Baltic Journal of Economic Studies 197 Vol. 11 No. 2, 2025 This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 4.0 1 Admiral Makarov National University of Shipbuilding, Ukraine (corresponding author) E-mail: dubinskiy_oleg@ukr.net ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5272-8365 2 Admiral Makarov National University of Shipbuilding, Ukraine E-mail: dmytro.bar@ukr.net ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9626-9607 3 Pervomaisk Educational and Scientific Institute of Admiral Makarov National University of Shipbuilding, Ukraine E-mail: zahust_prav@ukr.net ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-6794-3568 DOI: https://doi.org/10.30525/2256-0742/2025-11-2-197-206 ECONOMIC AND LEGAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PUBLIC AUTHORITIES OF UKRAINE Oleg Dubynskyy1, Dmytro Baranenko2, Vitalii Porkhun3 Abstract. The study of public authority is relevant for many reasons. Firstly, public authority is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon that is constantly evolving. Secondly, public authorities have a significant impact on society, and it is important to understand how they function. Thirdly, the study of public authorities can help to develop effective methods of governing society. The research of public authority is conducted in various fields of knowledge, such as public administration, political science, law, economics, sociology, and philosophy. The interdisciplinary investigation of public authority is also important, as it allows for a deeper understanding of this phenomenon. The current stage of development of the Ukrainian state is determined by the need to build a public administration system that will ensure effective interaction between public authorities (state and local governments) and civil society. Public administration is a system of governance in which state and local authorities, various organisational and legal forms and citizens directly involved in the process of social development of the state interact. The key objective of the formation and functioning of the public administration system is to develop and implement socio-economic policies aimed at improving the living standards of the population. The success of its implementation depends not only on the functioning of various state institutions, but also on the extent to which society accepts this policy, shares its goals, mechanisms, principles of its implementation, and trusts it. The purpose of the article is to study and analyse the concept and features of public authority in the current conditions of development of public relations, and to establish the link and interdependence between the conceptual foundations, objectives, subjective dimension of decentralisation of public authority in Ukraine and its economic, political, legal and administrative consequences. The methodological basis of the article is a system of general scientific and special methods of scientific knowledge. These methods together constitute an integral system, which is manifested in the quality of the research approach, both at the empirical and theoretical levels of this scientific work. It is noted that the role of local self-government bodies during wartime should not be underestimated; they remain an important mechanism for ensuring the effective functioning of public authorities and the defence capability of the State. This was clearly evidenced by the actions of local self-government bodies in the first days of the large-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation. In the authors' opinion, the experience gained by Ukraine during the war demonstrates the undeniable advantage of self-organisation of the population over centralised governance. The central government will not be able to take over the functions of local governments and perform them as effectively. Even before the war, the level of trust in local authorities among citizens was one of the highest compared to other institutions. Recently, as citizens have been interacting more and more with local authorities, as they are closest to them, this attitude has only strengthened. Therefore, the termination of the powers of local self-government bodies by the state authorities during the war is an unconstitutional action that threatens the national security of the country. Suspension or restriction of their powers is possible only in extraordinary cases, when there is a direct threat to the life and safety of citizens in the territory of hostilities or occupation. In all other cases, this is possible only in accordance with a procedure that requires a reasoned court decision. However, the political and legal reality caused by the full- scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation on February 24, 2022, showed a low level of drafting and Baltic Journal of Economic Studies 198 Vol. 11 No. 2, 2025 lawmaking, their abstract and declarative nature, internal contradictions and outright neglect of the interests of the territorial community and its members, which directly and negatively affected the procedure for exercising the powers of self-government bodies, including the protection of human rights and freedoms within the local society. Keywords: public authorities, public authorities, economic consequences, public administration, complementary mechanism, AHs, LSGB, civil society. JEL Classification: H10, H70, К10, R50, R58 Introduction The study of public authority is relevant for many reasons. First, public authority is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon that is constantly evolving. Second, public authorities have a significant impact on society, and it is important to understand