Culture as a means of consolidation of the nation and a method of forming the world outlook in the current conditions of development of Ukrainian society, unfortunately, does not correspond to the socio-political changes in the country and world development trends due to a number of different circumstances. Therefore, it needs some modernization and reform. The purpose of the article is to analyze the specifics of functioning and to identify problems of development of the field of culture and art as well as to outline directions of their solution. The results of the study of the functioning of culture and art sphere are presented. The problems of this industry development over the last ten years are identified. Among the most important are the following: reduction of the role of culture and art in people’s lives; low level of budget support; moral aging of the material and technical base of cultural institutions; inefficient management of cultural institutions; low material remuneration of cultural workers and low social prestige of their work. The peculiarities of functioning of the sphere of culture and art are revealed. The peculiarities of the industry are revealed as following: some institutions are focused both on cultural services and on the development of culture and human beings (creation of conditions for creativity); institutions perform the state function of creating, preserving, collecting and studying the cultural heritage of funds and works of art, although this function is not directly related to the specific consumer; it is difficult to unambiguously measure the end results of cultural and artistic activity, which are expressed mainly in the delayed social effect and are manifested in the increase of intellectual potential, changes in values and norms of human behavior, etc. Emphasis is placed on the challenges of further development caused by the ongoing reforms. The directions of solving the problems are outlined regarding the improvement of regulatory support and mechanisms for attracting additional financial resources, etc. 

culture, art, public finance, decentralization, financing 

Modern changes in the economy of Ukraine caused by the socio-political situation in the country as well as a number of initiated reforms encourage scientific exploration of the socio-economic development of the country. The purpose of the article is to conduct a problem-oriented analysis of the social component of the economy of Ukraine. The article presents the results of a study of socio-economic development of Ukraine during the past five years. The following areas of analysis were selected: labor markets, poverty, unemployment, income / expenditures of the population. Low growth rates of the subsistence level are proven to be causing a decrease in social standards, which negatively affects the living standards of the population in Ukraine; a significant drop in real income of the population in 2014-2015 aggravated the purchasing power of the population; the increase in the share of wages and social benefits in the structure of the population's income during the analyzed period is an indication of the excessive dependence of the population's well-being on state support, as well as the absence of the so-called middle class in the country. The visible growth in the unemployment rate is caused by the military actions in the East of Ukraine, the deepening of the financial and economic crisis and the deterioration of the socio-political situation in the country. Emphasis is placed on differentiation in wages in economic sectors. Low level of the average salary in the budget sphere is proven to be caused by the peculiarities of calculating the size of the minimum salary on the basis of the subsistence minimum, which ultimately leads to the “depreciation” of the work of employees of the budgetary sphere and the reduction of the cost of highly skilled labor. Challenges to further development of Ukraine have been identified, such as excessive unemployment, poor level of remuneration, the level of social protection, military conflict in Eastern Ukraine among the key ones. 

social development, unemployment, employment, living wage, wages 

Financial decentralization is an important determinant of regions’ social and economic development, contributing on one hand to reduction of state role in their financial maintenance and on the other hand – to creation of opportunities for strengthening of local budgets’ autonomy. The paper aims to conduct comparative analysis of financial decentralization manifestations in Ukraine and in the world. The features of financial decentralization manifestation in the context of its influence on economic growth of regions and territorial communities are outlined on the basis of analysis of best practices in economically developed countries. The sources of income forming are found. The facts that the revenues of subregional level budgets are (predominantly) formed by local taxes, the largest share of which is taken by property taxes and that their share in budget revenues of federal countries is much lower than in unitary ones are proved. Various levels of decentralization are peculiar to different countries, however «richer» countries are more decentralized. The fact that there is no optimal level of financial decentralization because each country goes its own development way is proved. The reasons of financial decentralization are outlined, including the following: low efficiency of educational and healthcare spheres, social protection, public management; excessive costs for maintenance of management aparatus and network; poor paces of advanced technilogies’ introduction, small insufficient communities, desire to improve the quality and quantity of public services, although at the beginning of 2000s the development of democratic political system was in priority for the countries of the Eastern Europe. Fist steps of financial decentralization in Ukraine and the flaws of the launched reform are shown. Priorities of budget policy in Ukraine in conditions of interbudgetary relations’ reform are defined. The mirror transfer of experience in implementation of financial decentralization reform in European countries and globally to Ukrainian ground is emphasized to be inappropriate. The later requires detailed analysis of peculiarities of its manifestation within each country. 

financial decentralization, local taxes, local self-governance bodies, community, region, European Union members