Directions of Rural Areas Development in Ukraine and Poland

Abstract

The aim of the article is to analyze in comparative perspective the peculiarities of functioning of rural areas in Ukraine and Poland. The study posed the following research questions: about the features of rural areas in Poland and Ukraine, about the changes that took place in rural areas in both countries, and to what extent the process of transformation of rural areas in Poland can be an example for Ukraine. The work is based on an analysis of statistical data from 2011–2020, a review of the scientific literature and strategic documents. The following research methods were used in the research: comparative analysis, monographic method, case study (characteristics of development directions in the Lublin and Tarnopol regions), and abstract logical method. The authors studied different approaches to understanding of the concept of rural area, taking into account their status, tendencies and the main problematic aspects of their development. There have been analyses of the factors that influenced the current state of development of agriculture in rural areas in both countries: the administrative-territorial reforms and of the impact of decentralization processes on the functioning of rural areas. The article also defines the main problems in rural areas, including demographic issues. The population employment index in urban and rural areas in Ukraine and Poland was analyzed. The necessary conditions for the further development of rural areas were determined. The example of Poland shows the great importance of carrying out today’s administrative-territorial reform in Ukraine at the lowest level of the country’s territorial division – the local one, and a thorough strengthening of the role and economic potential of local self-government in the rural areas.