the problem is that 50% of them lack certain resources: time, finances  
and most importantly – professional human resources with the developed constructive  
competence to negotiate with the State.  
Only 60% of the representatives of local authorities are ready to accept public  
organisations as fully-fledged partners in the process of exercising their functions of social  
control.  
According to the results of the interviews, only 20% of the representatives of local  
executive authorities are ready to accept public organisations as fully-fledged partners  
performing social control over the activities of public authorities. Moreover, according to  
public officials, public organisations are not ready to hold the sufficiently professional  
discussion on public sector reform.  
The interviewed youth representatives showed more passive than active position on  
the issue of systematic participation in social control over the activities of local authorities,  
but more active than passive position regarding the issue of social control over the activities  
of central government bodies.  
The representatives of the social sphere were ready to participate in the  
implementation of social control over the activities of public authorities by 40% only,  
justifying it by potentially low effectiveness of such participation.  
In general, the case of modern Ukraine, in the context of various social and professional  
groups, gives grounds for asserting positive dynamic in the development of civil society over  
the years of independence (see Figure 1 and Figure 2).  
But the number of registered public organizations in Ukraine does not automatically  
imply high level of quality of social control over their political processes (see Table 1).  
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Serhii O. Komnatnyi et al// The role of civil society institutions in ensuring social control… 341-360  
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46925//rdluz.34.20  
The number of registered public  
organisations in Ukraine  
9
0000  
0000  
0000  
0000  
0000  
0000  
0000  
0000  
0000  
0
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
The number of registered  
public organisations in  
Ukraine  
1990 1991 1996 2000 2013 2016 2018  
Figure 1. The growth dynamics of the number of public organisations in Ukraine (based on  
the materials of the State Statistics Committee of Ukraine (n./d.))  
30  
25  
20  
15  
10  
5
0
2014  
2017  
2018  
Membership in public organisations of Ukraine, mln  
Figure 2. Dynamics of membership in public organisations in Ukraine (based on the  
materials of the State Statistics Committee of Ukraine (n./d.))  
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Serhii O. Komnatnyi et al// The role of civil society institutions in ensuring social control… 341-360  
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46925//rdluz.34.20  
Table 1. The level of citizens' confidence in civil society institutions and other public  
organisations of Ukraine  
Institutions  
Citizens' confidence, % of Citizens' confidence, %  
people polled, 2015  
of people polled, 2020  
Church  
58,8  
63  
Volunteers  
57,6  
45,3  
34,5  
63  
65  
47  
Armed Forces of Ukraine  
Non-governmental  
organisations  
Ukrainian mass media  
The President of Ukraine  
National Police  
32,3  
16,8  
14,9  
8,7  
50  
44,4  
33  
The  
Government  
of  
21,1  
Ukraine  
The Verkhovna Rada of  
Ukraine  
6,2  
18,6  
Source: The author's development based on empirical evidence Razumkov centre (n./d.)  
As you can see, the level of confidence in public organizations in Ukraine has grown.  
But this is unlikely to be the result of increase in the quality of social control by public  
organisations, as stabilizing force in the social development in Ukraine in 2020, compared to  
the open armed phase of the conflict and armed aggression in Ukraine in 2015. Moreover, the  
predominance of the level of confidence in volunteers over the level of confidence in public  
organisations indicates some problems in the functioning of public organisations (the so-  
called “dark sides”), which may relate to unwillingness to collaborate with other public  
organisations, difficulties in bureaucratic procedures regarding formalisation of their  
activities and etc.  
A democratic social welfare state shall provide for reciprocal responsibility of the  
State, society, business and citizens. However, day-to-day realities of this responsibility in  
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46925//rdluz.34.20  
the case of the transit country of Ukraine are different. The case of Ukraine illustrates the  
realities of “a person is for the State” situation rather than “the State is for a person” one.  
Table 2 shows that the authorities in Ukraine have low level of legitimacy. For example, the  
level of confidence in the only legislative body in Ukraine – the Parliament – is only 18.6%,  
which is even below the classic “threshold of legitimacy” – 20%, after which the crisis of  
legitimacy occurs.  
