Impediments to the Emergence of Political Parties in Ukraine
| Date | 01 December 2014 |
| DOI | 10.1111/1467-9256.12067 |
| Published date | 01 December 2014 |
| Author | Taras Kuzio |
| Subject Matter | Research Article |
Research Article
Impediments to the Emergence of Political
Parties in Ukraine
Taras Kuzio
University of Alberta
This article analyses why, after a quarter of century of post-Soviet transition, political parties in Ukraine remain
weak. Ukraine’s newly elected President Petro Poroshenko and his ally Kyiv City Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko both
lead virtual political parties. The weakness of Ukrainian political parties is analysed through five impediments
to their development: Soviet political culture; corruption and cynicism; provincial elites; regional and linguistic
diversity; and weak party structure. The Soviet legacy has left an ideological wasteland in Eurasia upon which
it has proven difficult to build political parties. The absence of pre-Soviet party roots from which to draw makes
Eurasia different from the three Baltic States and Eastern Europe, while the late Soviet ‘era of stagnation’ and
rapid, often violent and corrupt drive to a market economy in the 1990s deepened cynicism and corruption.
The Soviet legacy of provincialism in non-Russian republics such as Ukraine remains predominant among
business and political elites. Regional and linguistic diversity has negatively impacted on the ability of political
parties to garner support throughout the country, undermining national integration, as seen during the Eastern
Ukrainian violent counter-revolution in Donetsk, home base of the Party of Regions. Ukraine’s parties remain
structurally weak in their top-down approach and there is an absence of internal democracy, disrespect for
voters and reliance on opaque sources of funding.
Keywords: political parties; democratisation; Soviet culture; oligarchs; Ukraine
This article analyses why Ukraine, after nearly a quarter of a century of independence, still
does not possess strong and professional political parties. The article surveys the scant litera-
ture on political parties and the political system in Ukraine. The issue of weak parties is
analysed through five impediments to party development: a Soviet political culture; corrup-
tion and cynicism; provincial elites; regional and linguistic diversity; and weak party structure.
The first impediment reflects the greater perseverance of Soviet over European legacies,
especially among political parties with support bases in eastern and southern Ukraine. The
two strongholds of the Party of Regions and Communist Party of Ukraine (KPU) are in
Russian-speaking Donetsk and the Crimea, where local populations hold greater allegiance to
Soviet than Ukrainian or Russian identities. Voters for both parties uphold greater authori-
tarian views than even those held by Svoboda (Freedom) nationalist party supporters.
Only one western Ukrainian has led Ukraine: Leonid Kravchuk was the country’s first
President in 1991–1994. Eastern Ukrainians coming from the highly populated and industri-
alised cities of Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv have traditionally ruled Soviet Ukraine. The KPU
and the Party of Regions, both with Donetsk-based strongholds, received first-place plurality
in four out of six Ukrainian parliamentary elections: 1998 and 2012 (using a mixed
proportional-single mandate election law) and 2006 and 2007 (using a proportional law). The
1994 elections used a full single mandate law, while Our Ukraine received first place plurality
bs_bs_banner
POLITICS: 2014 VOL 34(4), 309–323
doi: 10.1111/1467-9256.12067
© 2014 The Author.Politics © 2014 Political Studies Association
To continue reading
Request your trial