how they function. Third, the research of public authorities can help to develop effective methods of governing society. The study of public authority is carried out in various fields of knowledge, such as public administration, political science, law, economics, sociology, and philosophy. The interdisciplinary study of public authority is also important, as it allows for a deeper understanding of this phenomenon. Public governance is characterised as a process of collective decision-making and implementation of strategic decisions based on the coordination and coordination of the goals and actions of all key actors (Pollitt, 2004). The current stage of development of the Ukrainian state is determined by the need to build a public administration system that will ensure effective interaction between public authorities (state and local governments) and civil society. Public administration is a system of governance in which state and local authorities, various organisational and legal forms and citizens directly involved in the process of social development of the state interact. The key objective of the formation and functioning of the public administration system is to develop and implement socio-economic policies aimed at improving the living standards of the population. The success of its implementation depends not only on the functioning of various state institutions, but also on the extent to which society accepts this policy, shares its goals, mechanisms, principles of its implementation, and trusts it. The construction and functioning of a rule-of-law democratic state is impossible without an effective public administration system. In the context of the ongoing military aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, the issues of coordinated interaction between the authorities and civil society are of particular relevance, especially in the context of the challenges and needs that exist in modern society today. After all, only through constructive dialogue and mutually agreed actions between all participants in this process will the country be able to withstand the enemy and win. An institutionally developed and independent legislature is the key to the democratic development of a modern state. As Dr. Todd Landman notes, "parliamentary systems and so-called 'consensus democracies' perform better in a number of indicators, including political stability, economic performance, and the protection of the rights of minorities and other groups." (Kovalenko, 2023) The purpose of the article is to study and analyse the concept and features of public authority in the current conditions of development of public relations, and to establish the link and interdependence between the conceptual foundations, objectives, subjective dimension of decentralisation of public authority in Ukraine and its economic, political, legal and administrative consequences. To achieve this goal, the author formulates the following tasks: to define the essence and purpose of public authorities in the context of reforms; to determine the structure and characteristics of public authorities in Ukraine; to establish the sequence and logic of transformational achievements in the current period of martial law and the complementary mechanism of public authorities' activities during institutional changes in the context of post-war reconstruction of Ukraine. 1. Research Methodology In order to understand the essence of public power and to identify its features, it is worth turning to the understanding of the phenomenon of power itself. Difficulties in understanding the essence of the concept of ‘public authority’ are caused by its absence in the legislative acts of Ukraine and in encyclopaedic dictionaries. At the same time, different scholars define this definition in different ways. The Encyclopaedia of Public Administration defines power as the ability and opportunity of a person, social group, institution, or organisation to exert its will through certain means and channels of influence on the activities and behaviour of people and their communities. In essence, power is the relationship of management (leadership), domination, subordination, obedience. Power is a multifaceted socio-political Baltic Journal of Economic Studies 199 Vol. 11 No. 2, 2025 and legal concept that can have the following meanings: 1) relations between people, when some rule and others obey; 2) the ability to achieve a goal; 3) the ability of a socio-political system to ensure the implementation of its decisions; 4) a way of self- organisation of the human community based on the distribution of management and execution functions; 5) the ability and capacity to exert one's will (Encyclopedia of Public Administration, 2011). The difference between power as a process and power as a phenomenon lies in the existence of an appropriate mechanism that ensures the exercise of this power. At the same time, it is necessary to distinguish between formal and actual mechanism of ensuring power. The formal mechanism is a system of legally defined powers and functions through which the subject of power can exercise its will. It is defined exclusively in legal acts. The actual mechanism of ensuring power is understood as a system of real factors and relations formed between the subjects of power that affect the implementation of power and administrative functions and are not defined in legal acts. In particular, in the tradition of Ukrainian public administration, the Presidential Administration of Ukraine, the Secretariat of the President of Ukraine, and then the Office of the President of Ukraine de facto had a much greater influence on the exercise of power than was formally