The Third Session of the 15th -16th USPS programme

The Third session is the last one, where the whole group gathered. After that we will see participants outside of the training by USPS. However, we are convinced that we will have fruitful cooperation and many joint events and projects with the participants of the current programme.

Visiting the National Museum-Memorial of Victims of the Occupation Regimes, or the Prison on Łącki, has already become a tradition of USPS sessions in Lviv.

This year, in addition to a tour, participants will listen to a lecture on the struggle of German occupiers against Ukrainian Liberation Movement in 1943-1944.

The tour was on a special date – 74 years ago, on October 21, 1947, there was the most massive deportation of people of Western Ukraine to Siberia. It was a retaliatory operation of the Soviet government, codenamed “West”, against members of the National Liberation Movement. During that day, they deported more than 75 thousand people. It is important for Ukrainians to remember their history. And this applies not only to victories and achievements, we must also remember black pages of our history. We must not forget people who gave their lives for Ukraine. We must remember victims of occupation authorities: either Polish, Soviet, or Nazi.

We thank Viktor Senytsky, curator of funds of the National Museum-Memorial of Victims of the Occupation Regimes, or the Prison on Łącki in Lviv and the entire museum staff for the opportunity to experience history.

There are more than 350 political parties in Ukraine and the process of their creation continues. However, are political parties in Ukraine an institution of a liberal democratic society? They are not in the current system.

A Ukrainian voter is not ready yet to build a liberal-democratic project and take responsibility. Populism still works for an ”average voter.” In addition, there is no internal party democracy in Ukraine. Almost all existing parties are not based on membership but rather oriented at leaders, with a very centralised structure, which also hinders development of parties as a political liberal-democratic institution.

What to do about it? – Participants of USPS programme discussed that in Lviv with Anatoliy Romanyuk, PhD in political sciences, professor of political science in Ivan Franko Lviv National University.

Why are people constantly looking for nonexistent patterns? Can we control our own lives, or is it just an illusion? Who should pay taxes – an employer or a citizen? What about pensions? How to regulate the market and is it necessary in general?

Many questions, especially those about economic sphere, give rise to ethical dilemmas that do not have a clear answer. These issues relate to restrictions on people’s freedoms and rights and require both public discussion and academic research.

Tetiana Bilous, associate Professor of the Department of philosophy and methodology of science at the Faculty of philosophy of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, discussed behavioral economics, a model of limited rationality and libertarian paternalism with USPS participants.

A visit to mayor Andriy Sadovyi is another tradition of our Lviv session.

Participants of the 15th – 16th programme had an opportunity to give questions to the mayor of Lviv, talk about a development strategy of the city and how to solve urgent problems of the local community.

It is very valuable for us to talk openly with politicians about achievements and defeats, right and wrong decisions. However, openness and willingness to admit mistakes are still rare for Ukrainian political circles.

We are convinced that systematic development and moving forward is possible only with the ability to analyse your experience, reflect and be aware of responsibility.

Lately we’ve been hearing about the rule of law everywhere. We hear about it so often that we attribute to ourselves a certain level of awareness in this topic. But is this really the case? What is the difference between the rule of law in the eyes of lawyers and the rule of law in the minds of other people?

Many people believe that the rule of law is something like a legal means of meeting needs of population, which can be used if these needs are not met by the law. This is partly a true judgment but in reality the question is much broader and more complex.

How and when did the idea of the rule of law come about? What is a concept of a state governed by the rule of law? And are the concepts of “the rule of right” and “the rule of law” identical? The participants talked about this with Dmytro Hudyma, a judge of the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court and a 2012 USPS alumnus.

Artificial intelligence ceases to be a narrow technology that only scientists and engineers are interested in. The spread of AI in various areas of human life is impressive: from business management, finance, marketing to education, medicine, space and military technologies. But how does it work? What threats and opportunities does it pose to humanity? Should we be afraid of it?

Participants of the USPS programme had an opportunity to discuss these important issues with Olexiy Molchanovsky, deputy Dean for innovation of the Faculty of Applied Sciences of the Ukrainian Catholic University, and 2018 USPS alumnus.

We live in a modern country where 30 thousand IT specialists graduate every year, so, why do politicians quite often try to play a religious card? Does religion really play such an important role in our state?

Christianity has dominated on territories of Ukraine for more than a thousand years and therefore significantly influenced formation of the Ukrainian state. A religious component is almost the main one for many Ukrainians and therefore religious issues affect values, principles and daily behavior of citizens of our state. And Russia is trying to use this in the hybrid war.

It is difficult to talk about religion in simple words and it is even harder to show a pragmatic side of religion and how faith can be turned into a weapon. However, Andriy Andrushkiv, Executive director of the Centre for joint actions and a 2016 alumnus of USPS, was able to immerse the participants of the programme in an important discussion. Aftertaste of the lecture encourages reflection.

The third session ended with a conversation about justice. It is important for modern democracy to understand dependence of justice on social institutions.

We are alike only in the opportunity to be human. However, people are unequal. Is justice possible as a social construct? Is it ”beneficial” to be a just person? What views on social justice are common in Ukraine? And what does the principle of “equal treatment of equals and unequal treatment of unequals” mean?

Andriy Bogachov, Professor of the Department of theoretical and practical philosophy of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, discussed with the participants of the School the topic of justice, essence of social life and main needs of a modern person.

This completes the current School programme. It was a busy year, during which we became very close to the group. And we are convinced that this is not our last meeting!