SUMMARY
Social capital is the basis for the definition of the future concept of rural areas management. Therefore, one of the most important tasks is to determine the various factors of existence, development, and formation of social capital. One of these factors is the security of rural areas and the definition of how social capital affects it. The analysis of the available scientific works in various areas reveals the lack of consensus in the definition of the category “socio-economic security of rural areas”. This is due to the fact that the definition of social and economic security of rural areas is identified with such concepts as the ability to provide resistance to various internal and external environmental influences. The purpose of the study is to determine the nature of social capital, as well as to study its impact on the socio-economic security of the state. The methodology of the research is based on the monographic method, the method of dialectic cognition, the scenario methods used to find the optimal scenario implementation option; SWOT-analysis is used to assess the positive or negative impact of social capital on the socio-economic security of rural areas. Understanding the essence of socio-economic security has led to the conclusion that it consists of economic, social, environmental and other types of security. The term “social security” in the understanding of researchers usually has two interpretations: traditional (absence of threats to the society) and alternative (absence of threats from the society). It is proved that the social security of the region should be focused on ensuring primarily human rights and freedoms, namely, personal, political, social, economic, cultural, environmental, and family ones. Social and economic security should also provide social standards and guarantees, as well as norms. The economic basis of the security of rural areas is manifested in the development of market relations, infrastructure, material and technical base, natural conditions, etc. A market-oriented regional economy does not always ensure the growth of the well-being of all segments of the population in conditions of social and economic stability. Inevitably generated unemployment, social problems and other consequences of the competition can cause social fallout. Social threats are closely related to each other, while one generates another, forming a vicious circle. But at the same time, the socio-economic security of the society should be considered as the primary one. On the basis of the foregoing, we believe that the social capital of rural areas provides the basic social norms of citizens, which results in the provision of rights to communicate, found organizations, unions, cooperatives; and its high level leads directly to the increase in the socio-economic security of rural areas. Directions of our further research will be focused on the development of proposals concerning state support for activities related to the formation of social capital.