The article substantiates the relevance of scientific research on the theoretical aspects of public finance in the context of modernizing the public financial management system in Ukraine. The history of the formation of the theory of public finance in world practice is considered, in the course of which public finances objectively acquired such substantive properties that they are capable of causing both progressive social changes and regression, resulting in a rethinking of the role of social achievements and values. The essence of the concept of “public finance” in the system of strategic management in the context of two aspects - in terms of their form and content: in the economic and material is given. The components (institutional, regulatory legal, instrumental, ideological) of the mechanism of decision-making in the sphere of public finance are characterized. The basic functions of public finance (distribution, redistribution, control), revealing their most important features, properties are defined. It is substantiated that all functions of public finance are closely interrelated and, to an appropriate degree, are manifested in the modern system of strategic management in Ukraine. It is concluded that public finance is the sphere of collision of different, sometimes contradictory and multidirectional interests (state, group, individual) that require finding a single “effective” vector of such interests, which ultimately will determine the possibility of the normal functioning of all public and state institutions.