Architecture of Changes: Yuriy Ganushchak on Decentralization, "Micro-feudalism," and the Future of Ukrainian Power

Yuriy Ganushchak, one of the main ideologists of the reform and Director of the Institute for Territorial Development, discussed these issues with journalist Oleksandr Shvets on the "Voice of the Community" program (Kharkiv Press Club).

Yuriy Ganushchak prefers to be called the "architect" of decentralization rather than its "father." This has a professional subtext: his engineering past at a high-security plant taught him responsibility — there, a mistake would manifest within a month at most. In public administration, the cycles are longer, but the principles remain the same.

His path to the reform lay through studies in France, at the same institute from which Emmanuel Macron graduated. There, Ganushchak realized: the system must be balanced. As early as 2001, he insisted on direct budget transfers to cities, contrary to the advice of Russian experts who proposed a federalist model. Time has shown that the Ukrainian path "directly to the community" proved to be viable.

At the start of the full-scale invasion, the central government instinctively reached for verticalization — creating military administrations everywhere. However, practice showed that where local councils were preserved, the response to challenges was lightning-fast.

Ganushchak cites Kharkiv and Kyiv as examples. Kharkiv, under constant shelling, promptly installed and launched cogeneration units to support the energy system. In Kyiv, where the decentralization reform is effectively incomplete and management is centered on a single figure, similar units remained only in plans for a long time.

"When you manage everything single-handedly, you are weak. A local head is protected by the support of the council. Without this balance, any administration quickly slides into corruption in procurement, as there is no system of checks and balances."

Today we observe a curious phenomenon that the expert calls neo-feudalism. Local elites in large cities have come to feel like masters who "don't take orders from the region or Kyiv." On one hand, this made communities resilient. On the other, it created the risk of power becoming entrenched. In cities with millions of inhabitants, mayors can be elected for decades, creating their own closed systems.

The issue of oversight is particularly acute. Currently, the prosecutor's office monitors the legality of community decisions, but its task is to "imprison" rather than to balance the social space. Ganushchak insists on introducing the institution of prefects (state administrations with oversight functions), as in France. This should replace punitive control with constructive supervision.

Ukraine has already passed the point of no return. Yanukovych's attempts to centralize everything led to his downfall. Today's decentralization is already "cemented" in the minds of the people and local elites. Moreover, the path to the European Union requires us to have clear rules of the game rather than manual management.

However, complex tasks lie ahead:

·         Reform of Central Government: The President should become the "restart button" of the system, not the head of the executive branch. Ganushchak proposes relieving the president of the function of signing laws (which is the business of the government that executes them) and securing the right to dissolve parliament if it cannot form an effective government.

·         Human Resources: The main problem is the lack of professional managers. The expert calls for the immediate restoration of the system for training ("vyshkil") civil servants under the Cabinet of Ministers. Reforms are not made by politicians; they are made by bureaucrats who must understand their place in the new system and not fear change.

Concluding the conversation, Yuriy Ganushchak noted that Ukraine today is in a unique state: society is more ready for radical changes than the old bureaucracy. This drive is our main chance to build a modern model of governance, where the state is strong through its communities, not through fear of the center.

This material was created within the framework of the project of the Institute of Mass Information with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.

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