defined. In fact, a system of relations was formed in which the mechanism for exercising power is provided by an institution that has no formal grounds for doing so (Melnyk, 2024). Power, as a multifaceted category, has a significant number of types and forms. Thus, there are economic, political, public and state power, etc. Thus, it can be concluded that public authority is a subspecies of political authority, which is due to the following. It is worth noting that in addition to public power, political power can include totalitarian and autocratic power, etc. In fact, the type of political power depends on the political regime in a particular country. If the political regime is democratic, then the government is public, and if it is not democratic, then depending on the political regime, the government can be despotic, totalitarian, etc. This is also indirectly confirmed by the very semantics of the word "public", which in turn comes from the Latin 'publіcus' (public, national, social, state) (Sitko, 2012). Certainly, one can agree with the author that public power can be exercised through national and local self-government bodies and can be classified as state and municipal. However, it is worth noting that state power is defined through a system of structures and subjects, and municipal power through a system of power relations. In addition, it should be noted that since the creation of the European Union, there is every reason to assert another form of public power – supranational. This statement is substantiated by the following. Every country that wants to become a member of the EU after completing all the procedures required for accession must hold a referendum (Stukan, 2021). The hypothesis of the study is based on the assumption that there is a distorted view in the public consciousness and practice of state-building regarding the essence of decentralisation of power and governance in Ukraine, which is manifested in limiting its content to the transfer of power and financial resources from central government to AHs. Such public authorities as regional and district state authorities, regional and district councils, business and entrepreneurial structures, NGOs, and the individual as the primary subject of self-government have remained outside the attention of reformers and the academic community. The study of various aspects of public administration can be found in a significant number of scientific works by researchers, and recently a number of scientific works can be traced that focus on certain aspects of public administration in the context of war and post-war recovery and reconstruction of the country, in particular: Honcharuk N., Cherednychenko A., Horodnichenko Yu., Veder, di Mauro B., Kovalenko M. M., Dunaiev I. V., Masyk M. Z., Dmytrenko H. V., Nazarenko O. A., Ozarko K. S., Iatsenko V., Orel O., Komarovskyi I., Reshota O. A., and other researchers. For example, Honcharuk N., Cherednychenko A. devoted their research to the current state and identification of key areas for the modernisation of public administration in Ukraine during the war and post-war period in the context of European values (Honcharuk, 2022). The legal literature emphasises that centralisation is an inherent feature of statehood. According to this position, decentralisation is allegedly a step towards weakening statehood, which is not supported by international experience (Kryvoruchko, 2023). This tradition has been continued in the understanding of the essence of decentralisation as the transfer of managerial functions and tasks from the upper to the lower levels of government, primarily to local governments (Pollitt, Bouckaert, 2004). However, it is known that relations between state authorities and local self-government bodies do not have hierarchical subordination. Professor Christopher Pollitt (Pollitt, Bouckaert, 2004) notes that the term can be viewed in three key ways, in particular: the activities of civil servants and politicians; the systematic study of either activities or structures and procedures; and the structures and procedures of public authorities. Public administration is also characterised as the management of the organisation and direction of human and material resources to achieve an expected Baltic Journal of Economic Studies 200 Vol. 11 No. 2, 2025 goal; an activity that is closely related to law, politics and civil society (Bouckaert, 2002). Thus, public administration is considered to be more than just a set of relevant general management tools, it studies the interaction between the public sector, the political system and the balance of state, municipal and popular interests to involve society in a certain mechanism of control of all authorities (Taran, 2020). A thorough analysis of the identification of priority guidelines for improving public administration in Ukraine under martial law, a description of the relevant strategic directions of state development and mechanisms for improving the efficiency of its management, taking into account the prospects of the post-war phase, was carried out (Nazarenko, Ozarko, 2022). Iatsenko V., Orel O., & Komarovskyi I. in their scientific work on the prerequisites and key issues of public administration in the conditions of war focus on ways to improve regional development, modernisation of multi-level governance, as well as architecture for planning, financing, investment in regional development, which include the creation of a state strategy for regional development. According to the authors, this will provide clarity on the goals and results of the development of territories (Local government during wartime). In the scientific work of Masyk M. Z., Dmytrenko H. V., investigate the institutional sustainability of public administration in Ukraine in the conditions of war, identify priority areas of institutional capacity of public administration in the conditions of war and propose a number of measures to strengthen the institutional capacity of public administration. From the point of view of the systemic approach, any thing, phenomenon, event, process can be considered as a certain system. In this sense, it should be agreed that each of the state authorities and local self-government bodies can be considered as a system in itself, with structural units and officials acting as elements. 