Table 2. The results of sociological polls, conducted in order to determine the organisations  
that Ukrainian citizens trust the most in protecting their rights.  
Answer options  
to mass media  
Affirmative answers of  
the citizens, in %  
28  
Where would you  
turn in cases of  
violation of your  
rights (survey of the  
citizens of Ukraine,  
to European Court of Human  
Rights  
to the police  
19  
10  
16  
8
2017)  
to the court  
to local authorities  
Source: Human Rights (2017)  
54% of Ukrainians have never tried to protect their rights (Human Rights, 2017). The  
crisis of confidence in the authorities is evidenced by the fact that in 2017 the Ukrainians did  
not call the judiciary or public order bodies the leaders in the effectiveness of human rights  
protection in Ukraine.  
Appreciation of media in defending the rights of citizens shows high potential that  
media demonstrate as a civil society institution in performing the functions of social control.  
However, 65% of those, who tried to protect their rights in Ukraine, failed, which proves that  
there are no effective ways to protect human rights in Ukraine. Besides, there is a significant  
demand for increasing the quality of social control over the actions of the authorities and  
improving the human rights situation in Ukraine.  
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Let's compare the state of development of civil society in Ukraine and in Poland, which  
is close to Ukraine in terms of population (see Table 3). For comparison, we have chosen  
2013, which was more or less similar in the dynamics of socio-political processes in the two  
countries, namely we have considered the period before the start of civil protests in Ukraine  
called the “Revolution of Dignity” (which began in late November 2013).  
Table 3. Quantitative characteristics of civil society in Ukraine and Poland as of the second  
half of 2013 (the author's development)  
Ukraine  
35000  
Poland  
35000  
The number of public  
organisations  
(
approximately)  
Members  
organisations  
Contributions from foreign  
grant sponsors in the  
system of financing the  
activities;  
of  
public 8.1% of the population  
20% of the population  
20%  
50%  
Funding self- There is little funding, 50-60% of organisations received  
from  
government organisations  
associated  
corruption risks  
with  
budget support from local  
governments. Since 2004, 1% of  
the tax paid by the citizens during  
the preparation of the annual tax  
report can be transferred to  
public organisations.  
Social, cultural, economic No more than 20% of More than 75% of public  
public organisations  
organisations  
interests of the citizens in  
relations with the State are  
represented by  
The number of registered  
parties  
201  
75  
Based on the figures of membership in public organisations in Ukraine and Poland, it  
becomes clear that the public sector in Ukraine is more fragmented. At the same time, in  
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Poland almost all public organisations are large, credible, and effective in exercising social  
control. Therefore, it is not surprising that more than 80-85% of the Poles trust them.  
In Ukraine, for example, in the research year (2013):  
-
-
-
-
only 35.1% of public organisations submitted reports;  
only 8% of public organisations have national and international status;  
about 20% of public organisations are not located at the legal address;  
violations of the Statute and of the legislation of Ukraine have been found in the  
activities of 20% of public organisations;  
“less practical measures”, such as holding various conferences and round-table  
-
discussions, predominate (more than 50%) in the activities of public organisations.  
All this indicates the weakness of the institutional capacity of public organisations in  
Ukraine to exercise social control of appropriate quality over political processes. One of the  
reasons for low institutional capacity is scattered efforts of public organisations and  
fragmentation of civil society, small number of powerful and authoritative public  
organisations, reluctance of smaller public organisations to unite in order to synergistically  
strengthen each other's social control over political processes (Ivchenko, 2017).  
Another important task for exercising social control in terms of the pandemics is  
consolidation of efforts and assistance to community groups in order to unite effectively for  
an equitable dialog with the authorities. Civil society institutions, in search of additional  
sources of funding, could act as implementing partners in the areas, where there is limited  
presence of the State or low public confidence in the authorities.  
