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ABSTRACT
The impact of external actors on political change in the European neighbourhood has mostly been examined through the prism of elite empowerment through externally offered incentives. The legitimacy of external policies has received less scrutiny, both with regard to liberal powers promoting democracy and illiberal powers preventing democracy. This article investigates the conflicting notions of legitimate political governance that underpin the contest between the European Union (EU) and Russia in the Eastern neighbourhood. It proposes four mechanisms of external soft influence that take into account the EU’s and Russia’s actorness and the structural power of their norms of political governance, and consider their effects on domestic actors and societal understandings of appropriate forms of political authority. It finally traces the EU’s and Russia’s soft influence on political governance in Ukraine. It maintains that through shaping the domestic understandings of legitimate political authority and reinforcing the domestic political competition, the EU and Russia have both left a durable imprint on Ukraine’s uneven political path.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 Freedom House, “Nations in Transit 2016.”
2 Burnell and Schlumberger, “Promoting Democracy – Promoting Autocracy?”; Risse and Babayan, “Democracy Promotion.”
3 Schimmelfennig and Sedelmeier, The Europeanization of Central and Eastern Europe; Vachudova, Europe Undivided; Börzel and Risse, “From Europeanisation to Diffusion.”
4 Börzel and Pamuk, “Pathologies of Europeanization.”
5 Manners, “Normative Power Europe”; Grabbe, The EU's Transformative Power.
6 Weber, Smith, and Baun, Governing Europe's Neighbourhood; Whitman and Wolff, The European Neighbourhood Policy in Perspective.
7 Langbein and Wolczuk, “Convergence without Membership?”
8 Börzel and Pamuk, “Pathologies of Europeanization.”
9 Schimmelfennig and Scholtz, “EU Democracy Promotion.”
10 Way and Levitsky, “Linkage, Leverage, and the Post-Communist Divide.”
11 Sasse, “Linkages and the Promotion of Democracy.”
12 Börzel and Pamuk, “Pathologies of Europeanization.”
13 Tolstrup, “When Can External Actors Influence Democratization?”
14 Von Soest, “Democracy Prevention”; Vanderhill, Promoting Authoritarianism Abroad; Ambrosio, Authoritarian Backlash.
15 Risse and Babayan, “Democracy Promotion.”
16 Tolstrup, “Studying a Negative External Actor.”
17 Börzel, “The Noble West.”
18 Delcour and Wolczuk, “Spoiler or Facilitator of Democratization?”
19 Way, “The Limits of Autocracy Promotion.”
20 Ambrosio, “Constructing a Framework of Authoritarian Diffusion.”
21 Cameron and Orenstein, “Post-Soviet Authoritarianism.”
22 Silitski, “'Survival of the Fittest.’”
23 Manners, “Normative Power Europe”; Whitman, “The Neo-Normative Turn.”
24 Averre, “Competing Rationalities”; Casier, “The EU–Russia Strategic Partnership.”
25 Sjursen, “The EU as a ‘Normative’ Power”; Diez, “Normative Power as Hegemony.”
26 Schimmelfennig and Sedelmeier, The Europeanization of Central and Eastern Europe; Börzel and Risse, “From Europeanisation to Diffusion.”
27 For an exception see Checkel, “International Institutions and Socialisation in Europe.”
28 Schimmelfennig and Sedelmeier, The Europeanization of Central and Eastern Europe.
29 Noutcheva, “Fake, Partial and Imposed Compliance.”
30 Subotic, “Europe is a State of Mind.”
31 Noutcheva, “Societal Empowerment and Europeanisation.”
32 Wendt, “The Agent-Structure Problem”; Carlsnaes, “The Agent-Structure Problem.”
33 Johnston, “Treating International Institutions,” 496.
34 Park, “Socialisation and the Liberal Order.”
35 Risse, “Let's Argue!”
36 Checkel, “International Institutions and Socialisation in Europe”; Park “Socialisation and the Liberal Order”; Johnston, “Treating International Institutions.”
