Post-Communist Ukraine

Post-Communist Ukraine by Bohdan Harasymiw is one of the most comprehensive and penetrating studies of the political and social realities of independent Ukraine. The masterfully written, multi-faceted analysis documents and explains that country’s successes and its more frequent failures during its transition from authoritarianism to democracy. Taking a comparative approach, Bohdan Harasymiw breaks free of the usual historical-cultural mode of dealing with Ukrainian politics. Step by step, he examines the primary elements of a modern democratic state and the degree to which these are in place: an agreed-on set of rules of the game in the form of an accepted constitution; a state capable of governing and claiming the loyalty of its people; a parliament representative of the public and able to legislate; a bureaucracy skilled at fashioning and implementing public policies, and not just following orders; a nation of fellow citizens living as a community; political parties channelling the interests of, and responsive to, their followers; elections that reflect the preferences of the voters; and policies ensuring the security and well-being of both state and society. These are analyzed in the light of other countries’s experience with these institutions and processes. As a result, a comprehensive portrait of Ukraine’s politics, which can be characterized as post-Communist but not yet post-Soviet, emerges.