4
. Discussion  
The study has defined, based on empirical evidence, insufficient level of involvement  
of civil society institutions in Ukraine in implementation of social control, despite certain  
institutional, ideological and staff capacities. It can be said that the public sector of Ukraine  
remains quite fragmented and unconsolidated. Despite the large number of public  
organizations, the dynamics of membership in these organizations is low. This interferes  
with the increasing role of public participation in the conduct of public affairs. It should be  
emphasized that public participation is not of systematic and constructive nature, but it is  
crisis-related and remonstrative (Ryabov, 2004).  
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46925//rdluz.34.20  
The support of social partnership in Europe is currently an ongoing process of timely  
administrative reforms and modernization of political process. There are three sets of policies  
that influence this policy process: inter-institutional policy; public sector policy/non-  
governmental sector policy and internal policy/external policy. Moreover, especially  
important and crucial are the processes of gradual institutional changes, adopted by the key  
political actors in order to achieve the goals of building consolidated democracy. Therefore,  
the strengthening of state unity contributed meaningfully to the development of immature  
civil society, and vice versa (Green, 2017; Greer, 2017).  
Researchers Brechenmacher et al. (2020) emphasize that new forms of civic  
mobilization and solidarity are likely to suffer significantly from the pandemic economic  
crisis. Civil society organisations (especially recently established ones) may lose important  
sources of funding – funds, while independent media organisations will experience a steep  
decline in advertising revenues. This tendency may accelerate the growth of informal  
activities in the public sector in comparison with formal activism. As a result, smaller public  
organisations will collaborate and unite. At the same time, public and private actors, willing  
to support civil society, hurry to adapt to the new global context. They need to become more  
flexible in providing assistance to civil society actors, linking them to larger support  
packages. This is important in a pandemic, as well as strengthening of political positions on  
the value of civil society in general. Modern researchers advise civil society institutions, in  
volatile environments of public sector development, to try to form unexpected coalitions and  
to experiment with new initiatives, to continue to support local public organisations until  
the recovery stage (Brechenmacher et al., 2020).  
In a pandemic, the important role of social control of civil society institutions is to  
monitor new support packages and new support for the journalists and anti-corruption  
organisations, which protect the proper quality of public service in the context of  
procurements and implementation of management processes in the time of COVID-19. It is  
important that the emergency situation and unpredictability of social processes during the  
COVID-19 period would not lead to the strengthening of State control, to which frightened  
and disoriented public can tend. Democratic participation and social control are even more  
important in terms of the pandemics, as public space must be fully operational and develop  
in any case. Bureaucratic differences in the activities of certain organisations should not  
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prevent bringing together in order to respond to threats. And in many countries, one can find  
examples of local community groups succeeding in something governments fail to do, using  
their resources for the common good (Brechenmacher et al., 2020). The pandemic period,  
naturally, suggests support in the fight against the coronavirus, but at such times the public  
sector should support confronting the policy of excessiveness and punitive restrictions on  
civil liberties. It is also time to strengthen rather than reduce international commitments to  
build public space and inculcate democratic values in general.  
Non-parliamentary parties are of civil society institutions as well. Due to its strong  
organizational orientation to participate in political life, a party is an effective expression of  
the needs and goals of certain social groups, moreover, it contributes its driving force to the  
governance and determines the direction of activities of public authorities. In a democracy,  
political parties do not just represent the interests of different groups, they will formalize  
and justify them ideologically – in the form of systematized program requirements for the  
authorities and the State policy. Parties go beyond mere representation of various social  
interests, but organize and represent them in the political process as well, participating in  
the development and conduct of public policy. As electoral tools, the parties contribute to  
the involvement of citizens in politics, namely in the organization and structuring of the  
political process in democratic systems. By interaction with each other and with public and  
local authorities, political parties can reconcile different, usually competing social interests,  
thus removing social and class differences and overcoming social tensions without aggression  
and violence, through compromise (Galston, 2004).  
