The thesis is devoted to the conceptualization of the essence, identification of the problems and prospects of political socialization of a personality in the context of political and cultural transformation of the Ukrainian society. The essence has been exposed as the process of assimilation of political knowledge and experience, formation of political consciousness and self-consciousness, political culture and behaviour of a personality, transmission of the specific features of political culture from one generation to another in the realm of the transformation dynamics, taking place in political and cultural spheres of the Ukrainian society, as well as challenges and discrepancies of the modern world. It stipulates the author's vision of the phenomenon of political and cultural transformation as an element of a systemic transformation of the Ukrainian society, which defines the process of changes in separate components of the political culture, while preserving the others. It was found out that a change in one element of the political culture entails its transformation as an integrated phenomenon. It determines that the political and cultural transformation is a continuous, multi-aspect, complex and unpredictable process, which is contingent upon both objective and subjective factors. The thesis specifies the trends of political socialization of a personality in the context of political and cultural transformation of the Ukrainian society, including pragmatisation (in transitional societies that lack long-term democratic and legal traditions, political pragmatism is associated with a primitive, simplified individualism of political leaders, parties, and every voter, and it leads not to unity and social development, but to amoralisation of the politics, disrespect for legal mechanisms, loyalty to the corruption and crime), informatization, hybridization (combining democratic and authoritarian forms of political socialization, with an increase of mobilizing means in its structure; the dominance of external, rather than internal factors and motives of political socialization; discrepancy between declared democratic forms of political socialization and authoritarian intrinsic motivation), fragmentarity of political activity and its limitation mainly to a scope of protests, passivity and alienation in the sphere of control of authorities, as well as constructive ordering of a social life. The importance of forming awareness of own political interests, internal convictions and will of a personality has been emphasized, as it is a driving force of his/her activities, rather than their imitation, as well as an effective result of political socialization. Reasons have been given for the necessity of improving the political, legal and media education as a mechanism of political socialization of a personality to shape him/her as a conscious and responsible subject of a political life.