37 Lavenex and Schimmelfennig, Democracy Promotion in the EU’s Neighbourhood .
38 Ibid.
39 Korosteleva, “Change or Continuity.”
40 Delcour, “The Institutional Functioning of the Eastern Partnership.”
41 Popescu, “Eurasian Union.”
42 Dragneva and Wolczuk, “Russia, the Eurasian Customs Union and the EU.”
43 Van Herpen, Putin's Propaganda Machine, 34–40.
44 Ibid., 129–138.
45 Finkel and Brudny, “No More Colour!”
46 Van Herpen, Putin's Propaganda Machine, 40–43.
47 Sakwa, Frontline Ukraine, 34.
48 Woll and Jacquot, “Using Europe.”
49 Dimitrova and Buzogány, “Post-Accession Policy-Making in Bulgaria and Romania.”
50 Noutcheva, “Societal Empowerment and Europeanisation.”
51 Manners, “Normative Power Europe.”
52 Wetzel and Orbie, “Promoting Embedded Democracy?”
53 Dannreuther, “Russia and the Arab Spring.”
54 Sakwa, Frontline Ukraine, 34.
55 Dannreuther, “Russia and the Arab Spring.”
56 Börzel and Risse, “From Europeanisation to Diffusion.”
57 Bellin, “The Robustness of Authoritarianism”; Della Porta and Mattoni, Spreading Protest.
58 Freedom House, “Nations in Transit 2016.”
59 Gerschewski, “The Three Pillars of Stability”; Korosteleva, “Questioning Democracy Promotion.”
60 Suchko, “The Impact of Russia,” 1.
61 Bogomolov and Lytvynenko, “A Ghost in the Mirror,” 7.
62 Ibid., 8–9.
63 See 2002 poll, http://old.razumkov.org.ua/eng/poll.php?poll_id=594.
64 Bogomolov and Lytvynenko, “A Ghost in the Mirror,” 11–13.
65 Delcour and Wolczuk, “Spoiler or Facilitator of Democratization?”
66 Samokhvalov, “Ukraine between Russia and the European Union.”
67 Council of the European Union, Council Conclusions on Ukraine, 2014a, 2014b, 2014c.
68 Razumkov Centre, “Attitudes of the Population.”
69 The Economist, “Russia's Chief Propagandist.”
70 See interview with Vladimir Putin, Radio Europe 1 and TF1 TV, 2014, http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/45832.
71 Torbakov, “Insecurity Drives Putin's Crimea Response.”
72 EU Neighbourhood Barometer East, 2012.
73 Razumkov Centre, “Attitudes of the Population”
74 Wilson, “Ukrainian Politics Since Independence.”
75 Kuzio, “From Kuchma to Yushchenko,” 35.
76 Ibid.
77 Shevel, “How Putin Turned Ukraine to the West.”
78 Wolczuk and Wolczuk, “What You Need to Know.”
79 For a sample of Euromaidan slogans see http://www.rferl.org/media/photogallery/ukraine-protest-signs-euromaidan/25180736.html.
80 Petro, “Understanding the Other Ukraine.”
81 Sakwa, Frontline Ukraine, 56.
82 Kuzio, “The Origins of Peace,” 111–113.
83 Shevel, “How Putin Turned Ukraine to the West.”
84 Razumkov Centre, “Russia's Position.”
85 Della Porta and Mattoni, Spreading Protest.
86 Kaldor, Moore, and Selchow, Global Civil Society 2012.
87 Barberá and Metzger, “How Ukrainian Protestors Are Using Twitter and Facebook.”
88 Barberá and Metzger, “Tweeting the Revolution.”
89 Onuch, “Social Networks and Social Media.”
90 Ibid.
91 Anheier, Kaldor, and Glasius, “The Global Civil Society Yearbook.”
92 Rettman, “Ukraine Criminalises Pro-EU Protests.”
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Gergana Noutcheva
Gergana Noutcheva is an Associate Professor of International Relations at the Political Science Department of Maastricht University, The Netherlands.