Public conflicts in the context of globalization and the effectiveness of public administration in resolving them

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PUBLIC CONFLICTS IN THE CONTEXT OF GLOBALIZATION AND THE EFFECTIVENESS OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IN RESOLVING THEM

Irina Korchak

Postgraduate student, Department of Public Policy, Educational and Scientific Institute of Public Administration and Civil Service of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Ukraine

Abstract

The article analyzes the specifics of public conflicts in the context of globalization and the role of effective public administration in their resolution. It was established that the basis of public conflicts is the clash of certain interests (state, regional, political, group, religious). The author of the article emphasizes that the specifics of public conflicts in the context of globalization, firstly, in their plurality and diversity (political, economic, party, religious, interstate); secondly, conflicts arise in the context of the rapid development of the information society, with the active use of modern information resource and digital technologies in achieving political, state, economic interests and goals. Groups of contradictions in a globalized environment are defined, which provoke the emergence of both interstate conflicts and public conflicts within a separate country. The plurality of military conflicts in the modern world is shown, the need for their peaceful settlement on the basis of conference diplomacy and the search for compromises in the coordination of interests of conflicting parties are substantiated. In addition, it is noted that in the process of achieving benefits, certain results in various spheres of public life, public conflict is often generated artificially. In this regard, it was emphasized the importance for public authorities to be prepared to anticipate the occurrence of public conflicts, to prevent negative consequences in their resolution, which generally actualizes the need for effective public administration and the ability of public servants to use public conflict as an effective tool for public administration. The updated attention to the information instruments of the conflict confrontation shows the need to actively use the media and information economy resources by state authorities in coordination of the interests of the parties to the conflict, ensuring effective economic development and social peace.

Keywords: public conflict; public administration; effective public administration; globalization; sustainable development.

social conflict military peaceful

Problem Statement

Public conflicts in today's globalized world are an urgent problem in the development of the world community. Their deepening provokes power and even military confrontations of both global players on the world stage and local states. Exacerbations of public conflicts within individual countries, caused by religious, national or social factors, today often reach the interstate and global level, increasing threats to the economic development of society.

Analysis of Recent Studies and Publications

The study of the origins, root causes and methods of resolving conflicts in the global environment is extremely relevant in today's highly turbulent world. Therefore, many researchers have devoted their research to these issues. Such scientists who have made significant scientific achievements in the study of conflict theory include: P. Blonsky, L. Vygotsky, S. Rubinstein, B. Ananiev, B. Teplov, G. Kostyuk, K. Platonov, B. Lomov, P. Fress, J. Piaget and others [1, p. 124].

The purpose of the academic paper is to analyze the specifics of public conflicts in the context of globalization and the role of effective public administration in resolving them.

Presentation of the Basic Material

Among the researchers of public conflicts arising in various spheres of public and private life, there are supporters of two fundamentally two approaches. Some of them view conflicts as primarily a negative phenomenon that has a dysfunctional and destabilizing effect on the functioning of the environment in which they arise. Others, on the contrary, consider conflicts to be a normal development of any society. The former adhere to the principles of structural functionalism, the latter are supporters of the theory of social conflict, believing the existence of contradictions and conflicts of interest of different social groups, strata and countries as an inevitable state of social progress.

The concept of "conflict" in scientific thought is seen as the presence of certain contradictions in different parties that oppose each other. Such confrontation can be associated with different goals, interests, positions, opinions, views and express the clash of the parties to the confrontation, the desires of opposing parties, serious differences between them, a sharp dispute, the struggle for power. Some analysts see conflicts as a form of contradictions in the system of socio-economic and political relations [2].

