Поняття правового регулювання реалізації соціальної функції держави

This paper examines the concept of legal regulation concerning the state’s social function. In this context, legal regulation is understood as the activity of authorized actors – adhering to the principles of law and the positions of civil society – who develop and adopt binding legal norms (standards) enforceable through state coercion. These norms govern the activities of entities tasked with carrying out the state’s social function, thus fulfilling its social objectives. The author identifies certain distinctive features of legal regulation in the implementation of the state’s social function. First, such regulation involves the state’s normative influence on public relations in social and related spheres, each characterized by a specific subject matter and set of objectives. Second, legal regulation of the social function proceeds in a coordinated manner within a special legal mechanism, reflecting the prevailing understanding of the state’s role in social affairs. Given these features, the author concludes that the legal regulation of the social function in any particular state does not invariably align with the ideological essence of the welfare state. This occurs because the social function can be carried out even in states that are not fully welfare-oriented, or in those that are evolving toward this model. In this broader context, the legal norms ensuring the social function form part of a comprehensive legal policy. Such a policy reflects a complex web of interests, present not only in well-established welfare states but also in those political and legal systems that are gradually and unevenly incorporating social issues as a prerequisite for their own development. It is argued that, in Ukraine, the legal regulation of the social function is formally grounded in the conceptual and ideological foundations of a predominantly conservative and partly corporatist welfare state. The paper’s conclusions summarize the findings regarding the nature of legal regulation in the implementation of the state’s social function. In essence, this legal regulation represents a systematic, methodologically grounded process carried out by competent lawmaking entities within the designated sphere of legal relations.