Democracy in Ukraine and its Current Struggles (original) (raw)
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In 1991, with the disintegration of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the emerging states had to face a major change in all areas, not only political but also economic, social, administrative, etc. Among the main challenges that these countries had to assume was the entry into the democratic field, unknown to them. This had to be done through the implementation of a system that validated the new situation of these countries. One of the key aspects of this transition was the elaboration of a democratic constitution, since, although in the communist regimes there were constitutions, it is necessary to remember that these were simple fictions under the Communist Party. It can be found one of these cases in Ukraine, which, since its declaration of independence on 24 August 1991, had to gradually begin this unprecedented path within its borders. From this moment, a long road began for the resolution of the post-Soviet conflicts inherited from the previous era, until the achievement of a new Constitution for Ukraine on June 28, 1996. It is therefore necessary to analyse in depth how the Ukrainian democratisation process went up to the consolidation of its constitution. An exhaustive interdisciplinary analysis will be carried out of all the problems faced by Ukraine in order to complete this process, which was accomplished out in all the ex-Soviet republics with greater or lesser success.
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This article represents an analysis of efficiency of Ukrainian democracy within the framework of three popural indices of democracy-The Economist Democracy Index, Freedom In the World index and Polity IV. Comparative analysis shows the core factors which bring three different democratic concepts, used in the indices, to the integral unity. Finding correlation between factors of Ukrainian democracy, measured in the indices through a certain time period (2006-2018), helps getting integral look at the problem of non existent universal theoretic base for understanding democracy. The basic idea of the analysis, represented in this article, shows that different factors, used by indices in measuring democracy, do not evenly correlate in practice, though they represent holistic approach to the essence of democracy. Choosing specific theoretical approach of understanding democracy makes it hard for indices to fully measure real democracy. This analysis aims at searching correlation in different basic factors of democratic models, used by indices with different approaches. As the result of the analysis the article ranks a number of basic factors, used in three popular indices of democracy, according to the strength of correlation of these factors with other factors of the index they represent and with the final score of the index. Integral choice of the basic factors, which correlate with the change of Ukraine's democratic trends according to the three indices, covers several dimensions of democratic model. Ukrainian democratic trends in the specific time period (2006-2018), as the analysis shows, from integral point of view correlates the most with the changes in electoral process and pluralism, civil liberties and legal restrictions of the executive power. Political culture, political participation and individual rights show weak correlation with Ukrainian democratic trends within the period of time, chosen for the analysis.