The national factor in Ukraine's quadruple transition

Abstract

Studies of post-communist transition in central and eastern Europe initially focused on democratization and marketization as the key pillars of transition, drawing parallels with the experiences of southern Europe and Latin America in their emergence from authoritarianism. Whilst some authors have also added a third factor-that of 'stateness', this article argues that post-Soviet transition, in particular, is not a triple transition, but a quadruple one, because nationhood and nationalism should also be added. This article discusses the centrality of nationhood to liberal democracy and then applies this to post-Soviet Ukraine, by investigating its inherited Soviet legacy and the quadruple transition it is undertaking as an independent state.