THE IMPACT OF POLITICAL ELITE CONDUCT ON STATE REFORM: THE CASE OF UKRAINE
THE IMPACT OF POLITICAL ELITE CONDUCT ON STATE REFORM: THE CASE OF UKRAINE

Summary/Abstract: In the context of post-communist state transformation, this paper discusses prerequisites for the build-up of a strong and efficient state in Ukraine. The paper focuses on the impact of political elite on state reform and argues that political elite strength not contained by strong political institutions lies at the heart of the Ukrainian state reform problems. Thus, a necessary component of state reform has to be the change of post-communist political elite comportment. This analysis aims at demonstrating the necessity of an institutional reform connected to a serious change of political elite conduct, replacing personal power gains with responsibility and commitment. As showcases, the paper presents political elite struggles over central political powers and over the decentralization of central political powers to subnational levels. Thus, institutional ambiguities on the very conception of the Ukrainian state as a presidential or parliamentarian state and the deep unclarity regarding the development of a decentralized or unitary state foster political instability and hinder the subsequent formulation of efficient sector policies. In Ukraine, the structural transformation of the state will only result in a build-up of state capacities with an existing all-elite consensus on the very conception of the Ukrainian state.

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