EXPERT DISCUSSION AT THE UKRAINIAN INSTITUTE OF THE FUTURE “PRESIDENTIALISM VS PARLIAMENTARISM FOR UKRAINE”

On March 21, 2024, the Ukrainian Institute of the Future hosted an international expert discussion: “Presidentialism VS Parliamentarism for Ukraine.” The initiator of the series of public discussions on the topic of the social contract was the Head of the Center for Constitutional Modeling Gennadiy Druzenko, judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine Serhiy Holovaty, representatives of the UIM Maksym Andrushchenko and Maria Chumak, Professor of Law and Professor of Political Sciences at Duke University (USA) Donald Horowitz and Professor of Constitutional Law at Indiana University (USA) David Williams.

At the event with the report “Constitution as a social contract: what should it be like in post-war Ukraine?” Doctor of Political Sciences, Professor, Corresponding Member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, head Department of Political Institutes and Processes of the Institute Galyna Zelenko gave a speech.

Galyna Zelenko is speaking

In her report, G. Zelenko characterized the prerequisites and circumstances of the constitutional process in Ukraine, the reasons for the establishment of teleological constitutionalism and its flaws. In particular, the reasons for the formation of a kind of “scissors” between formal and real constitutionalism. She also analyzed the qualitative changes that took place in the government itself and society under the influence of the war. In view of this, she warned against the temptation of presidential institutions to strengthen the centralization of power and personalized influence to the detriment of parliamentarism and local self-government. After all, as research shows, it is wrong to think that wars are won by centralized and authoritarian countries. In addition, the centralization of power creates prerequisites for political tension in society and is not organic for Ukrainian society, which once again demonstrated the ability to self-organize. Instead, society needs order, but order that would have institutionalized forms – the dictatorship of the law, the rule of law, social justice, a clear information policy, etc.

Employees of the Institute also took part in the discussion: leading researcher Nataliya Kononenko, senior researchers Svitlana Sytnyk and Iryna Ovchar.