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 

The article examines the nature of bilateral cooperation between entrepreneurship and security. On the one hand, security is an element of the business infrastructure necessary for its successful operation and development. On the other hand, it is an area of entrepreneurial activity in the field of services, which in turn can be detailed into specific types of security services. The aspects of security threats were identified and classified, including the most important of them – economic and social. The economic aspect of security is to reduce the negative consequences for sustainable development of economic actors. The social aspect is to ensure social stability in society and the freedom to exercise constitutional rights of an individual. Accounting of economic and social aspects of security by the state is necessary for the fulfillment of tasks in the field of economic regulation and social policy. Irrationality of the thinking of individual businessmen, political instability in the state and inconsistency of the legal and regulatory framework for the conduct of entrepreneurial activity in the conditions of transition to new forms of public administration can generate a number of security problems in business, which, above all, exacerbate the problem of ensuring the state national security. The gradual development of Ukrainian economy in a market environment can be carried out only with the effective functioning of the infrastructure entrepreneurship of special units, whose activities are aimed at reducing various factors of the threat that impede the success of the business. Country experience with a developed market economy shows that prevention threats and elimination of their factors is today a necessary element of infrastructure development of entrepreneurial activity and forming of favorable business sector. The development of security as an area of entrepreneurship led to two interconnected factors. First, the activation of various threat factors in the sectors of national economy has led to growth demand for services to prevent them. Secondly, the regulations adopted in recent years by the state establish the legal framework of entrepreneurial activity in the field of security. At the same time, there are a number of factors, which impede the further successful provision of industry needs of national economy for security services. The most important among them is the non-compliance of the existing organizational and economic mechanism of entrepreneurship to the current requirements of the market economy in the field of security. 

safety, socio-economic security, entrepreneurial activity, economic development, risk factors, state 

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