J. Rosenau and K. Norr see the macroscopic inseparable component of conflict - the phenomenon of action and counteraction of national social structures, based on which a significant place belongs to the conflicts, pressures and doubts of large organizations, opportunities and limitations of institutions. And all this in turn depends on the availability and characteristics of geographical location, material resources, technical capabilities, harmony of values, social mobility, political system. W. Fulbright's psychological approach to the analysis of public conflicts is quite common, according to which the basis of policy is "unexplained motivations of human nature." In particular, he considers the causes and consequences of wars to be areas of pathology that are more related to the subconscious feeling of painful selfishness than to the sober calculation of benefits and advantages. In fact, it is about the role of the individual in history. Hence, all the most serious international political and military-political conflicts acquire a psychological character. Consequently, overcoming them is a psychological problem [3, p. 6-7].

Economic globalization and the spread of information technology, the creation of virtual interest groups, new forms of identity politics centered on religious beliefs, weak governments, backward economies, religious extremism, disproportionate youth growth - all combine to create ideal negative conditions for internal conflict. different regions [4, p. 5]. Also, there is a public conflict between different interest groups in the modern global world as a tool to achieve goals, in particular, access to resource territories or subordination of certain countries to their political goals.

Socio-historical analysis shows that any conflict can be resolved either relatively peacefully, through negotiation, or by force, through military conflict or coercion. The latter option is the most acute form of conflict resolution, but it is in any case a palliative that gives the winner only temporary (short-term) benefits. At the same time, armed conflicts do not subside on the world map. Thus, researchers at the Stockholm Institute for Peace Research estimated the number of armed conflicts in the world in 2020, 39 in total. They were distributed by continent as follows: in the New World - 2, in Europe - 3, in Asia and Oceania - 7, in the Middle East, including North Africa - 7, in Africa south of the Maghreb - 20. The most bloody fighting took place in Afghanistan and Yemen. In America, conflicts have been noted in Mexico and Colombia. In Asia, armed clashes have taken place in countries such as Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkey, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Myanmar and Pakistan. Military conflicts also took place on the territory of three post-Soviet republics: Ukraine, Armenia and Azerbaijan [6].

However, armed conflict cannot produce long-term and universally accepted results and does not guarantee sustainable social development. The experience of military conflicts of the twentieth century, in particular, the First and Second World Wars, a number of local conflicts, is an example of this. After any armed clashes or even prolonged military confrontations, acute problems could be resolved only through the peaceful settlement of conflict issues, through compromise, and by agreement between the parties. Problems resulting from the collapse of colonial empires in the second half of the twentieth century, armed conflicts in the Middle East, Africa, India and Pakistan, the recent conflict between Armenia and

Azerbaijan were resolved in this way. Thus, a positive result is achieved only when the parties to the conflict by compromise, through mutual concessions find opportunities to resolve previously unresolved issues. This general principle applies both to international relations and to relations between political forces, social groups and other actors in conflicts within individual countries [5, p. 213].

This development is related to the nature of man himself - intolerance of oppression and restriction of freedom, the desire for freedom, as well as raising the level of education and its accessibility in the twentieth century, the spread of information that allows humanity to draw conclusions and make decisions for active social action, defending their freedoms and interests.

With the development of globalization of mankind, conflicts related to the development of the country's economy, ideological and political conflicts and social conflicts, which are public and spread through information resources, are growing. The positive of the information society is that it is currently no secret how the various processes are conducted, which systems are used by international organizations, multinational corporations, governments, individual global market players. And the conflict is growing and is facing the governments of all countries as a challenge to address the expansion of strong players in the international economic market to increase their profits at the expense of weaker developing countries on a market basis [5, p. 213].

Considering the main groups of contradictions facing the governments of world countries, including the Government of Ukraine, we can identify three areas of their formation. First, it is a contradiction between economically developed countries and developing countries, which manifests itself as a contradiction between countries with high and low living standards. Historical experience shows that almost all wars and international conflicts are based on economic (territorial) interests of the world's leading powers.

Today, with the reduction of available natural resources and climate change, economically developed countries seek to gain access to energy and other resources of other countries by all possible means, both without the use of military means and force. Secondly, it is a contradiction between nation states and transnational corporations (TNCs), which is crucial for modern world development. Today, the financial and economic power of TNCs is global, they operate independently of the economic systems of their countries of origin and control global financial markets, up to half of world industrial production.

