Social capital of Ukrainian society after the Revolution of Dignity

Abstract

This article is devoted to the issue of the social capital of Ukrainian society a few years after the Revolution of Dignity. Its basic goal is to try to answer the question of whether the society, which at the turn of 2013 and 2014 coordinated its activities in order to achieve the common goal: the removal of the former government, set the pro-Western course. Indeed, a civil society was characterized by permanent resources of social capital. In order to get the answer to this question, the article analyses a number of indicators that are customarily related to social capital, such as: the level of trust in individual state and social institutions, the level of involvement in volunteering and the activity of associations, the level of corruption in the local society. However, aspects should be considered in terms of the deficit ratio of this type of capital. Recalling both historical data – from before the Revolution of Dignity – and current data (mostly from 2018 and 2019), allowed for comparisons on how Ukrainian society and its social capital have changed. The aim of this publication is to aggregate data on Ukrainian civil society, which in turn can be a starting point for wider (international) analysis and making predictions for the coming years. This analysis may turn out to be valuable for the Ukrainian power or those who aspire to it – after all, understanding and good communication with citizens is the basis of modern democratic states.

The Factor of Democracy and Prosperity and the Formation of the Nation State in the Example of Ukraine: Pre-War Picture

“…The social capital of Ukrainian society today has more individual than social features, enabling the individuals who possess it to survive and cope, rather than focus on the development of the country as a whole. We are therefore talking about survival and adaptation capital rather than national development capital (see, e.g., Potracki, Kurek, 2021).…”