The article contains significant analytical information regarding the study of the experience of economic modernization reforms in the countries of the world and the possibility of applying this experience in Ukraine. A characteristic is given to the technological structures of the world economy and the actual change of structures, the distinctive features of such a change are given on the example of energy prices. The research of the types of modernization - pioneer and catching-up is given, the interdependence between the economic and social cycles of the modernization of society is stated. The examples of modernization both in highly developed economic states (USA, Great Britain, Germany, Sweden) and in the countries of the former socialist camp (Slovakia, Poland, Bulgaria) are given. It is stated that the modern conditions of globalization and the expansion of market relations create special precedents in which a conflict of interests is potentially possible - between objective and subjective factors, namely: the corporate nature of the functional representation system and the individual nature of decision-making. It is emphasized that the modernization of the economy, even if at the initial stage is aimed at satisfying the interests of individual institutional groups, in the course of the implementation of the modernization measures will be reoriented to the corporate interest groups built into the system. Provides effective recommendations for Ukraine in terms of entrepreneurial opening, increasing industrial production in the volume of GDP, completing the decentralization reform.