Hordiiuk S. Constitutional and legal regulation of spiritual and cultural relations in Ukraine

The dissertation is devoted to the formation of a holistic concept of constitutional and legal regulation of spiritual and cultural relations, which can become a doctrinal basis for relevant political and legal reforms in Ukraine. The paper characterizes spiritual and cultural relations as a subject of constitutional and legal regulation in the general theoretical aspect, reveals the problems of interaction of the constitution and ideology in the aspect of regulation of spiritual and cultural relations. The thesis that the spiritual and cultural subsystem of the social system is an important element of the general subject of constitutional and legal regulation is substantiated. The peculiarities of the constitutional and legal regulation of the spiritual and cultural sphere are highlighted; these include: a) the heterogeneity of the cultural sphere as a subject of legal regulation, which necessitates the adoption of a significant number of regulations; b) the complexity of the cultural sphere as a subject of regulation, which necessitates the separation of powers between public authorities and local governments and divides national legislation in the field of culture at two levels of legal acts: national and local; c) the protectionist nature of the state policy in the field of culture, which is expressed in the state's solution of tasks to support national culture, dissemination of cultural values, support programs and initiatives for its development; d) largely declarative nature of legal acts adopted in the spiritual and cultural sphere, especially strategies and concepts; e) diversity of methods of legal regulation of spiritual and cultural relations. It is noted that in a democratic society a person is self-sufficient and autonomous, and the inner world belongs only to him, so the task of the state and law is to create the most comfortable conditions for spiritual and cultural development of the individual. Instead, the state's attempts to subordinate the spiritual and cultural sphere to the interests of state-building are a manifestation of totalitarianism and lead to gross violations of human rights. It is shown that the constitutional and legal regulation of spiritual and cultural relations is based on both the general principles of the principles of the constitutional order and special principles relating exclusively to this subsystem of the social order. Depending on the specifics of the political regime and political system for the special principles of the spiritual and cultural system is characterized by binary: ideological pluralism / ideological monism; freedom of creativity / partisanship of creativity; state polylingualism / state monolingualism; secular state / religious (clerical) state, etc. The thesis that the relationship between the constitution and ideology plays a key role in determining the constitutional principles of spiritual and cultural relations is substantiated. It is determined that the subject of constitutional and legal regulation of the spiritual and cultural system in modern states are three main groups of social relations: a) relations for the creation of material and spiritual values of culture; b) relations for the development of cultural achievements; c) relations concerning the protection of material and spiritual cultural values. A detailed description of the system of cultural rights and freedoms of man and citizen under the current Constitution and current legislation of Ukraine is given. Attention is paid to the detail of basic cultural rights in the Law of Ukraine "On Culture". The conclusion is substantiated that during the years of independence in Ukraine there has been a significant change in the relationship between the state and culture: from the model of the engineer state, typical of many Eastern European countries, to the prestigious educational model of developed Western and Central European countries. France). In the legislation it was manifested in the change of the "Fundamentals of Legislation on Culture" in 1992 to the Law of Ukraine "On Culture" in 2010. Specific proposals for improving the legal regulation of spiritual and cultural relations in Ukraine have been formulated; in particular, it is proposed: a) to supplement the Constitution of Ukraine with a separate article on culture and its significance for the development of Ukrainian society; b) to supplement the list of basic cultural rights of a person and a citizen in the Constitution of Ukraine with the right of access to cultural values; c) in the Law of Ukraine "On Culture" to provide a legal definition of "cultural service", "minimum standards for providing cultural services", "cultural services center", the introduction of monitoring and evaluation of state cultural policy; d) the process of decentralization of public power to extend to the spiritual and cultural sphere.