This article focuses on the Swedish reforms of upper secondary schools and their effects during the period of 1991–2017. The reforms were conducted in the spirit of New Public Management (NPM) and generated many more problems than solutions. The purpose of this article is to prepare a foundation for further research by mapping: What do we know about the NPM reforms within the Swedish upper secondary schools? What kind of knowledge is still missing and should it be developed? With the assistance of Roland Almqvist’s (2006) understanding for the NPM movement divided into three theoretical perspectives (marketization, contract management, and decentralization), we propose a literature study.
This study showed that the Swedish reforms of the upper secondary schools contributed to growing social segregation among students, students’ decreasing performance in science, reading and mathematics that proved to be under the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average, and teachers experienced a lack of autonomy and de-professionalization. The political promises about “school for all” and “social inclusion” either were not fulfilled or the reform effects were not investigated well enough. Despite all research being done, we do not know what kind of Swedish upper secondary school represents a good practice for the future.

Legal Basis of Administrative Agreement in the Field of Entrepreneurial Activity

The article on the basis of systematic analysis using the formal-legal and comparative-legal method of studying legal phenomena, considers the legal basis of the administrative agreement in the field of entrepreneurship as a means of improving the legal regulation of entrepreneurship in the context of European integration. The subject of scientific research is a set of administrative and legal norms that mediate relations in the field of entrepreneurial activity on the basis of an administrative agreement in modern economic and legal conditions. The urgency of the study is due to insufficient conceptual development of the issue of administrative contract from the standpoint of separation into an independent institution of administrative law with proper legalization and lack of a universal concept of administrative contract. The study examines the specifics of the legal basis of administrative and contractual regulation, which includes seven groups of regulations that regulate certain aspects of administrative and contractual relations, determine the subjects of public administration authorized to enter into administrative contracts, their competence. In this context, the legal nature of the administrative contract as an institution of administrative law with elements of complex regulation, forms of administrative law, forms and methods of public administration, a set of administrative procedures and legal fact is substantiated. Based on current legislation (Constitution of Ukraine, Association Agreement between Ukraine, on the one hand, and the European Union, the European Atomic Energy Community and their Member States, on the other hand, laws of Ukraine, acts of the President of Ukraine, acts of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, departmental normative legal acts) the essence of the administrative agreement as a form of objectification of the will of the counterparties is considered. A condition of legal significance is the expression of will, determined by the degree of freedom of the participants. Expression of will and freedom of consent provides an opportunity to justify the design of administrative agreements, the concept of the functions of the administrative agreement on the role and importance in regulating public relations, as well as areas of administrative contractual regulation on public relations in public administration. The procedural component of administrative-contractual relations is considered. Administrative-contractual procedure is a logically complete set of legal and organizational actions and decisions aimed at achieving the established legally significant result. It is proposed to form a systemic legal basis for administrative-contractual regulation and a universal procedure for concluding an administrative agreement for agreements of normative and organizational content, vertical and horizontal agreements, the construction of which should be defined in the Law of Ukraine On Administrative Procedure.

This article provides a comparative analysis of the implementation of referendums in Ukraine and the Baltic states during the first decade of independence. The article contains a historical and political aspect regarding the reasons and results of referendums introduced in the specified countries. The article provides a separate analysis of the political features of the introduction of referendums in Ukraine, which consisted, first of all, of pressure from the president on the parliament, with the aim of the latter adopting decisions necessary for the head of state. Such pressure on the parliament, in the form of a referendum initiative by the second President of Ukraine, was aimed at increasing its powers, especially with regard to influence on the government, and a proportional decrease in the powers of the Verkhovna Rada. This was most clearly manifested during the period of formation and approval of the text of the Constitution of Ukraine, in which all the «rules of the game» in the aspect of checks and balances of the highest institutions of state power were to be agreed upon. The experience of the Baltic countries in the first decade of restored independence had less practice than in Ukraine regarding political confrontations between the highest bodies of state power. The Baltic countries finally agreed on the main powers of the main institutions of power during the first two years of their restored independence and confirmed them in referendums. Further, their plebiscites consisted more in solving issues of national than exclusively political importance.