On the basis of the analysis of the theoretical and source base, the conditions for the formation of the naciocracy concept of the state, which was formed in the Ukrainian state-legal thought and was a direct consequence of the national liberation struggles, the struggle for the establishment of the cathedral state within the ethnic settlement of Ukrainians, were revealed. The concept of “natsiocracy” is proposed to be interpreted as a model of the state system under the condition of the dominance of the titular nation and the power of all socially beneficial strata. It has been established that there are different approaches to understanding the concepts of “people” and “nation” in Ukrainian and foreign legal opinion. If the sequence of concepts “ethnos” – “people” – “nation” is established among Ukrainian scientists, which implies the evolution of collective awareness of one's belonging and leads to the identification of the concepts “ethnos” and “nation”, then in foreign countries, the association of the concepts “ethnos” is traditional and “people”, and “nation” is used specifically to denote the population of a country. That is, there is an ethnic and political approach to the understanding of the nation state. It is proven that this is the result of historically determined socio-political conditions, because at the time of the formation of national states in Europe, Ukrainians in the 19th – at the beginning of the 20th century. fought for statehood relying exclusively on natural law and the historical and legal memory of the ethnic group of Ukrainians on their own state. The opposition to totalitarian regimes in the 1920s and 1940s also contributed to the establishment of the ethnic understanding of the nation. Based on the analysis of the works of D. Dontsov, Yu. Lypa, M. Sciborskyi, S. Lenkavskyi, Yu. Vassyan, V. Martynets, S. Bandera, Ya. Stetska, it is proved that in the Ukrainian state and legal thought, a holistic concept of the nation-democratic state was formed in which is based on the “idea” that the state itself is an end in itself for the development of the nation. In today's conditions, the development of naciocracy is possible through an increase in the level of legal culture and education of the population, the formation of a new paradigm of the national idea, and the establishment of national protectionism, not nationalism.
