On the “ability to produce new cultural standards”

Any kind of government has to take care of its human resources. This is a necessary condition required for a sufficient and steady implementation of the country’s policy. Especially nowadays, when the world faces an economic crisis (and some experts are even talking about a civilization crisis). During the past 20 years nobody has put much effort in managing human resources, and even if they did, it was done on a local level. The mentality of the specialists, who were trained during the Soviet era, cannot keep up with up-to-date needs, and new experts have not appeared yet (however, there are exceptions like Oles Dovhy and others). And if educated, professional, courteous youth did appear, they had no chance due to the lack of access to governing authorities.

A recent recruitment of people from Facebook to the employment pool of the Cabinet of Ministers secretariate officials can be considered quite a gleam of hope. This event was announced personally by the Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, who himself is an active user of this social network. And here comes the next step. At the beginning of February President Viktor Yanukovych signed a Decree “On Strategy of State Human Resources Policy during 2012-2020.” The strategy plans such tasks as “creating and managing of the presidential employment pool ‘New elite of the nation’ aimed to involve the most gifted citizens of Ukraine to realize the economic reforms, and provide the training of such citizens for their further employment in the areas of government’s prior importance.”

We have asked the regional experts to answer these questions: “What conditions do you think are necessary for the quality renewal of the elite to take place? Who has to represent this elite? What does the new elite have to look like?”

IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO CREATE POLITICAL ELITE BY SIMPLY GIVING ORDERS

Taras LITKOVETS, political scientist, senior lecturer at the Politology Department of the Lesia Ukrainka Volyn National University, political news anchorman at the FM-radio Lutsk:

“A change in the quality of life is only possible if a change within the political elite takes place. And the refreshing of the political elite has been quite problematic in Ukraine. Today this so-called elite consists of mainly ‘yesterday’s people’: ‘red’ directors, party and communist functionaries, newly-fledged businessmen who gained their wealth not thanks to a few generations’ hard work or their own business skills and intellectual faculties (which is the way it happens in prosperous countries), but thanks to ‘privatization’ that looks more like usurping. Clear evidence to this is the fact that there is not a single oligarch, among those who think of themselves as a part of political or just general Ukrainian ‘elite,’ has ever built a factory or a plant. They took advantage of the difficult economic state of this country, and just received their ‘heritage’ from the Soviet Union as a windfall.

“Correspondingly, these people do not understand or accept the notion of the ‘national idea.’ Conducting fair politics based on principles is quite common for European countries, like the Baltic states or even Poland, but it is strange and unintelligible for them. That is why our pretend-to-be elite cares only about its own private interests, interests of their clan, their own political forces.

“There was an attempt to change this during the period of romanticism, when the representatives of dissidents were present in the highest government bodies. But they were quickly replaced by the pseudoelite formed by clearly not the best representatives of the nation. This pseudoelite is not a result of a long-term political selection and development of society. So, no matter what decrees the president might sign, they are not enough to create new political elite. This is a long-lasting process, that has to pass through all levels of society. What is happening now reminds me of hopeless attempts to eliminate bribery or embezzlement in one sweep by signing a decree.

“In fact, elites are formed under the joint influence of several factors: historical, religious, and educational. Elite should be represented by: 1) professionals; 2) patriots; 3) honest people. The combination of these three qualities is no less than essential. But it remains a rhetorical question whether such combination is possible in the conditions of the present-day Ukraine. Negative career building is taking over in the government service as well. People come there to improve their own lives, but not for the sake of improving the overall life of the people and enriching the country. Elite nowadays can only be formed with the help of the young people, the new generation.”

PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION WILL STIMULATE QUALITY REFRESHMENT

Ihor TODOROV, professor, independent expert, Ukrainian European Studies Association:

“In my opinion, this is nothing but a typical PR move. What kind of ‘new elite of the nation’ can be created if it is coordinated by our government? All of the more or less creative representatives of youth are opposed to it in some way or another. Thus, the implementation of this decree, given it does get put into effect, is only going to preserve the status quo, when the government is ignorant of the national interests and treats the country as its own business project. On the other hand, a quality refreshment of elite is more necessary than ever. I am sure that it will happen eventually, not through issuing the decrees, but in a natural way. Perhaps this year’s parliamentary election is going to speed up these processes.”

A FUNCTIONAL SYSTEM, BASED ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF MANAGEMENT, SHOULD BE CREATED

Vadym SLIUSAR, Ph.D., associate professor at the Philosophy Department of Ivan Franko Zhytomyr State University:

“This approach to the problem is not new. It was done by the previous presidents of Ukraine. Such measures are necessary and they are carried out in most countries since they need competent governance. Government service is represented by specialists in different areas, but it takes time to become an efficient public officer. Being an expert in a certain area and being a good civil servant are two different things.

“Ukraine requires the creation of an adequate and competent government pool indeed, since nowadays the situation is often far from satisfactory. Issuing decrees is not enough; a functional system, based on the philosophy of management, needs to be created. This is not quite feasible under the current conditions. The reasons are following. Gifted young people will easily find a well-paid job, while government officials’ salaries are low. The situation is aggravated by uneven salaries: a head of a certain governmental body could earn 5 to 10 times more than a rank-and-file worker. Besides, gifted young people have very little interest in government service. They usually pin up their hopes on their own business, working abroad, etc. Being gifted comes along with creative thinking, which is incompatible with frames and restrictions. And government service, as well as service in the armed forces, imposes great restrictions. Forming an elite, born in independent Ukraine and having national interest as its priority, is a condition necessary for the quality refreshment. And political elite should also be led by humanists. If economic elite rules the country, they will run the affairs in the way that would make their business more profitable. At the moment, political elite in Ukraine is represented by several clans.

“Also, the refreshment will be possible when elite possesses the following features. Firstly, responsibility. Secondly, successfulness. These should be the people who have achieved success in certain areas, like Vitalii Klitschko, for example. And thirdly, the ability to produce new cultural standards, especially in the politics. Therefore, representatives of science, culture, and art should also be involved. It should be kept in mind that elite does not necessarily mean government officials. This notion cannot be narrowed to just civil service. On the contrary, government officials have to be subordinate to cultural, scientific, and economic elites. Today economic elite is dominating in Ukraine, and whatever decrees are signed, they will not solve the problem of the national elite creation. It could be said that the representatives of elite have to be nationalists, but not in the way Lypynsky or Dontsov saw it.

“An elite that is conscious of the needs of the nation is capable of uniting the society with the idea of national progress. Therefore, the accent on the economic development, which is being propagated right now, can only lead to a temporary rise of economics. But after a while the country will plunge into a horrible crisis. Provided the pluralism of thoughts, society should be oriented on the concept of the country’s progress. And this is only possible if the national idea unites society, even if it comprises different social strata and ethnic groups.”