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ABSTRACT
The article examines the impact of international expert advice on efforts to introduce democratizing reforms in Ukraine’s system of public administration following independence in 1991. The focus of the analysis is on an area which has particular resonance in the light of recent events in Ukraine, the relationship between Kyiv and the regions. The article argues that the effectiveness of external assistance has been compromised as much by institutional factors affecting the behaviour of international donors as by corresponding factors on the Ukrainian side, and that an opportunity to contribute to the democratic transformation of Ukraine has been needlessly wasted.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 Shapovalova, “Politics of Regionalism in Ukraine,” 4, observes that the Maidan protest was motivated less by inter-regional differences than by a popular desire for democracy and better governance. Wilson, Ukraine Crisis, 69, cites polling evidence that demonstrators were less concerned with relations with the EU than with the issue of state violence.
2 Carothers, The Backlash Against Democracy Promotion, 56, 59.
3 Dimitrova and Pridham, International Actors and Democracy Promotion, 92–3.
4 Lavenex and Schimmelfenning, EU Democracy Promotion, 903; Dimitrova and Pridham, International Actors and Democracy Promotion, 98; Ethier, Is Democracy Promotion Effective?, 116; Schimmelfenning and Sedelmeier, Impact of the European Union, 214.
5 Sedelmeier, European Neighbourhood Policy, 199.
6 Schimmelfenning and Sedelmeier, Governance by Conditionality, 666; Wolczuk, “Implementation without Coordination,” 208.
7 Dimitrova and Pridham, International Actors and Democracy Promotion, 93; Ethier, Is Democracy Promotion Effective?, 115.
8 Dragneva and Wolczuk, EU Law Export, 217.
9 Wolczuk, Integration without Europeanisation, 22.
10 Wedel, Collision and Collusion, 9.
11 For example, Brown, “Contracting Out”; Ivanova and Evans, “Policy Transfer.”
12 Langbein and Wolczuk, “Convergence without Membership?,” 14–5.
13 Ross, Local Politics and Decentralization in Russia, 33–4.
14 Ross, Local Government in the Soviet Union, 156.
15 Healey, Leskin, and Svetsov, “Municipalization,” 272–3.
16 Hague, Rose, and Bojcun, “Hollow State,” 419.
17 Campbell and Coulson, “Into the Mainstream,” 545.
18 Shlapentokh, Public and Private Life of the Soviet People.
19 Fritz, State Building, 4.
20 Ibid., 110.
21 Interview with Ihor Shpak, formerly adviser to the Verkhovna Rada, Kyiv, March 2013.
22 Carothers, The End of Transition Paradigm.
23 Schmitter and Lynn Karl, “Conceptual Travels of Transitologists and Consolidologists.”
24 Technical Assistance to the Commonwealth of Independent States.
25 EU Commission, TACIS Interim Evaluation, 4.
26 UK DFID, Eliminating World Poverty, 40.
27 The UK Know How Fund was established in 1989 in response to political events in Poland.
28 Faint, Review of DFID/ODA’s Programmes in Accession Countries, 9.
29 An exception was support to the influential Institute of Public Administration headed by Bohdan Kravchenko.
30 Interview with Professor Kenneth Davey, lead adviser of UK Know How Fund Eastern Europe, Cheltenham, August 2013.
31 EU Commission, TACIS Interim Evaluation, 13.
32 Hamilton, Transformational Diplomacy After the Cold War, 155.
33 Carothers, The End of Transition Paradigm, 17.
34 Roland, “The Political Economy of Transition,” 30; Fritz, “State Weakness,” 3; Fritz, State Building, 2, 4, 46.
35 Ukraine’s parliament.
36 Wolczuk, “Ukraine and its Relations with the EU,” 103.
37 Jacoby, “Inspiration, Coalition, and Substitution,” 642.
38 Maynzyuk and Dzhygyr, Prigovor k svobode, 4.
39 Equalization transfers from national taxation ensure that all local governments can provide comparable levels of service regardless of their capacity to raise revenue locally.
40 See Libman, “Cycles of Decentralization in the Post-Soviet Space,” 18.
41 Martinez-Vasquez and Thirsk, Fiscal Decentralization in Ukraine, 165.
42 Maksiuta, Improving Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations, 16.
43 Interview with Anatoliy Maksiuta, Kyiv, May 2013.
44 O’Connell and Wetzel, “Systematic Soft Budget Constraints in Ukraine.”
45 Interview with Ihor Shpak, Kyiv, March 2013.
46 USAID, Assistance in Fiscal Reform.
47 Jacoby, “Inspiration, Coalition, and Substitution,” 625.
48 Martinez-Vasquez and Thirsk, Fiscal Decentralization in Ukraine, 59.
49 Irina Kotsina, “Zachem poslam USA i Kanady ponadobilos’ vmeshivat’sia vo vnutrennie dela Ukrainy?” Fakty i Kommentarii, 29 September 2000.
50 Romaniuk, “Regional Development in Ukraine,” 189, 195.
51 Interview with Olena Nyzhnyk, Kyiv, July 2014.
52 Interview with Olga Sandakova, Kyiv, October 2013.
53 Maynzyuk and Dzhygyr, Prigovor k svobode, 7.
54 Maksiuta, Improving Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations, 49.
55 Interview, Uzhgorod Ukraine, October 2013.
56 World Bank, Improving Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations, 36.
57 Interview with Serhiy Romaniuk, Kyiv, March 2013.
58 EU, “Assistance to Regional Development” 2004–2006; EU, “Support to Sustainable Local Development” 2007–2011; EU, “Support to Sustainable Regional Development” 2008–2011; CIDA, “Regional Governance and Development” 2005–2012.
59 UK DFID, Action Donbas 2002–2007; UK DFID, Lviv Development Project 2003–2007; United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Support to the Regional Development of Crimea 2010–2012.
60 EU SSRD, Regional Development Position Paper, 13,17.
61 Interview with Olena Nyzhnyk, Kyiv, March 2013.
62 EU SURDP, Ukraine’s Regional Development Policy, 2.
63 For example, Unsworth, “What’s Politics Got to Do with It?”; Unsworth, An Upside Down View of Governance.
64 Bourdieu, The Logic of Practice, 113.
65 Booth, “Aid, Institutions and Governance.”
66 Details on the functioning of conversion centres from an interview with the owner of a small business, Ukraine, August 2014.
67 As above, interview, Ukraine, August 2014.
68 The Overseer ceased work in Zaporizhia following the fall of Viktor Yanukovych in 2014.
69 Interviews with Irina Lekh, businesswoman, Zaporizhia, June and October 2013.
70 USAID, Local Economic Development in Ukraine, 4.
71 The CIDA project was winding down its activity in Zaporizhia by 2011 and the emergence of the Overseer. However, the review of its intervention in the region was written in 2012/13.
72 CUI RGD, Ukraine: Final Narrative Report, para. 1.2.
73 Youngs, “Democracy Promotion as External Governance?,” 905.
74 Carothers, “Democracy Assistance,” 6, distinguishes between US (political) and EU (developmental) approaches to external assistance. The distinction appears not to hold here.
75 Solonenko, “External Democracy Promotion in Ukraine,” 722.
76 Casier, “The EU’s Two-track Approach,” 961.
77 SIGMA, Ukraine Governance Assessment, 28.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Duncan Leitch
Dr Duncan Leitch has worked in Russian and Ukraine since 1993 as an adviser on local government reform and regional development. He was awarded a doctorate from the University of Birmingham in 2015.