The social dialogue in Ukraine

Th e article aims to answer the question of why social market economy in Ukraine, as well as in number of post-Soviet states, has not met the expectations. It uses social dialogue as a telling example. In 1990s Ukrainian society became subjected to a multidimensional process of forming labour relations. On the one hand, the process was typical for an immature stage of capitalism, and thus could hardly be expected to lead to the emergence of a social market economy, and on the other it reproduced the worst traditions of socialist labour relations, replacing state paternalism with patronclient relationships. Establishing institutional market infrastructure was supported by social partners’ organisations and legitimized by the law. A system of market relations has been created but proved incapable of performing functions essential for sustaining standards and values of economic democracy. ‘Social partnership’ as an ideology of labour relations was substituted by a new form – ‘social dialogue’. Social dialogue has been distorted to a simulation of contemporary labour relations. Formalization of social dialogue has become a way for pro-oligarch, social partners’ organisations to gradually monopolize the market, with passive acceptance from dependent, poorly organized and unprotected employees.