2. Research Results 2.1. Structure and Characteristics of Public Authorities in Ukraine Public authorities of Ukraine are a system of state and local institutions that manage public affairs, protect the public interest and ensure the implementation of the functions of the state and local self-government. Their activities have both a legal and economic dimension, as they influence the management of resources, finances, economic and social development (Higher authorities in Ukraine, 2017). The legal framework for the activities of public authorities is defined by the Constitution of Ukraine, laws, bylaws and international treaties. Public authority is exercised through the following: – Public authorities (Verkhovna Rada, President, Cabinet of Ministers, central executive authorities, courts, etc.). – Local self-government bodies (village, town and city councils, their executive bodies, regional and district councils). Public authorities have a legal personality under public law, which gives them the right to acquire property rights, enter into contracts, and bear liability on their own behalf. Public authorities manage significant financial, material and human resources: – Form the state and local budgets and ensure their implementation – manage state and municipal property; – control the spending of budget funds, provide funding for education, healthcare, security, and culture; – implement state programmes for economic, infrastructure and social development; – regulate markets, licensing, and public procurement. Through their economic function, public authorities influence macroeconomic stability, the investment climate, the competitive environment, and employment. The system of public administration has a number of features, in particular: public administration is implemented within the framework of the state policy of public administration, taking into account the peculiarities of the country's socio-economic development; decisions made in the process of implementing public administration are based on the opinion of the expert community in a particular area, as well as representatives of the public; the subjects of the public administration system are public authorities, business entities, non-governmental organisations and associations; the activities of public authorities are controlled and accountable to the public; public authorities are decentralised. If we analyse the discourse of decentralisation in the format of the community model with this in mind, decentralisation of state power for amalgamated hromadas (AHs) turns into concentration (consolidation of hromadas) and centralisation (loss of power by village, town and city councils as a result of amalgamation and their concentration in the administrative centres of the newly created hromadas). In the process of voluntary amalgamation of hromadas, some of the administrative centres of rayons acquired the status of AH centres. With the adoption in July 2020 of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine's Resolution "On Formation and Liquidation of Raions", 136 new raions (including 10 raions of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea) were formed instead of the existing 490 administrative districts, slightly exceeding the number of raions expected. However, it was not possible to reach the Baltic Journal of Economic Studies 201 Vol. 11 No. 2, 2025 planned minimum level in terms of the population of one raion, as evidenced by the presence of 19 administrative-territorial units with a population of less than 150 thousand people among the newly formed raions (Pavlov O., Pavlov I., 2020). Unfortunately, there is no reliable data for the period 2022-2025, but consider the quantitative characteristics of the territorial reform of Ukraine's oblasts as of 01.11.2020. In this context, it is worth mentioning the Strategy for Public Administration Reform for 2022-2025 (Strategy, 2021), which sets as its main goal the building of a capable service-oriented, digital state in Ukraine that will protect the interests of citizens based on European standards and experience. The expected results of the public administration reform by 2025 include: ensuring the provision of high quality services and the development of convenient administrative procedures for citizens and businesses; the creation of a system of professional and politically neutral public service focused on protecting the interests of citizens; and the development of effective and accountable public institutions that formulate public policy and successfully implement it for the sustainable development of the state. 