TNCs are the main actors in the globalized world economy, their actions have a decisive impact on world markets, the dynamics of national currencies, job creation and elimination. They significantly affect the socio-economic situation of both countries of origin and countries where their economic activities take place. TNCs are beyond national control, on the contrary, they often impose decisions on national governments that are in their best interests. Governments of nation-states, under the influence of TNCs, in deciding their foreign or domestic policies, making decisions on investment, energy, industrial or agricultural production, trade, and concluding international agreements, act in the interests of TNCs, often against national or national interests. Finally, a third type of conflict arises between different social groups and sections of the population, especially between employees and employers, between rich and poor, between resource owners and other members of society who are deprived of them, often illegally. In general, such a contradiction is historical in nature, in the form of class struggle and socialist revolutions during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

However, the last century has shown that the owners of resources and means of production are much more profitable to stimulate the welfare of employees. This, on the one hand, stimulates aggregate demand, on the other - removes social conflicts between labor and capital. On this basis, programs were implemented to ensure the rights of employees to education, training and employment. As it turned out, a socially protected employee works much more efficiently, brings more profit to the capitalist. The ideas of social partnership, cooperation instead of destructive class confrontation and social conflicts have become widespread.

The current situation in Ukraine regarding the emergence of conflicts is characterized as unstable, there is a threatening trend to increase their number. There is a long-running armed conflict in eastern Ukraine that needs to be resolved as significant human, social and economic consequences become more significant. It is becoming increasingly clear that resolving this conflict only through the actions of the Environmental Protection Force (Joint Forces Operation) can stimulate its aggravation or prolongation, ie the conflict will not be over. Therefore, Ukraine needs to resort to proven methods, in particular, conference diplomacy, finding new agreements based on compromise, involving third parties in resolving this conflict, who could mediate in negotiations to achieve acceptable solutions. It should be noted that the growing complexity of eliminating the consequences of conflict situations, the need to normalize the situation in the economic, social and environmental spheres determine the urgency of government action to make effective legal decisions and bring the country out of crisis.

Global and regional, military and social conflicts within the state pose a serious threat to the security of both the individual and society and the environment, as well as the stability of the country's development. With such a global economic and conflict development, effective governance is possible in building and developing a knowledge economy with the participation of the international community in the United Nations, recognizing it as a world government with global governance with equal distribution of resources and equal partnership of all states. Abiodun Williams, President of the Hague Institute for Global Justice (THIGJ, The Netherlands), believes that conference diplomacy is an effective way to resolve international conflicts [7].

This will make it possible to resolve the most acute, most conflicting issues of social relations, which are subject to regulation and coordination on the basis of social partnership. Social partnership is the interaction on a legislative basis of the three leading forces of market economies, ie the state, trade unions and trade unions, which protect the rights of employees. As a rule, the basis for effective interaction within the framework of social partnership is the labor legislation of the country.

Active use of compromises as an effective means of resolving problems when the parties to the conflict have the desire and political will to solve problems through mutual understanding and concessions to each other, rather than exacerbating confrontation, can significantly reduce tensions in society, make optimal decisions for successful development. It is important to properly use today's information resources as a tool for resolving conflicts. Information resources, information - the most common basis of power in modern conditions. The well-known rule is confirmed: "He who possesses information, possesses the world." Individuals who have information can dictate their terms. Information power can be not only personal, but also influence the control over the means of obtaining this information, information flows and so on [1, p. 108].

In this regard, informational confrontation comes to the fore in the system of public conflicts in the context of globalization. With its help, it became possible to solve military-political problems through the media, changing the mass consciousness in the right direction for the aggressor country. Thus, the information impact on society is often negative, when media owners use a variety of tools to manipulate public consciousness, thereby controlling people's behavior against their interests. Manipulation can be realized by using public conflicts to encourage, inform and make the right decisions and coordinate them with different interest groups, citizens, public administration and civil society in order to achieve a balance of interests. Close to information resources are the resources of new knowledge, ie knowledge-based power. It is believed that the bearers of new knowledge can give specific recommendations in connection with their application, if necessary, to overcome difficult situations [5, p. 205].