Since most modern parties strive to be parties for everyone, not just for one social  
group, they offer society the values that can unite the majority of citizens. The party,  
performing its electoral function, inevitably influences public opinion, trying to convince the  
voters of the optimality of its own party platform (VanDyck, 2017).  
Thus, parties are organized political forces that unite the citizens with common  
political views with the purpose of mobilization of public opinion concerning a certain  
number of goals and in order to fight for meeting these requirements at the level of the  
authorities. The quality of democracy depends on whether the parties have managed to  
become the real centres of accumulation of society's potential, whether they have different  
semantic identity, or whether they have a sense of political responsibility (Semenets-Orlova  
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46925//rdluz.34.20  
&
Kyselova, 2018; Primoratz, 2017). Multi-party system, based on the appropriate legislative  
frameworks, is one of the factors and guarantors of respect for human rights and freedoms,  
the progress of a stable political system, reforming economic and social relations, raising the  
welfare, spirituality and culture of the Ukrainian people. Characteristic features of Ukrainian  
political parties are: the team work of most parties; lack of the developed social base and even  
of ideas about it; the informal formation of electoral blocs; sudden change of attitude of  
parties towards certain political leaders; clear association of parties and their leaders with  
financial and economic structures; the failure of attempts to form a powerful bloc of centrist  
political parties. Orientation of a significant part of the parties towards the middle class does  
not take into account the current structures of society and is designed for the future (Taleb,  
2018). Some parties have declared themselves to represent the interests of the classes that are  
yet to be formed, and such an orientation is forward-looking.  
Civic education (Starkey, 2002) and high level of developed culture of citizenship are  
of great importance for ensuring the activity of citizens in the development of public policy  
and implementation of social control. According to the Council of Europe, democratic  
citizenship includes social cohesion, justice, solidarity, participation in democratic life and  
culture and values, that relate to the exercise of the person’s rights and responsibilities in  
society. In terms of education, knowledge of democratic practices, skills and commitment to  
values, that will enable the citizens to effectively influence policy at the local, regional and  
national levels, are important for democratic citizenship (Cambridge Dictionary, 2021).  
Conclusion  
The institution of social control plays an important role in the development of a new  
quality of public policy and the development of consolidated democracy. Social control aims  
to regulate the relationship between the individual and society in order to strengthen the  
rule of law and stability, as well as to prevent and correct deviant behavior (Etzioni, 1968). A  
modern State seeks to change the nature of governance. To this end, the State transfers the  
functions of control of public institutions to informal institutions, which contributes to the  
development of civil society and increase of its self-governing capabilities. On the part of  
society, the role of intellectuality in the management system is increasing steadily. The  
relationship between the State and the citizen relies on the type of contractual relations,  
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based on motivational and social, rather than on political and command-and-control  
management techniques. The Constitution of Ukraine proclaimed the priority of civil rights  
and freedoms. However, in reality, civil society in Ukraine is at the stage of development and  
has to overcome fragmentation. Our conclusions were confirmed by a number of empirical  
data and comparative generalizations. The public sector of Ukraine currently needs  
significant support in the conditions of pandemic, consolidation and mutual strengthening  
of public organizations.  
Education plays a major role in shaping societal attitudes. In a democratic society,  
where so much depends on the personal perception of each citizen, the role of education  
cannot be overemphasized. Citizens' acquisition of the skills of civic initiative requires civic  
education (Starkey, 2002). The civil society institutions are meant to balance the State power  
with the public interest, and economically and politically free citizens, within the framework  
of public associations, are able to ensure effective control in the sphere of public  
administration. Therefore, social control is viewed through the prism of socially useful  
activities of civil society.  
In modern conditions, the content of social control should reflect new nature of the  
relationship between the State and the citizen. This means that each individual, each actor,  
undertaking certain commitments, in turn has the right to require others to follow these  
commitments for their own purposes through the actual State and public monitoring.  
Thus, social control is seen as a way by which civil society institutions improve the  
quality of life of ordinary citizens, and the State is given the opportunity to take into account  
the interests of society in the processes of building a State and the creation of socio-economic  
base.  
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