2.2. Complementary Mechanism of Public Authorities' Activities in the Course of Institutional Changes in the Context of Ukraine's Recovery Since the declaration of martial law in Ukraine by the Presidential Decree of 24 February 2022, all public authorities have been operating in a special regime. Pursuant to paragraph 6 of the Decree, regional and Kyiv city state administrations and local self- government bodies (LSGBs) are obliged to establish defence councils and provide assistance to the military command in the introduction and implementation of martial law measures (The Decree of the President of Ukraine "On Introduction of Martial Law in Ukraine"). From the first weeks of the full-scale invasion, the President, the Government and the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine were concerned about the situation and therefore made efforts to strengthen governance from the centre, expanding the powers of local executive authorities and, accordingly, limiting them to local self-government bodies. To this end, for the period of martial law, the head of state created temporary special bodies in the oblasts and raions – military administrations. The purpose of their creation is clear: together with the military command, they are to ensure the implementation of martial law, defence, civil protection, public safety and order. They were formed on the basis of regional and district state administrations. The authors have found a few works that only indirectly address the issue of legal regulation of local governments during martial law and post-war reconstruction. In particular, such works are devoted to NATO operations in Afghanistan and the role of civil- military relations during the crisis (Zanfir, 2012), as well as the role of local authorities as a security sector institution in post-conflict countries (Demir, 2021). Some studies also address the US Army's co-operation with civilian institutions and local communities in the host African country in the fight against terrorist and religious extremists (Celestino, 2021). Instead, the issue of peculiarities of LSGB functioning and, in particular, legal regulation of their activities, has become, by necessity, the subject of scientific research by domestic legal scholars. Particularly noteworthy are the works of Baimuratov M. O., Kofman B. YA. (2022), Batanov O. V. (2022), Zaiets A. P. (2023), Kliuchkovskyi YU. B. (2022), Figure 1. Structure of public authorities in Ukraine Source: compiled by the authors on the basis of (Higher authorities in Ukraine, 2025) Higher authorities in Ukraine President of Ukraine Administration of the President of Ukraine Legislative power Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Executive power Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine Central executive authorities Judicial power VRU Committees Supreme Court of Ukraine Constitutional Court of Ukraine National Anti- Corruption Bureau Central Election Commission Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine Baltic Journal of Economic Studies 202 Vol. 11 No. 2, 2025 and others. It is their scientific conclusions that formed the basis of this article. However, the role of LSGBs in times of war cannot be underestimated, as they remain an important mechanism in ensuring the effective functioning of public authorities and the defence capability of the state. This was clearly demonstrated by the actions of local self-government bodies in the first days of the large-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation. They were entrusted with the task of creating volunteer formations of territorial communities in accordance with the Law of Ukraine "On Fundamentals of National Resistance" (The Law of Ukraine "On Fundamentals of National Resistance", 2022). It also includes the creation of checkpoints, defensive structures and other conditions for the effective operation of volunteer units. Where there were no hostilities, LSGBs were actively involved in volunteering and helping the Armed Forces of Ukraine. There are many examples where they initiated the volunteer movement themselves, while others actively promoted it at the level of hromadas. The overwhelming majority of LSGB representatives stayed on the ground and organised the life of their communities in the new conditions. There were few cases when deputies and community heads were confused and did not take responsibility for decisions that were important to people, and moved to safe places. Therefore, there is every reason to believe that local self-government (hereinafter: LSG) is successfully coping with new challenges under martial law. It is worth adding that one of the reasons for the coordinated and prompt response to extreme conditions is decentralisation and the expansion of local powers, which have been introduced, albeit not in full, in recent years. In the early days of the war, it was the LSGBs that became the main centre for the protection of civilians. This is due to the fact that different regions of the country faced different challenges: in the North, South and East, it was deterring the aggressor's troops, while in the West (especially in the areas bordering the European Union) it was an unprecedented number of refugees. Additional functions that fell to the local authorities in the early days of the war were related to the large influx of internally displaced persons. The local self-government bodies had to organise the registration of the relevant status, issue certificates and, with the help of community members, establish a process of accommodation for people who had fled their homes. For example, Lviv had a pre-war population of 717,000, which rose to 2 million in March, and in the first month of the war, Lviv Oblast received 5 million IDPs (Kryvoruchko, 2023). In today's context, all components are important and relevant, but, as noted, the outcome of the war depends to the greatest extent on the effectiveness Table 1 Characteristics of the administrative structure of Ukraine as of 01.11.2020 Oblast Number of raions Area km2 Population (thousand people) Number of hromadas Vinnytsia Oblast 6 