Abstract

The self-organization of population at the local level has been characterized and its role in the formation of the civil society in Ukraine has been defined. In particular, it has been found that self-organization of population in the broad sense is an inde-pendent organization of its own work, behavior, created by people, which live in a certain locality. In its narrow sense, the self-organization of population are representative bodies, created by residents, who live officially on the territory of a village, town, city or part thereof, aimed at the realization and protection of any of their legitimate rights and interests. Clas-sification of the local self-organization of population is expedient by the place of residence and in terms of interests. The basic element of the system of local self-organization of population in Ukraine are the bodies of self-or-ganization of population, through which trust relations, cooperation of the authorities with citizens and the community as a whole in solving certain issues of local importance are built. It is impossible to create effective local government without the bodies of self-organization of population, just as it is impossible to develop local infrastructure without knowing expectations, interests and wishes of the residents of the local community. These institutions have complex public and power nature, since they act as a form of public participation in solving local problems through powers granted to them, but function as NGOs. It has been shown that in general the bodies of self-organization of population are focused on the protection of social, eco-nomic and cultural issues, such as the organization and activities of local self-performed in compliance with law; transparency; voluntarily taking on certain powers of the respective local council; territoriality; election; accountability and responsibility to the respective councils; accountability and responsibility to the residents who have chosen community organizations; financial and institutional independence. It has been proven that the local self-organization of population in Ukraine plays an important role in the development of civil society, reflects the level of democratization at the local level and in the whole state. The experience of democratization of Ukrainian society confirms that democracy originates «from below», that is, with the personal participation of citizens in solving specific life issues that directly affect the conditions of their lives.