Participation of the general public, social partnership between different groups of citizens with separate group interests is a key element of the sustainable development strategy, which is noted in all UN documents on sustainable development. Thus, efficiency can be achieved through the development of education and enlightenment through modern information resources, by rethinking and returning to the spiritual and moral values of the Ukrainian people, including hereditary. In Ukraine, this can be ensured, as it is possible to use the opportunities of Ukrainian IT companies, which are currently active players in the global IT market and can cooperate with public authorities.

In modern conditions, not only telecommunication means but also social networks are of great importance, traditional events, including holding holidays, concerts, etc., do not lose their influence on the public consciousness. Therefore, the requirements to the level of competence and efficiency of actions of public administration bodies on the formation of modern civil society in Ukraine, the formation of a conscious and socially responsible citizen of the country are increasing.

Conclusions

Public conflicts in the context of globalization can be caused by a number of objective contradictions in the world. It should be noted a number of trends that were quite clear at the beginning of the XXI century. First, the military form of resolving interstate conflicts remains, unfortunately, still relevant. Second, a third force (UN, OSCE, NATO, some of the world's leading countries) is increasingly being used to resolve armed conflicts. Third, there is a trend towards finding peaceful compromises in resolving military confrontations (for example, Armenia and Azerbaijan). Finally, the trend of rapid change of government caused by public conflicts within the state system of government itself is also emerging, and it is becoming characteristic of many countries, regardless of their state system.

In resolving public conflicts, the effectiveness of public authorities and political institutions is the ability to systematically understand pressing social issues, levels of competence of the political, economic and state establishment to determine key political priorities in governance, its ability to optimally distribute functions and resources among key actors. This is especially relevant for Ukraine, in times of crisis, growing economic and political instability, global turbulence.

Therefore, in today's global environment, the demand for information and intellectual support of public administration institutions, training of public administration personnel is growing significantly. Active cooperation of government, business and public structures in the integrated system of civil society is also important, strengthening the development of social partnership, which today can be seen as one of the effective forms of improving the efficiency of public administration in resolving public conflicts.

Conflicts are objectively one of the important processes of public policy. They can be both constructive and destructive, affecting positively or negatively all aspects of society. Therefore, the governing bodies of each country and the world community must use all available tools to overcome them, from conference diplomacy to contractual compromises, finding ways and means to reconcile the interests of all stakeholders. It is on these principles that the socio-economic progress of mankind in the 21st century can be ensured.

Thus, public conflicts in the context of globalization are an essential component of the successful development of society in a state of uncertainty, which characterizes the dynamics of this stage of human development. Therefore, the efficiency and competence of public administration in their solution becomes a necessary condition for stabilizing the socio-economic progress of the state. Ukraine already has its own achievements and successes on this path, but it is important to make wider use of international experience in this field, taking into account the peculiarities of the national mentality and historical and economic development of Ukrainian society.

References

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2. Politologia (2004) [Political science]. L. 13. URL : http://www.info-library.com.ua/books- text-914 [In Ukrainian].

3. Bernadskiy, B. (2012) Mizhnarodni konflikty : kurs lekciy. [International conflicts: lecture course]. URL : http://maup.com.ua/assets/files/lib/book/mignar_konfl.pdf [In Ukrainian]

4. Sytnyk, G. P. (2009). Zahyst natsionalnyh interesiv - prioritet profi [Protection of national interests - priority of profy]. Nar. Armya. № 51, 5. [In Ukrainian].

5. Sadovenko, A., Maslovska, L. and others (2011). Staliy rozvitok suspilstva: posibnyk [Sustainable development of society: textbook]. 2 vyd. [In Ukrainian].

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