26494,3 1558,9 63 Volyn Oblast 4 20137,4 1035,4 54 Dnipropetrovsk Oblast 7 31905,1 3206,5 86 Donetsk Oblast 8 26522,9 4165,8 66 Zhytomyr Oblast 4 29828,3 1220,1 66 Zakarpattia Oblast 6 12761,3 1256,8 64 Zaporizhzhia Oblast 5 27267,0 1705,8 67 Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast 6 13950,0 1373,2 62 Kyiv Oblast 7 28141,8 1768,1 69 Kirovohrad Oblast 4 24569,8 945,5 49 Luhansk Oblast 8 26705,9 2149,6 37 Lviv Oblast 7 21819,7 2522,0 73 Mykolaiv Oblast 4 24026,8 1131,1 52 Odesa Oblast 7 33316,8 2381,5 91 Poltava Oblast 4 28719,7 1400,4 60 Rivne Oblast 4 20058,8 1157,3 64 Sumy Oblast 5 23841,6 1081,4 51 Ternopil Oblast 3 13820,0 1045,9 55 Kharkiv Oblast 7 31428,6 2675,7 56 Kherson Oblast 5 25473,8 1037,6 49 Khmelnytskyi Oblast 3 20623,7 1264,6 60 Cherkasy Oblast 4 20938,3 1206,4 66 Chernivtsi Oblast 3 8106,0 904,4 52 Chernihiv Oblast 5 31899,0 1005,8 57 Source: compiled by the authors on the basis of State Statistics data https://www.ukrstat.gov.ua/ Baltic Journal of Economic Studies 203 Vol. 11 No. 2, 2025 and efficiency of public administration of the country, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the cohesion and unification of society and its support by the auth orities (Kryvoruchko, 2023). Thus, it is necessary for Ukraine to modernise its public administration in the context of the war, which is likely to be a long-term process, and these transformational changes should include not only structural changes in public authorities in terms of revising and clarifying their functional responsibilities and tasks, but also improving the level of public service and eliminating contradictions between military and civilian administration. Today, the following steps, as shown in Figure 2, should be the priority key areas for the development of public administration. Thus, an important area for the development of public administration in the context of war and post-war reconstruction should be the clear establishment of interaction between state authorities, local governments and civil society institutions to overcome the challenges facing Ukraine today and to be able to act effectively in extremely difficult conditions for the further recovery and reconstruction of the country. This issue needs to be regulated at the legislative level, including through a clear and consistent algorithm of actions for a phased economic recovery, strategic planning, balanced use of resources and the search for new ones. In the context of studying the strategy of post-war economic restructuring and recovery of the Ukrainian state, it is necessary to focus on the following priority areas: Firstly, it is about restoring the production potential of the economy and creating jobs (various forms of state aid to businesses to create new jobs; state orders for the purchase of goods and services; state guarantees for loans and compensation of loan interest rates, etc.). Secondly, there is a need for measures to strengthen the state's balance of payments and currency stability. From this point of view, it is worth citing the quite reasonable position of Honcharuk & Cherednychenko (2022) that a number of the following steps should be taken to modernise public administration in Ukraine, in particular: – To amend legislative acts concerning the activities of institutions under martial law and the post-war period; – to develop amendments to the regulatory acts to support local self-government under martial law; – to complete the decentralisation process in the post-war period; – to optimise the system of central and local executive authorities and local self-government bodies; – clear division of functions and powers between bodies and levels of public authorities; Figure 2. Key areas for the development of public administration in ukraine in the post-war recovery Source: compiled by the author (Kryvoruchko, 2023) KEY AREAS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IN UKRAINE IN THE POST-WAR RECOVERY Development of an action plan for the post-war recovery and development of Ukraine, the search for resources and their successful implementation, which should be the focus of the activities of public authorities at various levels, business, academics and the public. The work of public authorities and local self-government bodies and the adoption of urgent decisions to ensure the vital functions of the state and overcome the humanitarian crises faced by Ukrainians due to the military aggression of the Russian Federation. The basis for their implementation is formed by the simplified and improved national legislation for the time of war. Restoration of the country's economy by relocating enterprises from areas close to or in the combat zone to safer regions of the country (to implement this, the government introduced the Enterprise Relocation Programme in March 2022). Strengthening the role of local authorities. In the context of the war, the activities of local governments have once again demonstrated the importance of the decentralisation reform, which has fully justified itself, but it is necessary to identify a number of priority tasks that should be addressed by local governments in the regions and hromadas, as well as to outline approaches, methods, and tools that will help strengthen the potential of hromadas. Baltic Journal of Economic Studies 204 Vol. 11 No. 2, 2025 – formation of a new effective model of public service and introduction of the prefects' institute; – provision of quality public services to citizens. It seems appropriate to cite the scientific position of Kovalenko M. M., Dunaiev I. V. (2023), that it is the demand for a rapid increase in the country's economic security, mobilisation of all