Varieties of a Law-Governed State

• Author: Valentin Yakushik
• Position: Doctor in Political Sciences, Ph.D. in Law, Professor, National University of 'Kyiv-Mohyla Academy' (Ukraine)
• Pages: 72-84

Ukrainian Policymaker, Volume 3, 2018

72

Varieties of a Law-Governed State

Valentin Yakushik1

Doctor in Political Sciences, Ph.D. in Law, Professor, National University

of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy” (Ukraine)

E-mail: yakushik@hotmail.com

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1747-0151

The article presents an attempt to construct a comprehensive typology of a law-governed State.

Multifocal, multidimensional approach is used to present a wide range of varieties of concepts and

functioning models of a law-governed State. Materials contained in the present article have been used

in the teaching process at the University of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy” (Ukraine) and are available in

Ukrainian and Russian languages for Ukrainian students and researchers. The author hopes that the

updated English version of these theoretical materials may be useful for a wider international audience.

Keywords: State; law-governed State; rule of law

Received: November 29, 2018; accepted: December 17, 2018

Ukrainian Policymaker, Volume 3, 2018: 72-84

https://doi.org/10.29202/up/3/10

Introduction

A goal of democratic development of Ukraine as an important socio-political component

of Europe and Eurasia unites various cultural and political forces of this country and the most

important entities of the world. Nevertheless, there are a number of contradictions between

their practical aspirations and the cumulative result of their interaction. Neither people at

large — the citizens of Ukraine, nor the absolute majority of political forces, both inside and

outside the country, are happy with the current objective results of political development of

independent Ukraine.

The major objective of this article is to hint at the essential contradictions between

the Western liberal-democratic notions of the rule of law, or a law-governed State

(“Rechtsstaat”, in German; “État du droit”, in French; “Estado de Derecho”, in Spanish)

and the corresponding State and legal concepts and practices, on the one hand, and the actual

operational principles of the post-Soviet society (primarily, of the State institutions and of

political and legal consciousness) in contemporary Ukraine, on the other.

The author of this article holds in respect the widely spread methodology of promotion of

the pure type of liberal democracy and the currently still prevailing concepts of transitology —

© Yakushik, Valentin, 2018