Mernyk A. The Institutions of Civil Society: concept, peculiarities, varieties.

The author has analyzed the approaches to the determination of civil society, emphasized on the ambiguity to the concept of "civil society", its cross-disciplinary character; the main feature of civil society as institutional creation have been determined and has been given its definition in this thesis. The peculiarities of the approaches to the determination of the concept of social institute and institution have been disclosed, their differences have been demonstrated, the civil society elements have been researched, the author's civil society institution definition has been given, and its main features have been characterized. The civil society structure analysis has been carried out, the varieties of civil society institutions have been determined; the theoretical classification of civil society institutions has been proven in this thesis. It has been demonstrated the difference between the state institute and the civil society institution on the base of the state and civil society relations. The social-legal mechanism of legal state and civil society interaction has been demonstrated by the author; it has been shown the position and the roles of religious organizations among civil society institutions, which have high trust from the side of members of society and trade unions, which in the nowadays transformational processes conditions caused by extension of the circle of its protection and area of interest. Analyzing the peculiarities of civil society inner structure it has been determined that it is inadvisable to relate civil society institutions to local self-government. The approach of political parties' place in the inner institutional structure of civil society, which is determined by parties' political functions and their participation in society political system, has been revealed.