Second Session of the 14th programme of the Ukrainian School of Political Studies

Participants of the School of this year spent five days on the seashore in discussions about basic ideas and principles on which socio-political, economic, and cultural processes of our time are based, as well as developed their own understanding of defining trends of the present and future.

The group started the second session by searching for a common vision of Ukraine’s future during a group task, “Ukraine-2030: what can be a national idea of Ukraine’s future”.

The next day, the work continued in groups, where participants discussed with Evheniy Stasinevych and Svitlana Matviienko texts offered to them for reading.

Literary critic Evheniy Stasinevych discussed the proposed topic with the group.

How specific political realities are reflected in reader’s perception of key and primary literary texts? Is it possible to think of literary classics outside of politics? How does changing a political structure of a state (and political elites at the same time) affect appearance of a national literary canon – and does it affect it at all? To what extent criteria for aesthetic (artistic) quality are politically determined?

Does a “body” affect a political process? Svitlana Matviienko, Chairman of the Council of the Agency for Legislative Initiatives and curator of USPS, spoke about how the corporeal and political are commensurate.

The third day began with a seminar by Mykhailo Koltsov, PhD in Science, senior lecturer of the Department of philosophy and religious studies of the National University “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy”.

When creating and implementing a policy, the most interesting resource is an image of the future that it offers. However, often political forecasts in Ukraine can be manipulative and too subjective, which negates their importance in creating a high-quality policy.

With Mr. Koltsov, we discussed political forecasts and their application in the context of Ukrainian politics.

Money in politics is a necessary component of any democratic process. At the same time, political financing also poses a specific risk to any democratic and economic system.

What is at the intersection of rules for financing political parties, public procurement procedures, a role of politically informed individuals, and declaring assets and incomes of political and civil servants? We discussed that with Fernando Casal Bértoa, Associate Professor of Social Sciences at the University of Nottingham.

On the fourth day of the session, participants continued to work in groups.

Is there a future for democracy? Participants of the 14th USPS programme together with Andrii Baumeister, Associate Professor of the Department of theoretical and practical philosophy of the Faculty of Philosophy of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, discussed whether democracy is an alternative form of political government for the 21st century.

With Ivan Gomza, Associate professor of the Department of political science at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, we talked about relationships between the nature of a political regime, provision of public goods, and political activity of citizens. What is a trajectory of evolution of political regimes after 1991, including in Ukraine?

The final day of the second session was dedicated to a seminar of Yaroslav Vedmid, Founder and Head of the Postmen digital agency.

Until recently, politics and elections were made on television. Today, voice of a network is at least commensurate. Mr. Vedmid spoke about a digital strategy for politicians and how to win in the world of smartphones.

Next time the participants will convene during the third session, which will be held in Lviv in September.