INSTITUTIONAL AND SOCIO-CULTURAL DIMENTIONS OF POST-COMMUNIST TRANSFORMATIONS (original) (raw)
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In the presented paper oligarchy is seen not as a transitional form of post-communist rule, a particular post-Soviet road from socialism to capitalism, from plan to market, and from autocracy to democracy but as a substantially different model of social organization and power, as a particular model of societal modernization. This system has its own resources, mechanisms of reproduction, and powerful social forces of support at both the level of formal institutions and informal everyday practices. First, I delineate two theoretical approaches – institutional theory, namely its path dependency version, and rational choice theory – combining them to achieve more adequate framework of analysis of the phenomenon at hand. Second, the essence of the oligarchic model is considered with a particular focus on how it is related to democracy and modernization processes. Third, the paper elucidates the dynamics of oligarchy as well as factors that conditioned its emergence and further reinforcement, emphasizing primarily the antecedent conditions. The issue of how the model of transformation employed by ruling classes predetermined the path of Ukrainian society to oligarchy is somewhat beyond the scope of this discussion and referred to only sketchily.
Post-Soviet Transformation: Trends, Ambivalences and New Paradigms
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. pp.37\-3?ll emphasising Progress made in the sphere of human rights (rejection of death penalty) and ignoring obstacles resulting from autocratisation of political system. . ^TFFN LIMITED DEMOCRATISATION AND LIMITED AUTOCRATISATION 35 dencies present in the recent history of Ukraine. This task is achieved by employing models and conceptual apparatus of a non-Marxian historical materialism.2 ll. The Structure of Soviet Socialism Ukraine in the period from 1918 to 1991 was a part of the viet Union. Therefore, the.legacy of real socialism in the Soviet sion has been a crucial fąc!9r influencing political development the Ukrainian society. The'Sovietversion real socialism may characterised by three basic feafures. Firstly, it was a social where one social class, having at it's disposal means of coerci production and indoctrination, controlled politics, economy culfure. Secondly, the main interest of this class of triplełords sisted in the maximisation of power regulation. Thirdly, this system built up an empire consisting of the Russian metropolis and the external provinces, inhabited by non-Russian-speaking citizens. Let us briefly characterise the three above-mentioned aspects of real socialism in the Soviet version.
Transformation of the political regime in Ukraine in the times of independence: stages and features
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The purpose of the article is to study the peculiarities of the transformation of the political regime in Ukraine at different historical stages of its independence. The subject of the study is the political regime of independent Ukraine. The research methodology includes the following methods: transitological, normative and value, sociological, comparative, systemic, structural and functional, neo-institutional. Results of the research. The approaches to the concept of political regime and its varieties are analyzed. The stages of its transformation in Ukraine are highlighted and it is determined that they are “tied” to the person of the president. The peculiarities of political regime of the times of independence during the passage of each of the cycles are established. Practical meaning. Based on the features of the political regime in independent Ukraine during the periods of rules of different presidents and in various stages, we conclude that the political regime in our countr...
Presentation prepared for the workshop on “Institution Building and Policy Making in Ukraine”, 2003
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The 2014 Maidan Revolution in Ukraine is largely deemed to herald the end of the post-Cold War settlement, by reasserting Ukraine's determination in overstepping the "buffer zone" and gaining centrality in the European Union (EU)-led socio-political order. A question remains as to what extent the "choice for Europe" has shaped Ukraine's regime outputs, thus leading to country's transformation into a full-fledged democracy. The answer to this question involves explaining the post-Maidan dynamics of democratic consolidation, with a focus on its attitudinal, behavioral, and institutional dimensions. The study concludes that while broad democratic support is conducive to democratic consolidation, the latter involves overcoming the deep-rooted informality and 'culture of corruption'. Besides, reinforcing the institutional foundations of democratization is critical to ensuring its sustainability.
This book explores the path of Ukraine’s political regime transformations in a period from the independence to the Revolution of Dignity. It aims to assess the impact of informal institutions, especially clientelism, nepotism and informal agreements on the behavior of political actors. The research argues that informal institutions have determined the behavior of elites – from the «cartel pact» at the beginning of Ukraine’s independence, to playing not by the rules, as many expected, but with rules and systematic violation of the rule of law, which eventually led to the inefficient institutional equilibrium – institutional trap. Undermodernized state and the hybrid type of political regime signify the systemic institutional trap. Five factors are taken into account: the operational code of elites’ political culture, the practice of informal agreements, devolution of constitutionalism, structural constraints and the high uncertainty. All these factors shape the behavior of the major political players. Combining them into a dynamic model allowed tracing the process of «hybridization» of Ukraine’s regime, or the country’s slide into the trap of hybridity.
Since collapse of communism some theoretical and empirical knowledge has been accumulated which make it possible to elaborate certain observations over the processes of post-Communist transformation in post-Soviet countries. Despite the heavy criticism and uncovered fallacies of transitology in the academic literature, its ideas on sources of change based on neoliberal presumptions of linearity of change sustain in policy-making and academic circles, while many countries that supposedly embarked on the path of democratic transition towards this " endpoint " have stalled in their progress. To address this issue, in this paper we highlight that the transformation or persistence of rules depends on a number of interdependent factors. To assess the degree of transformation, first it is pointed at the prevalence of politics over economy and hazardous impact of homogenization attitudes towards institutional change. Second, four interrelated issues are particularly highlighted as necessary factors for understanding the prospect and potential sustainability of change in the region: the level of inclusiveness of political institutions (political democracy), development of institutions and their capacities to regulate, level of inclusiveness of economic institutions (market economy) and strength of civil society and external factors such as the ongoing EU-Russia competition in the case of the post-soviet countries.