resources to defend its sovereign integrity, restoration and promotion of the state's economic development that puts before Ukraine the need for maximum involvement of the state in the management of major economic processes, taking as a basis the mobilisation model of economic development. Scholars emphasise that this should lead to a complete convergence of the relevant measures of state influence on economic processes, aimed at organising long-term digital planning by the state, developing and implementing relatively new technologies, providing the necessary monetary and credit support for the needs of participants in social reproduction, improving the efficiency of economic activity and intensifying entrepreneurial activity. It is the improvement of public administration that is aimed at ensuring the social well-being of society, solving urgent social and economic problems, ensuring and improving the quality of life of the population (citizens), especially in crisis situations caused by military actions of a neighbouring country. In order to solve the tasks aimed at building an effective public administration system in Ukraine, a public administration policy should be developed, which should include the implementation of the following stages: first, monitoring and analysis of the efficiency of the economy in the context of modern globalisation processes and uncertainty in times of war; second, development and justification of the goal and key objectives of the socio-economic development of the state, starting with long-term (strategic), corresponding medium-term and ending with short-term ones; third, selection of appropriate tools and methods for the implementation of public administration; fourth, formation of an effective and efficient mechanism of the public administration system. Conclusions According to the authors, public authority is a type of political power in countries with a democratic regime, the essence of which is the ability and capacity to determine the behaviour of the subjects under its control on the basis of relevant legal provisions. Public power can be exercised by supranational, state and local authorities, as well as other specially authorised entities. The experience gained by Ukraine during the war demonstrates the undeniable advantage of self- organisation of the population over centralised management. The central government will not be able to take over the functions of the LSGB and perform them as effectively. Even before the war, the level of trust in local authorities among citizens was one of the highest compared to other institutions. In the period of 2022-2025, when people are in creasingly interacting with local authorities as they are closest to them, this attitude has only strengthened. Therefore, the idea of terminating (cancelling) the powers of local self-government bodies or arbitrarily narrowing them, even in times of war, are un constitutional decisions that pose a threat to the national security of the country. Suspension or restriction of their powers is possible only in extraordinary cases, when there is a direct threat to the life and safety of citizens in the territory of hostilities or occupation. In all other cases, this is possible only after a reasoned court decision. The LSGB is a constitutional construct just like the state. The Constitution of Ukraine is sufficiently clear on the status of local self-government bodies, including their functions and powers in peaceful conditions. Therefore, it seems inappropriate to amend the constitution to address the functioning of the LSGB. Additional legislative regulation is required for the functioning of local self-government bodies during the war. This was the reason for the adoption of the Law of Ukraine "On Amendments to Certain Laws of Ukraine on the Functioning of Civil Service and Local Self-Government during the Period of Martial Law", which introduced significant amendments to the Law of Ukraine "On the Legal Regime of Martial Law". This legislative act is of particular importance for the constitutional legal order, it is a kind of supplement to the Constitution of Ukraine, which is relevant in times of war. The following steps should be the priority areas of public administration in Ukraine during the war to further develop a legal, democratic state and join the European community as a full member: institutional reformation of the national economy, which should facilitate coordinated activities of public authorities at all levels to ensure the balanced functioning of all social development; increase the efficiency of using existing resources (natural, financial, climate, human and other) and search for new ones; eliminate duplication of functions by clearly dividing functions (powers) between public authorities/levels of government; simplification of the organisational structure of public services and creation of a new effective model of public service, raising the level of public service; guaranteeing the provision of timely and high-quality administrative services to the population, their further digitalisation; effective communication interaction between different levels of public authorities and the public to solve socially Baltic Journal of Economic Studies 205 Vol. 11 No. 2, 2025 important problems; improvement of the level of information and technical support for the activities of public administration bodies; continuation of the decentralisation process in the context of the war and strengthening the role of local authorities; development of appropriate measures aimed at improving the quality of life of the population and their income level. 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